Here's why you need a big brake kit for road track use
 

As you guys may have heard while watching races on TV Sebring is notorious for being tough on brakes. They warned me in tech inspection, and I told them I was going to go easy Saturday because I know my (stock with upgrade pads/shoes) brakes have a tough time on the long courses. I normally replace all the pads/shoes/fluid after a weekend on a road track because this is whats left by Sunday afternoon at the longer tracks I've run at. It's probably a good thing I missed a couple sessions with a tire problem or things might have gotten really ugly. Usually they look a little better than this (but not much) at the other tracks if I run ALL the sessions. I missed 2 out of 8 sessions at Sebring and hardly used the brakes the first 2 sessions because I was going fairly slow, never having been there before.

The pads in the pic below were brand new with just "bedding in" miles and about a hundered highway miles on them when I went to the track. You can see how shiny the audible wear indicator still is without any cleaning. I took these pads off very, very, gently so I could document how hard road tracks are on stock brakes even with upgraded pads etc. The pieces laying on the side literally fell onto the floor where they are as I was removing the pads. You can easily crumble the remaining pad material right off of the rivets when they get this bad. They were severly overheated, even though I was trying to be very cautious with them. I knew by the end of my last session that the pads were going away by the pedal pressure required just to slow the car and ran the last couple laps slower to be on the "safe" side. LOL

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...nterior506.jpg

Well there's your problem!


I would feel bad pushing my car that hard, I would probably end up having to push it back also.. >_>

I didn't build it to sit around and look at it. I've got other cars I can do that with. Just got to keep upgrading! As the saying goes "speed costs money, How fast do you want to go?" my answer "200 MPH!"

What pads are those, you really dont need bigger brakes if you have the correct pad and rotors...

You said shoes, are you running drums on the rear?

Those particular ones were Raybestos "heavy Duty" semi metallic. I've used 3 sets of those on the current rotors. Tried Ceramics before that which didn't even last a day at Road Atlanta.

This is a stock size setup with single piston front calipers and rear drums. Trying to haul down 4000 lbs over and over on a road track in 100 degree heat puts a tremendous amount of heat into the brakes. The rear shoes usually crack down the middle although switching to finned drums helped that a bit.

I'm going to try to finish up some brake ducting I've been working on and see if that helps. Thinking of trying Willwood and Hawk pads next (with new rotors for each) at the next couple tracks.

The simple answer is to put big 4 wheel discs on. However that would also require buying all new wheels because the brake change will push the wheels out and I'm already at the limit. So not only would I have to spend a couple grand on the brakes, then I'd also need new custom made wheels.

do you guys get ferodo pads? ds3000 compound would be good for heavy cars with small brakes

I'd say you got your money's worth out of those pads and didn't leave any to waste.

Why not a home made C5 set up till you can afford the Brembo's etc? I think I have $800 max in my setup with Hawk pads and slotted rotors not to mention new seals etc (friend owed me a iou and powdered coated them red). We all can't afford the best of the best but C5 would be a big step up in the playing field. Brandon

Legend: I've never tried Ferodo pads. I was trying to avoid having to go to race only pads with a dedicated set of rotors for track days. Hard compound pads don't work well with no heat in them. Scared myself pretty good once at the end of my street going right out into the intersection like the car was on ice. But that may be the way I have to go for now.

Charlie: Ya I get my use out of them . To bad it's short lived. It takes longer to do the brake job and bed in the new pads than it does to wear the pads out! I'd love to try some brakes like your new ones.

Brandon: The C5 setup would indeed be a big step up. However I had my wheels custom made several years ago and they can't move in or out even 1/4" front or rear. If I do brakes I have to buy new wheels at the same time.

Any reason you have not converted the rear drums to discs?

Darren