I have a fairly stock S2000 GT that I'm slowly looking to make track oriented over the next 12-24 months, using the car almost exclusively for track days here in the UK and at the Nurburgring

Driven hard on track it's no surprise to find the standard brakes suffering as a consequence; particularly with no ducting as of yet so weighing up my best way forward this year and thinking the following...

Current setup:

• Standard calipers all round; recently replaced to overcome sticking
• Standard brake hoses all round w/ Motul RBF600 fluid
• Front: Pagid OE vented discs w/ Pagid RS29 pads
• Rear: Bremtech OE discs w/ Ferodo DS2500 pads

Planned setup this year:

• Front air ducts from front bumper with ducting to APR backing plates
• Same Pagid RS29 pads with Pagid OE vented discs
• Stainless braided hoses
• ATE Typ 200 fluid
• Rear Baero ducts (https://baero.tech/s2000-brakes/set-...ar-brake-ducts) & ducting
• RPB rear discs
• PBS rear brake pads
• Tegiwa brake master cylinder brace (to prevent flex and improve pedal feel)

I've found the Pagid RS29s the best pad by a country mile in the S2000 and the fronts hold up well; it's the rears that predominantly suffer from massive overheating and I've melted three sets of DS2500s on the rear now.

I've been trying to find a vented rear disc in OE fitment but with only 12mm standard thickness it appears these may not exist; leading me to look at the Urge kit as the next logical option from what I've been reading on here.

Question: with the proposed mods above (especially the ducting front & rear), should I not worry too much about vented rear discs or is this likely still a largely compounding issue? Curious as to how much the additional cooling and different pads may help alone, or if I'm putting the cart before the horse.

TIA,
Rob

 

skip the rear for now, and put the money towards upgrading your front to an actual BBK - stoptech ST40 or wilwood superlight kit as the cheaper options. You'll decrease consumable wear and improve performance.

After that, figure out how you want to upgrade the rear.

do all of the ducting, though. that will help a little bit.

 

Upgrading the front may not fix your rear brake problem and its an expensive buy in. Why havent you used a higher temp pad to prevent pad failure? That is by far the most normal and cost effective solution. Given s2k race cars the world over are limited to stock brakes and run fine suggests you can too. Granted the wheel bearings and calipers need replaced more often but stock is still common and fine.
Brake hoses are a good idea as OEM crimp fittings eventually fail.

 

Counterintuitively, from what I've read it seems the rears are the most logical place to start given their inherent lack of cooling from a solid rotor causing premature failure of bearings and excessive wear on the front brakes that have to take up the slack when the rears give up.

Applying ducting to a solid disc without venting seems to be a wasted effort, whereas addressing the weakest link with the rear brakes first should help improve overall performance and durability of both the fronts and rears.

Whilst there's certainly advantages in durability and consumable costs of running a BBK on the front, the OE calipers with decent pads do seem perfectly adequate even when pushed hard on track and I'd be relunctant to alter the bias too much if retaining OE sizes on the rear.

These posts/spreadsheets have been useful:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1065742733
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-ra...front-1189915/

I think I'm sold on the Urge rear rotors, but undecided whether to combine this with either the Girodisc fronts to retain overall bias whilst further reducing temps from two-piece discs or bite the bullet with the 299mm AP kit in the long run.

Using a better pad is certainly high on the priority list, as already planned alongside the ducting. I'm just skeptical as to whether you can really address this issue without a vented setup like the Urge rotors.

It's a valid point RE race teams and their class restrictions, though I imagine they don't sniff too much about replacing rear wheel bearings on a fairly regular basis, which is something I'd rather prevent against.

 

Ducting is going to make a big difference and it doesn't have to be expensive. The Baero for the rears are very nice, but I used plastic shop vac heads zip tied to the plastic air deflector just in front of the rear tires and a short run of hose directed at the rear discs (remove the backing plates). Used to be able to get them at Lowes but I think they're only on Amazon now. Still, cost less than $10. Made a huge difference in pad life.

When you are ready to upgrade to larger calipers, there are the usual suspects for the front BBK and I agree with Bullwings that if you can only do one end, start with the front. But when you're ready for the rears, consider the URGE vented rotors using the stock calipers. It's not ideal due to limited pad thickness, but it's the cheapest way to add significant thermal capacity in the rear.

Also, Dead-Serioius is right - switch to real track pad in the rear. Track pads wear slower, in general, at elevated temps than street pads. They cost more too, but in the end, you'll save some money along with having more reliable bake performance which will build your confidence to push harder and go faster.

 

URGE made me a deal on the Girodics for the front when I bought the rears. I didn't notice any difference vs. the stock Centric blanks, and considering the difference in price, I don't think the Girodisc for the front are worth it. This was with Hawk DTC60 pads front and rear along with ducting front and rear.

 

While the BBKs do have their advantages, there is also a lot to be said for the 2019 NASA National Champion running H1 / Honda Challenge using OEM calipers on his S2000. They're super capable.

 

That's useful feedback and matches my gut feel, thanks Daniel. I'm inclined to reach out to Urge to see what combo discounts they can offer with Girodiscs vs the AP 299mm kit and even Ohlins coilovers given I intend to source some in the coming months just to see how prices compare. Frustratingly I'm in the UK so will have to suck up import duty and shipping for almost anything I want to order it seems.

Given I don't have any noticeable issues with the OE fronts at the moment I'm inclined to go with the ducting front and rear along with just some Urge rear rotors to prevent them overheating and some proper track pads as mentioned, specifically https://www.tegiwaimports.com/pbs-pr...e-r-s2000.html

Then, pending how I get on with these changes I can gauge how the fronts hold up and, only if necessary, look at upgrading to the AP 299mm kit as a longer term upgrade. That allows me to see how these upgrades perform in an incremental fashion to make more informed purchases, given there seem to be a lot of people racing S2000s on OE calipers and undoubtedly pushing harder than I can.

That would give me this to work from this year:

• Front air ducts from front bumper with ducting to APR backing plates
• Same Pagid RS29 pads with Pagid OE vented discs
• Stainless braided hoses
• ATE Typ 200 fluid
• Rear Baero ducts (https://baero.tech/s2000-brakes/set-...ar-brake-ducts) & ducting
• Urge two piece rear rotors
• PBS rear brake pads (https://www.tegiwaimports.com/pbs-pr...e-r-s2000.html)
• Tegiwa brake master cylinder brace (to prevent flex and improve pedal feel)

 

$400 for RX8 brackets setup for Mustang 301x19mm rotors.
$50 for new rotors.
$100 for used RX8 calipers + new pistons, seals etc.
That's $550 for a solid upgrade with very cheap consumables.
Compare that to the $750 Urge rotors that cost $400 for replacement rings.

 

As for the fronts you could probably be fine with stock stuff and some really good ducting.
If you want to go for an upgrade this is a pretty good and cheaper alternative to the US sold kits, I'm in Sweden so I know all to well about import duties and crazy taxes.
https://freakyparts.co.uk/collection...=6018584117286