I thought I read that it is possible to send in an old set of pads and get Hawk to put their material on the old plates.

Now that I have two set of tires and will have the wheels off before every event I was thinking of alternating between race and OEM pads, but will give the R4S that are already installed a chance first.

I have little experience with race-only compounds so I am open to any new information.

 

Ah yes, brake pads, I know them well. No, I don't think I lasted 4 track days with the same set of pads, Nick. I do know that I went through an entire set in one day, but that was later in the season. Overall, I went through six complete sets last year...

I used the stock pads, with the Motul DOT 4 fluid...fluid is great. The pads were readily available and did an adequate job on the track, for the most part. Nothing to rave about, but acceptable. I did find that they would crumble under high temps...

I am doing Spoon pads this year...for obvious reasons.



[Edited by gregstevens on 01-30-2001 at 10:11 PM]

 

Greg,

I had a lapping day at our local race track, and after the first 15 min session, my front brakes were smoking slightly. After a cool down period, we went our again, this time I ran 10 min. and retruned to the pits and now my rears were really smokin'!! I went back out on the track to cool them off. Question, would the R4$ not smoke like that? I used them on my MR-2 for autox, but never really heated them up like the track day.

Driving arond today I notice there seems to be less "grab" in the brakes and I'm pressing harder to stop the car. Are my pads glazed? There is a BMW driving school next week and I've got a set of stock pads ordered but now wonder if I should rush a set of porterfields in? After all I need to kick some Z3 ass

 

The stock pads do seem acquire a baked surface and become numb after being worked really hard. It takes hundreds of stops to wear past that point and I

 

HI Chris,

Thanks for the reply, I think that may be the answer, I don't plan on lots of track days, our course has too little runoff areas for my tastes, and I think its only a matter of time... I've got a series of pics I'll post on my web page soon and I think you'll see what I mean.

I guess I'll need to learn how to do brake work myself, bleeding and changing pads. I may switch to the Porterfields for this weekends event (assuming I can get them in time) but go back to the stock pads I've got on order.

Is there an illustrated FAQ anywhere for changing pads?