Dust: yes, Hawk dust is horrible and corrosive.

However, how do you tie the pad to rotor cracking? Braking force should be limited by the tires, not the pads.

They should be great pads. Hawk and PFC have big usage in professional racing. The S2000 problems are with front brake cooling and heat capacitance both front and rear. There are lots of products offered to handle those.

 

Higher friction coefficients (when used at their limits) equal more heat, heat cracks rotors unless you have a nice long cool down lap. I cracked two sets of rotors on one set of Carbo XP20s. Also having too much front bias makes the fronts work that much harder. I was running hawk blues in the rear, but fixing to step up to DTC-30s.

 

Eh I'd go at least blues in the rear, but the better choice would be DTC-30s or even 50s. I'm running my first set of 60s at CMP this weekend. I'll post some reviews in here.

 

How do the hawk street/race pads work? They are like the dtc30s?

 

Hrm, it doesn't look like they make the 50s for the the S2000, or at least don't list them on their site. I see the 30, blue, and ht10. Maybe the 30 is a good choice for the rear judging by the heat ranges.

I'll repost this since it always helps:

 

Shit...I could have swore they had them when I looked. I stand corrected. #mandelaeffect

 

The coefficient of friction determines the amount of pressure, but not the amount of heat. A certain amount of energy needs to be dissipated when the car is slow down. The rate at which that energy needs to be dissipated, the power of the brake system, should be determined by the adhesion limits of the tires. If the brakes aren't powerful enough to lock the wheels or engage the ABS that is a different problem.

The higher coefficient pads can develop the higher forces for stickier tires and higher downforce. Good racing pads also distinguished by their engagement, release, and modulation; the features that give the driver more control. Tires also affect the engagement, release, and modulation.

DTC 30 pads are definitely not prepared to use on the front of S2000 run on a real racetrack. They are the pads I run on all four corners of my S2000 run in autocrosses. They have excellent modulation.

S2000 brakes can run hot both front and rear. In the front, cooling ducts and aftermarket vented floating rotors seem to be adequate when used with the brake pad like the DTC 60. In the rear, there are kits from Urge and SakeBomb that replace the small solid disc with a larger vented rotor. One uses the stock rotor and slightly shaved brake pads, the other uses RX 8 rear calipers. Some people use a BB K in the front, however that requires using wheels that have sufficient clearance.

I would've thought the newer DTC 50 might be the ideal brake pad for an S2000, however Hawk does not seem to have them for on the calipers. The PFC 11 to be comparable if not slightly superior. They are available for the front caliper apparently doesn't have them for the rear caliper. I have no real knowledge of any of the other brands.

Some people seem to use pads with different coefficients of friction front and rear to fine-tune brake balance. That would depend on the specific brake set up, specific tires set up, to some degree on the suspension aerodynamic package, and driver preference.

 

Pressure has a direct effect on how quickly the rotor will be heated, tires being equal for comparison. The tire is secondary, but a definite consideration. In summary, tires needs to be matched to the pad being installed and vice versa.

More info here: Mathematical Modeling of Heat Conduction in a Disk Brake System During Braking

Ultimately, you want a tire that will not overwork the brakes, and not engage ABS...it's better to have more tire than brake.

Example: Running ZIIs I burned up my rear OEM brake pads in less than 5 sessions on track...switching to Carbotechs (xp10/xp9 at the time) with a higher FC meant I was able to stop more quickly, but generated more heat and cracked a rotor. The tires stayed the same in this equation. Then I switch to xp20s in the front on RS3s, and never engaged ABS, and still cracked 1 set of rotors, then to RC1s on the same pads, and cracked another set.

Your last statement is spot on.

 

The tires, not the brakes, should be the limiting factor. I think you'll find Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Valteri Bottas, Jimmy Johnson, etc. would agree. It is not ideal to lock the brakes...that causes flat spotting...but the driver needs to keep the tire at the verge of locking. In F1 it will be a fine enough edge that the inside front will slow down enough for a puff of smoke from the tire without fully locking. There will frequently be reports that the driver accidently flat spotted the tire causing a loss of performance and possibly requiring a tire change. This is a picture of Bottas' flat spotted tire from Russia:
If you want to go slow you can brake earlier and more gently. You can lift off the gas down the straights so there is less speed to loose. You could add a lot of downforce that will reduce straight line speed from drag and increase cornering speeds from downforce combining to reduce the amount of braking although the downforce would allow you to brake harder reducing the time under braking...but not increasing the energy that needs to be absorbed.

The brakes (and for that matter the tires) go through heat and cooling cycles between each application (or turn). That is clear in IzzeRacing's video of the front brake on an S2000 at VIR:


This is under street load, but shows the rear of an S2000:


The little solid rotors in an S2000 appear to be undersized for any reasonable track work...just not much cooling or heat capacity. The fix is not less braking; it is adding large rear rotors (see Urge, Sakebomb, or without parking brake StopTech) and/or rear brake cooling ducts. Then get a set of 275 front/295 rear Hoosier R7's and have at it!

 

Once you go on PFC or Raybestos race pads you will forget companies like Carbotech/GLOC and Hawk exist...

IMO, better braking and heat tolerance.....and last 2-3x as long. I don't even duct the brakes on my car...raybestos just eat up the heat.