We intend to make this selection guide as easy to understand as possible so that you can make a good choice for your driving / racing need.
Nevertheless "select" and "use" a pad properly would require some experience to mature, especially for the “racing” set up where it’s fairly common that many novices and even intermediates often "over brake" and tend to use their brakes incorrectly which can cause ANY pad to fail, and with the speed the Z06 is capable, that further amplifies the situation.
When we first introduced ET500 and ET700 compound, it was meant to fill the gap between “street and track” that is good for track events yet no squeaking and low dust. However, such compound just doesn't seem to be available. Although ET700 is good for the track it may have not been properly qualified which caused some concern on our ET series brake pads.
In response we have added ET900 and ET800 to the compound matrix. They are full scale racing compound in terms of temperature limit, friction, torque and deceleration rate.
Both ET900 and ET700 were extensively tested and evaluated on EVO 8 and 350Z with review:
We realized that these compounds have to be tested and proven on Z06, therefore we would offer limited sets of these racing pads to Z06 owners who are willing to testify their value in terms of cost, performance and durability.
Discount rules:
Quantity: Maximum 2 car sets per compound, per customer
As always, dealing with RacingBrake is worry free. Even with this discounted purchase your complete satisfaction is assured with our money back guarantee.
The ET800 brake pads are currently on back order.
Last edited by RacingBrake; 05-11-2007 at 11:40 AM.
Reason: clarified the offer
I'm taking 3 Z06's to Savannah next week, VIR July 2-3, and RedLine time attack in August.
I would prefer ET700 pads since my group does mostly HPDEs and not full blown competition racing.
I've been using RacingBrake pads on and off the street for a while and have had lots of discussion with RacingBrake. I thought I'd pass some thoughts along and hopefully help someone out. I don't drive a Z06, but try not to hold that against me. This post is intended primarily for those that may be tracking their car for the first time, or at least haven't been doing it long.
The Z06 is a difficult car to pick pads for. Even within a single brand of pads there are usually several pads to chose from. There are some good reasons for this. First, there are a lot of differences in drivers and how they drive. Second, there are a lot of differences between tracks. Third, there is the electronic wizard that helps you keep the Z06 on the pavement. Fourth, the Z06 surpasses many full race cars in performance, yet you expect to be able to take it out on a date after the day's track sessions are over. Add all this up, and it can make choosing a pad difficult. Like most things in life the pad you choose will have trade offs. Dust, temperature rating, byte, noise and life are the biggies. To make things even worse, each choice can fall in to a different price category. There is no such thing as a pad that does everything. But with the choices available you should be able to select a pad that suits your needs the best.
How well you drive your Z06 will have a significant affect on how long your pads wear, and how much damage you do to the calipers and rotors. The electronics of the Z06 allow it to determine when it thinks you need help, and how to help you. Often this means selectively applying brake to one of the wheels. If you drive smooth and clean you get no added help, and no added wear. The problem is there is no feedback when the car kicks in to help. It can make you feel like a better driver than you are, at the cost of your brakes. If you are going through brakes on your Z06, there are two probably reasons. One, you are over driving your ability and the car is working very hard to keep you alive. Two, you are a good driver that is driving a high performance car at its limit. Hopefully you can figure out which.
To judge the rest of my comments I guess I should tell you that I drive a 2005 350Z that has had some suspension work, upgraded tires, and some enhancements to the braking system. I run ATE Super Blue brake fluid, RacingBrake 2 piece slotted front rotors to handle the heat, and RacingBrake pads. I have tracked my car 28 times in the last year on many different road courses and run in the advanced group. I am very hard on my brakes.
Note 1: If you put a car on the track, you absolutely should use ATE Super Blue brake fluid (or something better) and SS brake lines. If you don't switch to a high performance brake fluid, you will have brake fade if you drive hard.
Note 2: Your brakes will do better if you get on them hard at the beginning of the brake zone, and the get off them or ease up towards the end of the brake zone. You don't want to ease in to them and them realize you need to stand on them.
Note 3: Everything you do to enhance your car affects your brakes. Put wider/softer tires on your and the tire to track friction goes up, allowing the brakes to work harder because they have more traction to work with. Add more horsepower and you go faster and need to more brake to slow down.
Note 4: It is worth spending money on brakes. You will drive faster and with more assurance when you trust your brakes. You do NOT want to be running 150+ and hoping the brakes will last through the next turn.
Note 5: I recommend that you replace your pads when they wear down to the thickness of the backing plate if your are tracking the car. The pad material acts as an insulator to help keep heat from transferring to your calipers.
Finally .. info on the RacingBrake pads from personal experience.
The 700 series pad is a great pad for street and mild track use. When properly broken in you should have no problems with fade when used for what they are, a very good street/track pad. They are not racing pads, but they also are pretty easy on your rotors and work very well on the street. Although RacingBrake claims you may get some noise from them, I haven't heard any. They are much quieter than the Hawk HP+'s I was last running. If you try to treat them like racing pads you'll be disappointed. If you want a pad you can drive on the street and on the track, you'll be happy.
The 900 series pad is intended for track use only. On my last trip to Road Atlanta I ran the 700's on Saturday and the 900's on Sunday. My lap times on Sunday were 2.2 seconds faster then on Saturday. Data acquisition showed I was braking later and harder with the 900's. That is what you expect from a racing pad. I also got more rotor wear, which is also what you would expect from a racing pad. I attribute about 1 second of the improvement to the pads. Important if you are racing, not so important if your are doing track events and out for fun.
Last, make sure you bring spare pads with you and inspect the pads after every run. You can usually see enough of the pads with a flashlight without taking the tires off. Do not under estimate how fast you can go through a set of pads.
I agree with Glen's assesment, and as long as your have the proper expectations, proper bedding, and do NOT "overbrake" your pads, the 700's are a good dual-purpose compound, especially for the money.
I am looking forward to trying the 800's in a few weeks, and beleive for me, they may be the missing link.
Location: 530 miles south from the Arctic Circle (was Dallas)
ET 700 feedback:
I had these on for some intermediate track action on Sunday and they seem to be working well. The pads work exactly as advertised, they are little noisy on the street conditions, but nothing too much.
I also use ATE Super Blue DOT4 fluid and SS-brake lines.
I'm willing to try the ET800 compound as well if this offer is still available.
We would just like to thank those participating in our 50% discount offer on C6 Z06 RB brake pads and FinnVette is our last customer which will conclude the discount.
This the first car I've ever been to a track with and have been having a GREAT time!!!! I'm not real fast (yet) but I'm getting faster and love passing P-cars. My original pads were completely gone after about 5 track days (metal to metal on left front). So I purchased ET700 pads for my street car that I drive to the track every so often. After reading about the Z06 rotor problem (mine were already getting some minor cracking) I also purchaced new RacingBrake 2-piece rotors for extra cooling. I also bought new bolts for my calibers and stainless brake lines.
I have to say the brake pad EZ bolts are almost REQUIRED!!!! A few of mine had to be drilled out. I can't believe GM would design Z06 calibers with bolts that sieze and have to be drilled out (probably saved them an extra buck a car).
Well anyway, I had my pads, rotors, brake lines, bolts, and new fluid installed and followed the procedure to bed-in the pads to the rotors. I went back to Thunderhill and my brakes have never felt better!!!! They have a very stong bite now much better than the factory setup. I can now brake later and have a much better petal feel. On sharp corners after a long straight (like turn 14) where I used to smell my brakes and not feel very confident, now I no longer have any brake smell and am much more confident in my braking. So far, I'm very happy with my choice of pads and my decision to replace my rotors, brake lines, bolts, and fluid. There have been no noise issues on the track or on the street.
Here is my report on how the pads performed at the track, as promised.
Car - 2007 Z06, all OEM stock except for RB ET900 brake pads and RB caliper pad bolts.
Track - Road Atlanta, repaved in 2007. 12 turns, 6 braking zones (Turn 1, Turn 3, Turn 5, Turn 6, Turn 7, Turn 10). Heaviest braking zones are Turn 10 (braking from 140MPH to 60) and Turn 1 (from 120MPH to 80).
Conditions - Dry track, sunny, very hot, high in the upper 90's.
Event - PCA Drivers Education, Group 5 (highest speed group) I did not check my lap times but they were similar to the 996 Turbos and GT3s on race tires. On the OEM Goodyear tires, I would lose a little ground in the turns and then make it up with better acceleration on the straights. Probably this was hard on the brakes because I had to generate a lot of straight line speed to keep up but then brake down to a speed that the street tires would accept in the turns.
Results - I ran six 20 minute sessions for a total of about 2 hours track time. ET900 pads had not been heat cycled, so the first session they did not feel good. Second through sixth sessions, they felt great. Very consistent, high grip, with zero fade in very hot conditions. Braking distances were equal to or shorter than the Porsches which is excellent. I recommend heat cycling these pads in a practice session before using in a qualifying or race situation.
Brake Dust - ET900 pads produced a considerable amount of black dust which washed off the wheels easily, leaving no residue and no damage to the finish.
Wear - After one event with 2 hours driving time, front pads were 36% gone (7 mm pad material remaining) and rear pads were 27% gone (8 mm pad material remaining). This suggests that the front pads would last two or three weekends and the rears three or four weekends. Pad life is an inherent weakness of the Z06 caliper design, but this is still superior to the reported pad life of other brands.
Bottom Line – Highly recommended. A true race pad with excellent reliable performance under very harsh demanding conditions. Not a street pad.
4 driver / 3car / 2 day test and review of ET900s and 800s - Long
For those that like it short, the racingbrake ET800s and ET900s performed flawlessly, we will run them again.
For those that like more detail, keep reading.
Three friends and I took 3-C6 Z06s up to VIR last weekend with the mazdadrivers.com group.
None of us are pro-level or SCCA level racers, just people who enjoy running hard and fast at track days. That being said, at Road Atlanta and Roebling Road, two of us consistently turn times that would place us mid-pack compared to SCCA T1 times.
The other two are about 7-10 seconds per lap more cautious.
My car was double-stinted running with no break in-between sessions. On Sunday that meant 50 minutes of track time without a break, other than 2 minutes to change drivers. I was the more aggressive driver and I had the car for the second half of the double sessions.
All three cars have stock suspension, stock rotors, stainless steel brake lines, no additional brake cooling and used the pads front and rear. Each has minor mods: intake, tuning, and full-width rear spoiler.
My car and the ‘06 used the 900s.
The other car had 800s.
The ‘06 had Hoosier race tires, the other two stock rubber.
I have used Hawk HP+ in the past.
The driver of the car with ET800s previously had driven at Roebling road w/stock pads and Road Atlanta and Roebling in a C6 Z51 with Hawk DTC70s F&R.
The driver of the car with race rubber had previously used stock pads, and wore out a brand new set of stockers in one day at Roebling 3 weeks ago.
None of us had been to VIR before. All of us have done 8 track events this year.
None of use had any issues with brake pads or the pedal going soft. Every time the brakes were called upon, they responded exactly as expected with no surprises.
Initial bite on the 900s were better than the Hawks, they also seem to take the heat of double-stinting better, as well as braking from high speeds. With the 900s or 800s, it is much easier to brake hard enough to get the ABS system to activate, even when it did, the car stopped straight, it just took much less pedal effort than with previous pads. The braking was very linear and easy to modulate once one learned not to press quite as hard.
I have not pulled the pads out to measure taper or wear, but will in the next day or two and update this thread.
The ‘06 with Hoosiers could not have been happier, between the tires and ET900s, his stopping distances where truly impressive and very consistent.
The ‘07 with ET800s was very happy with the brakes. After running a Z51 with DTC70s for 6 HPDEs, she was not at all impressed with the stock Z06 brakes. With the 800s, she was very happy and had no complaints.
Both cars with 900s had many ¼ inch long cracks before this event. The 800s rotors looked new with no cracks anywhere.
After the event, no noticeable or unusual wear on the cars’ rotors was noticed.
The cracks did not appear to grow more than 1/16 inch on my car.
The bad.
900s scream like banshees when used on the street. I know it is not a street/track pad but I can dream.
The 800s much less screaming, too early to tell if it will be liveable on the street.
Conditions both days where dry and hot, low 80's day 1, low 90's day two.
On my car that was double stinted / 16 sessions total
Pad taper measured .020 top to bottom
Fronts had .120-.140in wear when measuring the thinnest part of the pad. The fronts should be good for one more weekend of double stinting
Rears had .030-.040in wear.
This is far better wear than any other pad I have used previously.
The other two cars I have not measured yet.
The ET800s continue to squeak only a little and intermittently when driven on the street. (this maybe the dual use pad I have been looking for)
We are all going back to VIR July 2 & 3. I will have a longer term update after that.
Last edited by z06jones; 06-21-2007 at 08:43 AM.
Reason: more detail
Same 4 drivers and 3 cars as two weeks ago - Two drivers in the Black group (Ted #76, me#80/184 and two in the Blue group (Myra # 186 and Cheryl #80/184)
Conditions for the NCM event were great. Low to mid-eighties for a high, low sixties at night, 180 corvettes in attendance.
We re-used pads from our last VIR event two weeks ago. The only changes were - my car (double-stinted) had the ET800s, and Myra (previously with 800s), had my double-stinted 900s. Once again, my car would get driven in back-to-back sessions without time to cool down, less than ideal..
Lessons learned.
1) VIR full is much harder on brakes that VIR Grand. Also, we felt much more comfortable this time and were pushing the cars harder.
2) Two drivers on the same track, driving like cars can/will have very different wear patterns. Since I had only used about 30% of the pads double-stinting the car two weeks ago, I felt certain my friend with the Hoosiers could easily run two events, but I was very wrong.
3) Having spares will eventually save the weekend! In 10 previous track events, we had never used any spares or had any issues other than a flat tire, not so this weekend.
4) ET700s in the front and 900s in the rear do not appear to upset the brake bias. Nor do stocks in the front and 800s in the rear.
The ET800s braked well during repeated 160mph runs down the back and front straights, but not quite as well as the 900s, which was expected. The 800s required slightly more pressure and did not have quite as much bite the last 100 feet of braking as the 900s did, again as expected. They never faded, overheated or did anything unexpected even during double sessions lasting 50 minutes. I was very pleased with them and currently am of the opinion that they are an expectable compromise for track and street. They squeak only a little and intermittently on the street, and perform 90% as well as the 900s on the track.
Ted running the Hoosiers and 900s loved them even more that he did two weeks ago. With more track time and more confidence, the 900s were more than up to the task of his very hard braking. They performed flawlessly until the last two laps of the third session on day one when he noticed it was taking more pedal pressure to stop. Initially, he thought the pads had gotten over-heated. Just before the fourth session we realized it was because two of the front left pads had gone metal to metal the rest of the pads where paper thin. Ted noted that the brakes felt the same until this happened. None of the paper thin pads fractured/chiped/cracked or came unglued. There was no rotor damage and the dust boots did not melt. Quick swap of some spare used ET700s, and a precautionary bleed, and he was back on the track.
After dinner we checked my fronts, they were wearing fine, but were too thin to last eight more sessions. More spares to the rescue, well, almost... Installing used stock front pads kept the car rolling but at greatly reduced speeds.
Day two everything worked as expected. Ted slowed down a little to compensate for the 700s, I started lifting before the hill on the back straight and before the tree on the front straight to help save the stock front pads. Having to step backwards in pads made us realize how much we appreciated the great pads we had on day one, when braking was much more consistent and much shorter.
Two of Myra's pads went metal to metal on the last lap of the last session although she did not know it at the time, like Ted, only noticing it was taking more pressure and a little longer to stop. It was not until they were driving towards the main gate hours later that metal on metal was heard. We quickly unloaded my car from the trailer and loaded hers on and off we went.
Tally for the event.
Zero offs, no damage and smiles that just won't quit times four. (Although Cheryl did run out of gas in turn 1 towards the end of her first solo session on day two, she promptly fired her crew chief... me).
ET800s ran a total of 4 track days and could have lasted 1 more (two w/mazdadrivers.com and 1 day double stinted w/NCM).
ET900s on Ted's car - 3 track days (two w/mazdadrivers.com and 1 w/NCM)
ET900s on Myra's car lasted 6 track days (2 w/ mazdadrivers.com double stinted and 2 w/NCM)
The rotors survived. Although the cracks got a little longer in two of the cars, they will need rotors after the next event. Then the cheese graters will be gone in favor of a more pad-friendly slotted rotor.
Conclusions:
ET900s - What very aggressive HPDE and competition level drivers are looking for. Almost too aggressive for stock tires, easy to lock up the fronts - easy to modulate when it does, though. Works very well with racing tires.
ET800s - perfect for the 90% of us that don't have track times that match SCCA T1 times. Easier on rotors, minimal squeaking for a race pad when used on the street.
I'll be placing the ET800s fronts back on my car for more street testing and will report back in the coming weeks.
Corvette Store
Brake pad special introductory offer for Z06
Super service!! I can't wait to install them and head out to Thunderhill again.
keep you in mind
