Anybody have any experience trying different performance disc brake pads? I know most of you guys don't autoX or track your cars but then some of you have spent an inordinate amount of dough making your bird powerful and handle pretty well. I was just wondering if anyone has gotten into the science of better pad materials and coefficient of friction and not just relied on bigger is better as far as brakes go?
Seams the Indycar series should have done a bit more research themselves. Using one manufacturers calipers and another manufacturer's pads and rotors may have caused more than one race brake failure yesterday and during practice I searched a bit when I replaced the fronts. Mostly the discs. Thought if I had to buy new ones anyway I may get drilled or slotted or drilled and slotted. For what I use my car for I decided on the standard vented rotors. If I was racing I would likely go with drilled and slotted and treat them as a wear item, expecting to replace them more often than street brakes.
Pads are another story, organic, semi metallic and ceramic all have their advantages and disadvantages. Some are good for high heat, some for long wear and all stop the vehicle in different distances. I use semi metallic. They will wear the rotors faster than ceramic , make more noise and dust than ceramic, but conduct heat better than ceramic and work better at low heat and work through a wider range of heat than ceramic.
Performance pads are made to work best within a certain range of parameters. Some engineered to perform in dry dusty conditions some in wet conditions. Some have a high initial grip and some have a lower initial grip but increase with heat. A brake system made for a race-built car may not work very well in other cars due to the operating temperatures and the downforce on the tires. Pads with huge initial grabbing power won't do you much good if your wheels lock up every time you use them.
I use an all-round pad, you may need one that is more type specific. I can't help you with where to go for information, once I decided I didn't need performance brakes I quit searching. You must belong to some kind of racing club or association in order to have gotten a race driver license of some kind, in order to partake in the racing you do, perhaps the club or association has contacts or information on where to get technical info.
Any searching I did online tended to have me to believe each manufacturer had the best brakes in the world and every other manufacturer's products were inferior in every circumstance, no matter what they were made of.
Indycars are mandated to use the same brakes in every race, even though the ovals require little braking and the street/road courses require vast amounts of braking. the indianapolis 500 requires the least braking and the Honda Indy Toronto requires the most. they must come up with some kind of compromise . If you drive your car on the street and on the track you will most likely have to do the same.
Yup, thats the trick. Trying to decifer thru all the manufacturers propaganda.. I've reverted to gleaning some information from a few that have used different types and what they liked and didn't like to make my choices. Anything I choose is a compromise. One thing that would make it easier is if I knew what the swing of operating temps my brakes normally worked in. Most manufacturers will tell you what temp range their pads work best at. So if I knew that, I'd be golden. It seems the pads I choose will probably be noisier than I wish but it's just something you give up for low temp grip and a higher temp before fade occurs. We shall see. Bummer is they are not cheap so if a set doesn't work for me it's going to be tough to pull them and spend more dough on trying the next set.