Rob Burgoon

There have been many posts on brake pads so I will be specific:

I drive a C6 Z51 and recently experienced non-green pad fade on the the stocks. I would like to find a pad that does the following:

Cost effective (price to pad life ratio)
Enough friction to stop me on BFG KDW2 street tires (dont need much friction)
Tons of brake dust is fine as long as it comes off the paint and wheel ok
Much better fade resistance than stock
Track only is ok, cold performance not needed (got separate pads for the street)
Easy on rotors (rotors cost money too... although I could just get a C5 caliper bracket to use $25 NAPA rotors )


In other words, I dont care about stopping faster than the other guy. I just want to be able to keep driving my vette aggressively on the track as cheaply as possible.

Any suggestions?

yellow01

Wow... alot of those items you list are opposite requirements!

I've tracked the Hawk HP+ and would not recommend them, they will fade, so I'd say something a bit more agressive than that.

Maybe the XP9s or XP10s?

Wilwood H will devour rotors - not sure about the higher XP compounds.

Good luck.

AU N EGL

common track or race pads:

Hawk DT70s, PFC-01s, PFC02s, WIlwood H, Carbotech XP10s to XP12s

Most guys use the NAPA rotors for 25-26 $ each

Rob Burgoon

Are most of my req's opposing? really?

I thought most of the things I listed would give me MORE wiggle room

tons of brake dust ok
dont need cold performance
dont need it to work on the street
dont need much friction for my street tires

I change my mind on rotors, eating rotors is fine since I can make the cheapo NAPA rotors work.


I will give you that putting "cheap" and "track" in the same sentance is a straight up conflict , but its really just about minimizing the inevitable damage to my wallet.

The only hard requirements are the pad having less fade and either being less expensive, or lasting longer than the other track pads to give me bang for the buck.

NewC6Toy

I would recommend Carbotech Panther+ as good track day pad. You might get away with their Bobcat compound with street tires and track that doesn't stress brakes a whole lot. At least give Carbotech a call, they've always taken time to talk to me on the phone.

Cobra4B

I've found that running Napa rotors and Wilwood H pads as matched sets works ok. I used to crack rotors every event but I only swapped pads. Now that I have pads/rotors together I finally made it through an event w/o cracking a rotor. However I can change the dang things in like 10 min now.

yellow01

You're right... I guess I just read 'easy on rotors' ... but low friction threw me too. Friction and fade resistance will go hand in hand by design. Lower friction pads will fade easier because they aren't intended for track work.

But, if you don't care about rotor life as much then it's wide open

Track, cheap AND long rotor life can't be used together

yellow01

You were just complaining about it!

LeMansBlue04

Hi Rob,
I have been looking at the same issues. I was advised to start with the C5/ZO6 pads my first time out. I don't know if the C5/Z51 pads are the same but it seemed logical they would be and no one knew for sure so I used them the first time out. After my first track day I wore the C5/Z51 pads on my car down to almost nothing. Now I am looking for track pads with the same criteria in mind you are using.

I think that your requirements are quite reasonable since you are asking for better braking performance but you are not asking for MAX braking performance.

I have not used anything other than the stock pads so the only thing I know is what I see on vendor sites or what I read here. Obviously I don't know much about this issue, so, would some of you who have used track pads make some comments on what I have read and discovered.

The PFC-90's and the PFC-01 looked pretty good from what PFC has to say about them but I don't want to pay $500 for a set of pads.

Someone wrote in another post (may have been AU N EGL) that many T1 racers use the Hawk DT70's on Corvettes. Hawk seems to be cheaper than PFC but I am concerned that the DT70's are too agressive.

Hawk has a Blue 9012 pad that they say is the most popular pad among the SCCA racers and that its rotor friendly. A full set can be had for a bit over $300. Because of the price I am tempted to try this one.

For those of you who have used track pads what do you think of these choices?

Cobra4B

I know =) The fronts are simple and those are what I crack. It's those back ones where you can't turn the wheel that's a PTIA.

VFrc

I use hawk blues and I like them alot. They are easy on rotors as long as you only use them at the track, they are cheap, they bite hard, and they won't fade on my stock powered vette.

LeMansBlue04

Thanks for your input, it's a big help. Someone told me that when the Blue 9012's dust up that the dust gets as hard as a rock and corrosive when it gets wet.

Is the dust from the Blue 9012 pads corrosive to paint or to chrome wheels? Because if it isn't this is what I am going to buy.

Thanks again for your comments.

emf

Generically speaking, it's a function of pad material type . . . not just "low friction pads == more fade". I've seen high cf pads fade just as easy as lower cf pads, it all depends on the pad. Ditto, some pads are "hotter" operating pads versus others, which factors in as well.

While it can be said that most higher-bite pads are less prone to fade, there's always going to be a case where that doesn't hold true. For a final answer, you have to take a look at the pads max / working operating temperature, and the friction curve through that temperature range.