Sorry too early.. i meant CL pads from essexparts.com.

Sorry again.

 

I'm with xtnct - I have SS lines on all 3 of my cars, but I didn't notice any real difference on any of them.

Permatex makes two different kinds of brake caliper lube. There's the "normal" stuff, which comes in little green packets, and then there's the super high temp ceramic stuff, which comes in little purple packets. Most auto parts chain stores have them right by the registers. I have to say, the purple stuff doesn't seem to live up to high temps any better than the green stuff, but the packets cost the same, so I buy the purple ones.

Somewhat off topic, but you mentioned possibly running at Monticello. It looked to me like last year they didn't run any outsider events (other than big dollar events where OEMs bring in customers to drive cars for the day). I never saw any HPDEs run by marque clubs (PCA, BMWCCA, etc) or open track organizations (Chin, Tracquest, Trackdaze, etc). Do you have some intel that they might go back to allowing outsiders? Looks like a fantastic facility, I'd love to get up there some day.

 

Sorry to go OT.
Regarding Monticello, I attended the last "public" day there in 2010, it was PDX with the SCCA, Xtnct was there as well. Looks like they're open to the public this (you are correct that they were not last year, 2011), RTR will be there in August I believe. Its a 2 day event.


I too am still on stock lines BTW. Wanted to upgrade for this year, but haven't done it yet. Never had an issue with them last season.

 

I had this welded dust from CL RC6Es after I ran HPDE in the rain for two days, so CL pads can have this problem too. That said, I think this is a general problem with track pads when the dust gets wet.

 

yeah so for now i think im gonna stick with stock lines. i get two mod stages every year based on work vacation. typically march and june, which works great this year, so i can set the car up and then make mid season changes haha, which will probably include lines.

yeah thats the only event i know of there too. which sucks, because its 20 miutes from my parents house ad i was so excited when they built it.

from what ive read i agree, although i think i only saw it reported with the 6e's really.

 

you also need to consider if you can live with track pads where you have to drive your car daily unless you decide to swap pads at the track.

i have used lot of different pads. you just have to consider the price, performance and longevity. i like ST43 for HPDE for price and longevity because i don't need every once of performance for HPDE. for competition, i like to use Carbotech, CL or Hawk. Hawk is usually the cheaper option but i've always had pad deposits issues with them and the dust is very corrosive when they get wet. all brake dust are corrosive when wet, some just more so than others.

i use the cheapest OE replacement rotors i can find. i went through two sets of front rotors in one season. that's $200 for 25-30 track days.

my RS doesn't have ABS and the interior is pretty much gutted. is started out using same pad compound front and rear and quickly found out that my rear was locking up way too easy. so i progressively move to lower rear compound and eventually went with street pads for the rear to reduce rear lockup. it's more of an issue when i run Rcomp tires and there's more weight transfer to the front during braking. but i've driving other evo where ABS malfunction while on track and rear tend to lockup even on street tries.

stainless lines are not absolutely necessary but if you're going to track a lot, it's a relatively cheap investment for safety.

as for shims, you don't need expensive Ti shims, stainless or steel works just as good. they will reduce radiant heat from the backing plates and the dust boots wont burn up as quick.

 

I would highly recommend to anyone who regularly tracks their car to run SS lines. I was at a track event on street tires coming hard into a brake zone and the stock line popped completely off pouring brake fluid all over my tire. I was pretty lucky I didnt crack up the car. It is cheap insurance for sure. Also, I could tell a pretty good difference in pedal feel once I installed them. As for pads, Carbotech XP 10s work great with street tires and for those who race they make a great rain race pad. I run XP 20s on my race car in the dry. Oh and racing blue brake fluid is terrible. SRF is the only fluid I would recommend.

Good luck!

 

My own .02$ on pads - I started out with CL RC5's and they were ok when I was starting, but once I had a couple days of experience under my belt and I started getting faster I was quickly getting them out of their temp range and they would fade badly.

Currently I'm running PF01's front and rear and I was amazed at how will they did compared to the RC5's. I beat on them for 7 30-minute sessions in a single day and they just kept asking for more.

 

i have a very short in city commute to and from work, so it wouldnt be too bad. im of the mentality that i want to be swapping when i get to the track, but my current situation may not allow that since ive already been yelled at for checking oil in my buildings parking lot...such bull****.

did you have cooling ducts? they have a pretty high max temp, and the claim of not looking at imminent/absolute failure if you over heat them, just enough of a softening that you know. im also thinking of starting on the rc5's.

seeing nils run his time attack car on the rc5's gives me some confidence in them.

 

No I didn't have cooling ducts. Currently getting some custom-made.

Also, when I took out the RC5's to swap for the PF01's, one of the pads' material was completely separated from the backing plate; when I took it out the pad material fell to the ground.

 

Skimmed through the thread, lots of great advice. I'll just throw in a bit of my own:

- SS brake lines. Just do it.
- good rotors like dba4000/5000 and equivalents will insure long life without premature warpage from these track pads you're considering. That said if you over heat them with bad pads....they will still warp...I know.
- brake fluid is very important. VERY. I'm surprised this wasn't talked about, but there are 2 different kinds of fade: pad fade and fluid fade. Running killer pads won't save you from fluid fade. Run DOT5.1 fluid, super blue being the minimum. And change frequently. Once a year is not frequently....
- pads are pretty well covered in this thread in terms of performance. Should also look into carbotechs, they're very good. DDing track pads btw for the most part sucks! And they're less kind to your rotors.

The most liveable track pad I found was hawk DTC 30. If you chamfer the edges they won't squeal like a pig, but they have a sand paper on metal sort of sound. Which IMO is not bad. They were miles better than my friend's carbotechs for the street. But the hawks stop well even cold....you can lock all 4s. And on the track I never had a problem even though I usually put in 30min sessions with high brake abuse. The disadvantage to them was the really light pedal pressure, doesn't inspire a lot of confidence but is still easy to modulate. Also they don't last long, I burnt up my front set in 2 months of weeken tracking / DDing in the summer (glad they're cheap!). Now I'm switching to DTC60s in the front. Otherwise the only other pad I used on my car on the track was couple years ago with PFC Z compounds, which ended in epic brake fade and warped rotors. (Re: above about bad pads warping good rotors)

 

^ don't you mean DOT 5.1, do not use DOT 5 because it's silicone base and is not compatible with DOT3/4 brakes system.

 

My mistake. Edited the post.

 

pad fade is when you use the pads over the heat range it was intended for. the pads can glaze and the friction material wont work as good, you have to use more pedal pressure and the braking distance increase. you can also boil the brake fluid before you reach the max pad temperature. this means your pedal becomes spongy and in worse case the pedal can go to the floor.

most people will confuse rotor warp with uneven pad deposits with happens more often. i often get uneven deposits with hawk pads and get really bad brake shutter. i just throw on a used set of CL and do some street miles to clean the deposits up and it's good to go for another track day on hawks. sintered iron are very abrasive when they are cold, good for cleaning off pad deposits.

 

so what fluid is everyone running?

i had thought super blue was pretty good.