giantkeeper

Hi guys,

I am new to vettes and have a 2002 Z06 with significantly more than stock hp/tq. I generally like to do an HPDE event at least 1 weekend a year and feel this will be a great opportunity to learn to drive the Z.

The current setup is coil overs, poly bushings, wilwood Superlite 6r and 13.06" slotted rotors and stock rear calipers and blanks and Nitto NT05's 275/295. My event will be in Phoenix in January so track temps will be 50-70 degrees. The track is fairly short and the sessions will be 4 x 20 minutes for two days. HPDE 2

track


I currently have sets Wilwood BP10 and Hawk HPS for the front and Hawk HP+ for the rear. I know that there are a lot of good and mostly bad reviews and opinions on the Hawk pads for this sort of use. My main question is, will I be OK with a lesser compound on the fronts? Should I match compounds?

Thanks in advance!

Chris

p.s. previous track experience (HPDE only) was a 240hp/250tq 2700lb motor swapped and fully built 89 BMW E30.

CHJ In Virginia

That type of pad combination could be a bias problem especially as you get faster. Almost all run equal sets of pads F & R. Some folks with stock calipers like to run mixed sets such as Carbotek 12 in front and 10 in the rear giving a stronger front bias. At a minimum the stronger compound pad should be in front not the rear.

RedLS1GTO

With those calipers/tires and the track you show, which seems to be relatively low speed, I would look at either the Wilwood Polymatrix B or H compound on both front and rear. I've had nothing but good luck with Wilwood pads in the SL6R calipers.

bdanyluk

Looks like a low-speed course.

My recommendation is to use Carbotech XP10/8 combo.

Should be plenty, and will last longer than XP12.

ErnieN85

all of the above will work, as to the cheapest fix just get a set of HP+ for the front they work fine up to 800 degrees. for heavy braking tracks you will needmore (DTC70)
the carbotech xp series are really noisy on the street.
HP+ squeal a bit
Cobalt are also really noisy
The wildwood Q is great on street and ok for most tracks
Wilwood H seem to be preferred (not sure about street noise)
HTH

Adam@Amp'dAutosport.com

I would not use that pad combo as others have said. If you want to start fresh I would use xp10 front xp8 rear. Many people use this combo with great results. If you find they are to noisy on the street you can get a set of 1521 for street use and since all our compounds are compatible with each other their is no need to rebed or change rotors just swap pads and go. Sorry this is brief but, I'm on my mobile in the airport. I will be in the office at 4 pm Eastern today if you have questions or would like pricing.

Bill Dearborn

First, how much actual track time do you have under your belt? You mention running the BMW but you don't mention how many track days you had in it or other cars. Based on your HPDE2 comment I assume you are up one level from novice but it is hard to know since every organization has a different way of categorizing driver levels.

I agree the current combination isn't ideal with the street pads in front and semi track pads in the rear.

If you don't have a lot of experience I would recommend adding HP+ pads to the front if you can get them for the caliper.

If you do have a lot of experience then I would recommend going with the Wilwood E or H pads front and rear. The Es will wear faster than the Hs. When I had your setup on my 03Z a few years ago I would sometimes use H pads in front and E pads in the stock rear caliper. One thing you can do with the Wilwood pads is get a chart from their web page showing their coefficient of friction graphed against pad temperatures for several different compounds. It helps you choose which pad you want. The BP10 and HPS pads shouldn't be used on the track.

A couple of things you may want to think about are pad spacers that keep the pistons inside the caliper bore as the pads wear and phenolic heat shields that reduce heat transfer from the pad to the pistons. You can look them up at the Behling Racing web site. The metal spacers they have are made for a slightly different pad but all you have to do is grind off the center mount for them to fit properly in the SL caliper. Give them a call and talk to them about which spacer and shield you should order. After the pads wore some I would insert the shields first (thinner), followed by a spacer.

If you have a belt grinder, a face mask and some old 7420 or 7416 pads you can grind the remainder of the pad material from the backing plates and use them as spacers.

Bill

rfn026

First - pick a pad company. Then call them and tell them what you're doing and what you would like to do. Every pad company creates a wide variety of compounds. Let them help you with the selection

They're going to ask you some questions. You'll need some answers. Here's an article I wrote recently about brake pad selection.

Richard Newton

JeremyGSU

I've been tracking for years and myself and everyone I track with runs stronger pads in the front than the rear. Never heard of running the same pad front and rear. Interesting.

StKnoWhere

the Carbotech are great on the track and street, easy on rotors and the dust in non corrosive.

MarkDFW

Yep. And for safety purposes you always want more bite up front than in the rear if possible. Otherwise the back end can come around more easily.

0Todd TCE

Wilwood BP10 pads are a fine street pad and very similar to Hawk HPS. Aside from the "station wagon session" they have little proper open track use. Assuming of course you're going to at least attempt to put the car through some paces...

As Bill and others have pointed out; there are a variety of pad suppliers offering a yet wider selection of pad compounds. Each has its pros and cons. Anyone who tells you "one size fits all" about their pad: politely hang up and move on. Pads simply don't work (well) that way.

You may expect as your experience, speed and tire choices change so too will your pads. Pads need to grow with the demand; either the track design, lay out, vehicle speed or driver skill. Putting a *****-out track pad on street tires may well over pad the car making modulation difficult and result in instability and even faster rotor wear than necessary. On the other hand street pads can over heat quickly, fade out, smear and create unnecessary line pressure demands attempting to make up for loss of Cf of the pad. Not to mention premature wear of the pad and total glazing over or chunking!

Pick a brand and look at the stats of the various offerings: temperature vs Cf and ask about wear rates. Both pad and rotor. Can you move up the ladder with that brand as the demand increases? Are the materials compatible with each other? Some brand have cross contamination issues which should be a huge concern. That can lead to negative comments not really warranted...it's not a pad problem, it's a cross fit problem.

Happy hunting. It's like buying tires: if we all agreed on what was best there'd be no market for options.

giantkeeper

Wow, I am blown away by the number of great responses. Thank you! Let me sort through all of the information here.

dvandentop

cobalt friction get's my vote!

wtb-z

I would use HP+ for just one event per year. They are an ok street pad that can still work at the track if you pay attention to them. Plus they don't tend to be very expensive.

KNSBrakes

If you get a DTC-30 front pad you can leave your HP+ in the rear and likely get through a 20 minute session.

Streetable in warm weather as well.