don't change anything (yet)

It will take you half the season to become a good enough driver to handle the car you got now...

you may think that your a decent driver, but give it some time. Driving the car at it's limits (at the track, strip, or autocross, etc) is a totally different ball game.

learn the car first before making anymore mods!!

 

Totally agree with not going to be good at the track the first time. Lol. What I meant with upgrades or mods was do I need anything in order to keep me from tearing anything up? I didn't want to cook my brakes if I could prevent it. I just put brand new pads on but nothing fancy.

I've got the straight line racing down to a T. I want to start working on my bobbin and weavin! Gettin some real racin under my belt.

 

Fireball, do you think he'll cook his pads in autoX? How much faster can he really be going than, say, a stock Evo? Considering you seldom hit 60mph in autoX, I'd say 10mph more at any place he can really open it up. Given runs are 60secs, I don't think he'd be able to cook the brakes in the slightest. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

It depends on the events and courses that are setup. But realistically I'd say no.

At one of the last events we had fun runs at the end of the day. After 3-4 fun runs back to back on a 90 second course, my brakes were very soft and were smoking when I stopped for the next run. Needless to say, I drove around a little to cool everything off.

My brakes didn't turn brown until I got out on the road course.

 

Like goofygrin posted, it depends on the course. A 60-second course at, say, Toledo - which is harsh and fast concrete - can definitely eat stock brakes alive.

I can't recommend to anyone to stick with stock pads on a bone stock Evo, let alone one with 500whp. In fact, the first thing I did to my car was swap the pads out for DTC-30s, which I did less than a week after I bought the car. The stockers were so bad even on the street, they quickly convinced me to not bother with them at an event - I am VERY picky when it comes to brakes.

My hatred for them was reinstated when I drove a friend's 320ish-whp IX at the last event of last season, on a course where it saw 3rd gear twice. Our first runs were our fastest - every other run was progressively slower as the brakes became progressively softer and more useless.

 

ferodo ds2500's should work pretty well

There's a few threads on this
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...to-x-tips.html

 

Yes, cooking means overheating the brakes.

With 500whp, you'll have the entire field with power, and most likely can really mess up with that kind of power.

Again, no matter what you think you're comfortable with on the road, you will have an entirely new experience driving the car hard.

And yes, I do think there very well could be an issue after a couple back to back runs with your brakes. When they overheat, you get brake fade... which is like the brakes not even being there anymore.

 

Ok. I think I'll go to the first event and see how things go. If my pads are roasted I'll order Rotors, SS lines, and Pads. I saw there are some specials in the vendors place. I'll just do a kit. Mapperformance has a special. Is that a good idea? Or are those kits over rated? Should I just do pads and forget about rotors and SS lines?

 

I'd do pads, fluid and lines before swapping the rotors.

The lines will improve the feel.

The fluid will improve the feel and help keep the fluid from boiling. (I use Motul 600 but I hear the Amsoil stuff is great too).

The pads will help keep from cooking and will help bite quicker. Note that good pads for autox might not be good pads for the road course, so you might end up with two sets of pads depending on what you want to do with the car.

I've used a Girodisc kit without any major issue (pads, fluids, lines). The VIII/IX has a few more options as well.

 

+1 on not needing new rotors. Pads/fluid/lines is a good setup.

 

my last set of rotors and pad lasted for almost 2 years. That includes one year as a full time daily driver. That was using power slot rotors and hawk HPS pads.

track days are a whole different environment. If you plan on a track day, expect to replace your pads after each event.

cooking brakes to the point of failure in autocross is really hard to doo unless you have a mechanical failure.

I would at most change the brake fluid to a DOT 4 spec and leave it at that.