Help me choose HPDE Brake Pads!

In reply to RX8driver :

Yeah, those calipers are specifically designed to fit under 17" wheels + a 5mm spacer which is what I have (two sets of 17s, one street one track). The STI Brembos require 18s or a different spoke design if I want to run 17s. 
 

I'm basically sold on the two pad idea. I'm going to call G-LOC again and see what pads they recommend for my application now that I have a better idea of how I drive on track and go from there. 
 

I appreciate the EBC Yellow testimonies, but I think if I'm going to do pad swaps I'll stick with a track compound that's cross compatible with a street compound, in this case, G-LOC. 

In reply to spedracer :

Thank you for the kind words! I think I've decided on a G-LOC R6/R6 F/R for street and G-LOC R10/R6 F/R for track (subject to change after a phone call to G-LOC), and then improving airflow to my Audi brake ducts. 

You can also throw some temp strips on the calipers and rotor hats to see what temp range your braking system is going through.

May help with getting the right compound after your first day with the new pads. Let GLOC know and they might be able to fine tune the compunds.

Also will help to see if those brake ducts are keeping temps below the "hell fire" hot levels.

I knew a guy with an R32 GT-R that took it to Spokane with EBC Yellows and when driven hard was getting pad fade within a few laps (2005 ish). The compound may have changed since then, but that's my second hand experience.

I'd definitely recommend keeping the same compound front to rear. The friction coefficient can change quite a bit with temperature and with the rear rotors not being vented or ducted, they could easily be the hotter end.

I always bring my street pads and rotors with me just in case I have a failure, then I can at least swap brakes and drive home, but that's always a several hour drive, even at the closest tracks.

In reply to kevinatfms :

Good call on the temp strips. Unfortunately the ducts are not easily removable (well they are but then I can't reinstall them... large temperature resistant zip ties were VAGs attempt at mounting), so I won't really know if the ducts are working. 
 

I did some more thinking and considering R12/R10 F/R for track and R6/R6 for street/autox. That way I keep them separate. 

You may or may not find the R6 suitable for the street.  I found that they were mostly quiet with the occasional intermittent squeal, reasonably rotor-friendly, and worked just fine when either cold or hot.  Light pedal effort, and easy modulation.  But they produce a lot of dust that won't just wash off without some effort.  I'm not much of a car-washer and I found that when I went to actually make an effort at removing the dust, it had either corroded or become one with the front wheels.  Others have reported that the dust washes off easily for them, perhaps it depends on the wheels. I have not tried the GS-1 which should also be compatible with the "R" compounds and is their "street" pad.

In reply to Berck :

Sounds like the Stoptech Sport 309 pads. The dust from those comes off with a generous helping of some sort of wheel cleaner + a brush. Good looking out though! 
 

I don't really want to do the GS-1 because I don't want to have to swap pads for autox, I want to keep pad swaps for track days only. 

It was cool and mostly dry at Area 27 on Monday and my brakes held up well. I was using Carbotech R10's front and rear with some 3" ducting from the fog light holes to the center of the hub area. The pads didn't wear all that much, but did certainly show signs of lots of heat and the bit of fluid that I had to bleed to retract the front pistons to get the stock pads back on looked distinctly darker than a few days ago (Wilwood 600). I was driving on some older 255/40/17 NT01's and wasn't going quite 10/10. Never had fade or anything.

I wonder if on a hot summer day, pushing harder if the brakes would be fully up to the task. Just starting out, maybe going straight to a BBK wouldn't be a bad idea if you're serious about tracking the car often. The big thing to look for in a BBK for cooling capacity isn't so much rotor diameter as it is rotor thickness, as a thicker rotor can fit wider air channels for more cooling.

For me, I go once or twice a year, so it's not worth it for me to heavily modify my car to make it better on track as long as it can survive the full day.

One thing to note is that you'll definitely need an oil cooler above and beyond the stock one. My oil temps were getting quite hot to the point of needing to back off a bit when the outside temperatures never exceeded 20C.

We'll see what happens. 

Oil cooler is on the queue, according to the MFD I'm pushing 248F on a 75 degree day after a 20 minute session and temps drop pretty quick once I'm off track. I have another 20 or so *F before I hit shear tempt but I'd rather not push it. 

Sorry for the bump, but was just wondering how your dust seals/boots were doing? I've completely melted through my dust boots at the track, so had been looking at another caliper just for the sake of not wanting to spend more money to rebuild these. Seems contentious - some say its not a big deal some say it is but was just curious. Also on the same generation WRX

Dust seals are fine, so far. I have very mild cooling (modified RS3 control arm scoops) as well. 
 

I plan on upgrading to RR Racing's Wilwood FNSL6R kit or AP Racing's BBK next year to avoid that exact issue. It's probably cheaper to rebuild but might as well upgrade while you're in there. 

We've run Hawk HT10 on our lemons car for years. Great pad, wears like iron, easy to modulate. And not horrible on the street, either. They're a step up from the HPS or plus or whatever. 

Raybestos makes a whole range of pads from mild to wild, too. Something like the ST43 might work for your usage. 

hunter47 said:

Dust seals are fine, so far. I have very mild cooling (modified RS3 control arm scoops) as well. 
 

I plan on upgrading to RR Racing's Wilwood FNSL6R kit or AP Racing's BBK next year to avoid that exact issue. It's probably cheaper to rebuild but might as well upgrade while you're in there. 

Good to hear! Often don't hear many people bringing up this issue for some reason so it's interesting that you have! I'm leaning towards that route too... if I rebuild, it's probably going to happen again.. What has been the feedback re: dust seals? Do most people say its fine if they're destroyed? Haha or that if they're equipped, they need to be there? 

Only worry is that all the BBK's don't have dust seals - I barely winter at all, but do you? 

I also hope that a BBK won't overpower my stock suspension, not sure if that's a legitimate concern at all. The car does have some bolt ons and the tune so I'm making more power than stock.. figure helping stop it would be useful . :) 

I noticed my dust seals were a little torn and worn, but not melted. I'm not too concerned and will probably replace them eventually. Rebuild kits for the calipers aren't very expensive. These cars have pretty stiff suspensions from the factory and that's one part that I definitely don't find myself feeling that I'd need to immediately upgrade to track the car a lot more than I do now.

In reply to mxa2s :

Are you worried about salt entering the pistons? Seattle doesn't salt roads (for the most part) and even then it only snows for about 2 weeks the entire year so I'm not super concerned of salt. 
 

The AP Racing kit has some pretty tight tolerance pistons so I'm not super worried about the no dust boot issue. 

volvoclearinghouse said:

We've run Hawk HT10 on our lemons car for years. Great pad, wears like iron, easy to modulate. And not horrible on the street, either. They're a step up from the HPS or plus or whatever. 

Raybestos makes a whole range of pads from mild to wild, too. Something like the ST43 might work for your usage. 

Everyone swore by the ST-43 when i asked about LeMons/Chump Car pad suggestions in our Elantra build thread. Porterfield, Carbotech and Raybestos were the 3 that continually came up.

I ended up with the Porterfield R4-E and love them. We did 18 hours on the front pads and 22 hours on the front rotors before replacement. Rear rotors and pads are still going after 3 races and will do another 2 races at the end of this year quite easily. 

In reply to mxa2s :

Spoke too soon, I melted my boots today lol