Greetings!

I am a proud owner of a 2008 Honda S2000 CR in Berlina black. It has about 1,500 miles on it so far, and plan on taking it to Buttonwillow for an HPDE event with NASA in 3 weeks. I'm at level 3 when I had my Integra, but will drop down to level 2 to learn all that I can with this new beast.
I have to still decide whether to register for one or both days. Since the stock brake pads are so new, is there enough material to last me one or perhaps both days for that weekend event before I have to change them out to ultimately prevent damage to the rotors.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Stock brake pads are great for the street but suck at the track. A few hard laps and you will be out of brakes. Get some track pads to use on the track.

 

I smoke my stock front pad on my 1st time 1st day at the track. I do have a set of rear Cobolt GTS for sale. I want more bite at the rear.

 

Carbotech FTW

 

i'm installing some Hawk HPS pads on the front this weekend. i have tracked HPS's before and the do the job. I like them because they are street pads that can handle some track duty. ie: no squeal.

i talked to a s2ki SCCA track whore earlier this week, he is running Hawk HP+ and he said the HP+ squeal. i'll stick with HPS due to no squeal.

 

Hawk HPS's were the worst pads I've experienced at the track. Worse than stock, WAY worse. I tried them last year as a cheapo compromise, and after 3 sessions of getting piss-poor braking (long/soft pedal, had to rely heavily on engine braking after only a lap or so!), the HPS's were GONE. Threw the stock pads in there and DAMN what an improvement, I actually had brakes again!

It is possible mine were from a bad batch, I suppose. But they SUCKED. BAD.

Carbotech XP8's are good track pads, and are relatively streetable as well.

 

this thread is going to be tough to figure out. the post 2 above my previous post talks about OEM pads sucking, the post after my previous post talks about Hawk sucking but OEM is an improvement.

to the OP, post your question in the racing forum and you should get a straight answer.

 

The stock pads aren't nearly as good as track pads, but they are at least usable at the track. I didn't have any real problems with them, they just don't bite as much as track pads. In my experience, the HPS's weren't just kinda bad, they were pretty much unusable, a disaster. I have to suspect they *might* have been from a bad batch, but whether or not that's the cause of their poor performance, I would certainly recommend against them.

FWIW, I did 1/4 of day 1 and all of day 2 at Mont Tremblant on the stock pads, then did 2 days at Lime Rock on the same stock pads, and they were used to begin with. Two track days shouldn't be a problem on stock pads.

 

Not mentioned... flush out your brake fluid regardless of pads chosen with something like Motul or Ate. If you were running with a Grp #3 in NASA, you should be compressing brake zones without thinking about it. Stock fluid will boil before the pads go.

 

If you're going to be tracking the car at all regularly (and I suspect you will be, else, why buy that car?), don't run stock pads, or even compromise pads. Learn to swap track pads in (it only takes a half hour or so once you get used to it, not even hurrying). You spent a bunch of money on a great car; don't get cheap (and unsafe) now.

You'll go right through stock pads, and they won't stop you as well as you will want; so, you won't save any money, and you'll compromise safety.

When I tracked my S2000, I used Carbotech pads, which work well enough on the street that I was quite comfortable swapping my pads in and out at home, and driving to/from the event with the track pads already in. I always brought an extra set with me, just in case, and I did change pads (and rotors) at the track a few times.

And Skip's absolutely right--don't even think about taking that wonderful car to the track with DOT3 fluid in it.