Ok, maybe not Epic but I hope someone finds it useful. Before reading further this is intended for someone just starting to work through the brake process with this car. Many of you have already been here and have worked through it in your own way. Additionally this isn't meant to be an opinion thread, just a thread to document my experience for others to consider. It is safe to say that once this car hits the track the brakes become a major consideration, possibly the biggest consideration with this car. The numerous threads on the topic (a few of them mine) are representative of just how key brakes become. This thread isn't intended to create debates about cooling and various pad compounds but will document my experience with brakes as I move through the HPDE world.

A bit of background on my driving, I spent many of the early years autoxing a FWD k-swap Civic before moving into tracking that car for a short period of time. I have always been about brakes, I like the feeling of the rapid deceleration more than acceleration. My track experience was short lived with the civic and I only got as far as using HP+ pads. They seemed to work decent on the Civic until about 10min into a session when I would then get a warning of burning brakes before stopping distance would increase dramatically. This was remedied temporarily by a couple cool down laps in the middle of the session. For this reason I didn't even consider the HP+ when I started tracking the S2000.

After taking a bit of time away from the track I jumped back in with an S2000. I wanted a streetable setup that I could track and some people seemed very happy using Stoptech pads, so I gave them a shot. With these pads I would get exactly the same experience as I had with the HP+ minus the burning brake smell. For this reason my search for a street/track pad continued by trying EBC Yellows. The bite and heat tolerance of the EBC pads were far better than the HP+ and Stoptech, they would get through pretty much an entire session without major issues only loosing bite towards the end of a 20min session. However, on the last day at a track that has a lot of moderate to hard braking in succession they suddenly seemed to deposit onto my rotors. This created a vibration under braking that felt as if my rear wheels were falling off, it actually unsettled the car. After this experience it lead me to the conclusion that beyond autox the street/track compounds do not work for a faster driver with the S2000 on track.

My next step was G-loc R10 front/R8 rear, which I had initially intended on using for both track and street. The pads themselves seem to work very well, the only issues I have is maybe a lack of modulation and pad wear. As far as noise and dust this is a rather streetable pad compound although if your like me you will quickly realize it is a very expensive proposition to double duty these pads. The only issue with this compound and Carbotech compound is that they only seem to be compatible with other G-loc and/or carbotech pads, so if you don't want to swap rotors to go to the street then you need to run a g-loc or carbotech street pad.

So moving forward with this setup I will be swapping pads at home before and after events in an effort to extend pad life. Additionally my initial focus will be to extend pad life on the track, currently I have used around 40% of my rears and 50% of my fronts after about 5hrs of track time. This is with a fully stock brake system. My next focus will be going with a slightly more aggressive compound to get more modulation and possibly more life if I am slightly overheating this setup. From lots of research on this forum I know that eventually I will start cracking front rotors, my guess is this will happen once I step up the compound or possibly here soon with this compound. Addtionally, rear wheel bearings become a consumable with these cars when tracked, likely due to the heat generated from our crappy solid rear rotors. So, in addition to increasing pad life my goal will be to reduce the failure rate of these components.

Initially I was going to jump right into a BBK, it is undeniable that a BBK will save you $ if you track your car enough. People are reporting 3-4x longer pad life. The key to a BBK is to look at it from the sole purpose of saving $ and investigate pad prices and maintenance costs of the kit. However, I noticed a common theme in which guys were running into issues with the rear once putting on a BBK, things like increased rear wheel bearing failure, increased rear pad wear etc. This was causing people to upgrade the rear to one of the limited options out there (URGE, Racing Brakes, Sakebomb). Interestingly enough upon upgrading the rear many were realizing additional pad life on the front. This intrigued me, is it possible that the same could be realized with the OEM setup making it possible to just go with upgraded Giro disc fronts over a BBK. For me I saw the rear as something that would need upgraded regardless, the solid discs are a joke and adding cooling ducts seem to have mixed results and require a bit of effort. Plus IMO the rear ducts don't fix the actual problem. So when URGE offered a group buy on their vented rear rotor setup I decided to start with the rear and see what the results were. From there I could decide what route to go with the front, admittedly I have almost jumped on one of the couple good deals being offered by members selling new kits, but fortunately I have a wife keeping me on plan to try the rear setup and go from there.

So this is where I am at now, OEM with R10/R8 pads and URGE rear rotors. I have a couple events this month and will provide an updat as to how it works out and where I am headed as I search for the perfect brake setup.

As a side note the URGE rear rotors are an awesome peice, the quality looks great and Patrick is great to deal with. My only suggestion is to consider buying the brackets with the rotors. You can DIY yours with a die grinder, but for $80 to buy his I wished I had gone that route. If you do decide to DIY take your time test fitting and grind in stages only removing what is absolutely needed, I took off more than needed in places. Also wear safety glasses and a shield, it never fails whenever I use a die grinder I get crap in my eye, this was no different!

Anyway sorry for the lengthy post, hopefully this is helpful to someone getting started down the path of brakes and the S2000. I intend to update with my results/changes as I move forward.

 

tl;dr

 

Thanks for info, looking forward to the updates.

 

I'm in a similar place regarding brakes. I've done 4 years/~16 days on the stock system with OEM, Stoptech, and now DTC-30 pads. After my first four track days, the OEM rears were gone. The Stoptech streets were complete crap. The DTC30s have impressed me as street/track pads but will certainly overheat in 10 minutes. I'd also like a BBK at some point down the line but would like to play with the stock setup some more. I share the same sentiments regarding the rears and am considering the Urge kit.

 

Brakes are good, they keep you from hitting walls. Auto-x pads don't work well on track. Get an upgraded rear brake kit. Wear safety glasses.

 

Thanks for the cliffs.

 

Like I said, the thread isn't for everyone, fortunately everyone doesn't have to read it

 

I got my Urge rotors in today. Gonna track them tomorrow

 

Yes.

Once you actually learn to drive on track this is the only viable option for an S2000 with stock calipers.

 

First event in the books and so far so good! The track I was at wasn't a high brake demand track, it only had 1 major braking zone that took you from ~105 to ~55, however laps were short (1min 20sec). Overall I will say that braking felt very consistent throughout the weekend, the braking zone was at a point where the car was a bit unsettled and the car took all I could give and provided confidence.

As far as consumables, I haven't measured the pads yet, but just visually it seems that the front have exhibited less wear than the rear, which is opposite of what I had experience prior. To me this supports what I was thinking in that the rears were overheating and with these pads it was causing glazing and less wear in the rear, but more in the front as they had to carry more load. Note that this is just my theory based on my observation of brake feel and pad wear on OEM rear rotors. I am starting to get micro cracking on my front rotors. I am going to be removing and measuring the pads and will report back in a completely unscientific fashion