I recently purchased an Evo as my daily driver and I have to say that driving it around the street I was extremely impressed. I even had the blasphemous thought that I would be able to come close to the times I was pulling in my not so stock S2000. Damn how wrong I was.

I had time to put in new brake pads and do the necessary things one would normally do before a track day, but I wanted to see how the Evo would do right out of the box. Drove down to Buttonwillow on Thurs. night for the Speedventures event on 8-26. Here's my two lincolns:

Those awesome looking brakes that stop so well on the street suck on the track. All was well in the first lap. Second lap I braked for turn one with a little fade, but when I braked in the esses to set up for the sweeper---no brakes. Took out a cone that left an 80mph? cone mark on my bumper and introduced the Evo to the dirt for the first time. Brakes were rubbish for the remainder of the session.

Pitted and bled / flushed the brakes w/RBF 600. (Even after an hour I had to use gloves). Yes, I should done this before my first session, but I was, after all, trying to evaluate the Evo fresh out of the box. There was A LOT of air in the system--what good are Brembos when there's a baloon full of air in the system? I learned why later.

Second Session: Brakes still sucked, but it was due to the pads glazing. Had fun drifting the Evo until the front tires overheated and led to severe understeer. Last lap went into the final turn before the straight and had far less brakes (and far less front end grip) than I anticipated.....went off at an angle that would have sent me tumbling if the dirt wasn't so dry.

Realized that there could at least be a reason why there's air in the Evos brake system....After being heated up to a certain temp (400 deg?), the brakes just become completely ineffective. Unusable, they can't very well get any hotter (though the fluid can due to hysterical pedal pressure, the rotors/calipers/pads can't because there's only a small amount of pressure being transmitted from the fluid/air to the piston/pad). Anyhow, after bleeding the brakes I was able to get the surface temps so hot the Brembo's became Brownbos. The paint cooked--the bright red turned a blood red and the white "Brembo" turned brown. My digital temp gauge was erroring, so I didn't get a temp from the rotors, but they were way ucking hot even after an hour.

The second horrible deficiency was understeer. Part of the problem is that the brakes were so hot they superheated the tires (you could have fried 2 eggs and some bacon on 'em after a warmdown lap and 10 min. of inactivity--I'm not joking).

Third session the tires were so F*D that I didn't even try for fast lap times and instead just practiced sliding the Evo around turns.. The car is so easy to drive sideways that I even felt comfortable with some slight-slip angles in Riverside. I did get sucked into thinking I had brakes before the sweeper around the 5th or 6th lap and ended up in the dirt at 70mph or so.

So for all of you who (like me up until yesterday) feared the Evo on the track, trust me--there's not a lot to fear from a stock one. The cars are pigs and after a few laps the brakes and tires cook and the car goes to hell.

After the event I took my car to Robispec in Hesperia and had him install bushings/anti-bumpsteer kit, rear sway and Espelir springs+alignment. The car feels way more stable and solid, but still suffers from understeer and now I'm having trouble getting the back end to rotate.

Overall, the Evo, I think, is a much better car for the street than for the track. Sustained use leads to too many issues (heat soak/big power loss, brake fade, cooked tires, crappy handling). Oh yeah...I forgot to mention my front rotors w/2500 miles are warped.

Best time in S2000 at BW #13: 2.03
Best time (same config) in stock Evo: 2:11

Total times off track/spins in S2000 in 10 HPDEs: 2
Total times off track w/Evo after 1 event: 3

With major mods and a couple more track days I'll be able to come close to my S2000's times, but I don't think I could best them. The front end weight thing is just a huge problem. So for now, the Evo remains the grocery getter....

 

Did you use stock pads?

 

Nice write up Nobody. I should have taken a picture of your "brownbos". The caliper actually changed color!

I want an evo for commuting.... Either that or a used Elise.

 

RL7: yes, I used stock pads.

maxrev: Drove an Elise on Friday for the first time...very unimpressed.

 

I think you are expecting too much from the evo's stock brakes

has anybody ever told you those oem pads are nothing but junk?
how many cars have you seen that has brembos+experienced driver+summer day - brake duct that hasnt changed color. Every one I have seen has, even alot of exotics....actully in that case, some of them just dont know how to drive.

 

The brown brembos are just a sign that the car is getting properly driven. If anyone with an evo that has pretty red rotors tries to tell you they drive it hard, now you'll know what they're full of.

I'd be interested in how it would do with some track pads.

 

I drove my buddy's Evo with track pads and fluids at Laguna and it was great. I only drove about half a session, but I had zero fade. He claims the suspension mods he's done since I drove it have even stopped the push, but I'll believe that once I see it

 

On track its really good with just after market pads...untill the pads themselves starts smoking. then they would need ducting, two piece rotors ect..

 

I've driven lots of race pads that are just fine on the street (little or no squeal) and I can't figure out why they couldn't put a decent pad in the Evo that could withstand even just two hard laps before glazing themselves useless. Air in the system is something that we all I think expect--but it's so damn easy to get it out I can't figure out why they couldn't deliver it from the factory like that. Additionally, I wouldn't expect a 21lb rotor to warp with stock pads, but mine did....so yeah, I'm disappointed with the brakes but I don't think I'm really asking for too much.

Ducting and pads should cure the problem, like they did on the S.

 

stock vs stock, im about 3-4 seconds faster in an evo than an s2k. i cant see how an s2k would be 8 seconds faster unless you are boosting + hoosiers or you just dont know how to drive an evo. treat the thing like its fwd and just stay on the gas. the evo is simply a beast out of the box and will rape the s2k in just about anything except picking up chicks.

i actually ran one lap in an evo a few years ago with the only mod being a grounding wire and ssrs. with the stock tires, we drove from columbia,sc to watkins (600 miles) - the whole one lap shizzle - and back home to columbia...a grand total of 6500 miles and the tires were fine.