Best combined track and street pad?

[svvitch]

I have these but no track time on them yet - hopefully going to NCM Motorsports Park next month will post my thoughts then.

EBC SR-11 Front Brake Pads | 17-23+ Civic Type R FK8 & FL5, 23+ Integr – Unity Performance (unity-performance.com)

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[J1Avs]

I run Counterspace Garage's CSG Spec CP Front and Rear paired with Giros. No noise on the street, consistent on track -- oh and no dreaded Brownbos.

Highly recommend CSG pads -- I've run them on Surpas, 86's, and now the FL5. They never let me down. Price is high, but pad life, feel, and consistency is worth it.

 

[turbo8765]

DS 3.12

 

[BigBird]

The OEM pad is actually not bad at all. I would use it without worry at a HPDE beginner to intermediate pace, especially if you are using factory rubber. you'll run out of tire before you run out of brake

 

[ItsMeNickG]

The OEM pad is actually not bad at all. I would use it without worry at a HPDE beginner to intermediate pace, especially if you are using factory rubber. you'll run out of tire before you run out of brake

I second this, I've run 5 track days on my OEM pads/rotors and they seem to be holding up well. 5,000 total miles on them at the moment.

 

[optronix]

I've only done one track day on my OEM (Type S) pads, but also nothing but positive feedback to report. Which is significant, because I could NOT say the same for an M4 with steel brakes.

That said, I too am looking for a good hybrid pad for future use, as I did hold back on long straights for fear of cooking the pads/fluid.

 

[warmmilk]

There's no such thing as a good hybrid pad, you're sacrificing somewhere. Sure there are street pads that will hold up and resist fade for track use, but you'll go through them really fast. Sure there are track pads that will work on the street and stop your car even at subzero temps, but they'll grind down your rotors really fast. Only way you can get away with this is if you have a really really light car... like an Ariel Atom or something.

 

[chadwicke619]

There's no such thing as a good hybrid pad, you're sacrificing somewhere. Sure there are street pads that will hold up and resist fade for track use, but you'll go through them really fast. Sure there are track pads that will work on the street and stop your car even at subzero temps, but they'll grind down your rotors really fast. Only way you can get away with this is if you have a really really light car... like an Ariel Atom or something.

I agree with this. I went through the same thing last year. I wanted to be able to just have one set of pads that was great at everything, but there’s no such thing. When you drive track pads on the street, even an entry level track pad, they’ll never get warm enough to transfer pad material to the rotor, but they will get warm enough to be loud as fuck. After a few minutes of driving, it gets to the point where any braking event is a loud squeal, unless I brake really aggressively. Just change your pads when you go to the track, either before or at the track.

if you don’t mind the noise, the track pads still stop totally fine as long as you’re not in a frigid climate.

 

[warmmilk]

I agree with this. I went through the same thing last year. I wanted to be able to just have one set of pads that was great at everything, but there’s no such thing. When you drive track pads on the street, even an entry level track pad, they’ll never get warm enough to transfer pad material to the rotor, but they will get warm enough to be loud as fuck. After a few minutes of driving, it gets to the point where any braking event is a loud squeal, unless I brake really aggressively. Just change your pads when you go to the track, either before or at the track.

if you don’t mind the noise, the track pads still stop totally fine as long as you’re not in a frigid climate.

there are track pads that don't squeal like a banshee when cold/normal driving. I daily drove Raybestos ST43 (pretty much impossible to get anymore) pads for a winter and they were quiet for the most part. They'd start making a little noise once every couple weeks, just had to do a couple of hard stops (mini bed in procedure) and they'd quiet down again. But they did chew through a set of rotors in one winter, and this was on a Miata. It'll go faster in a heaver car. I'm sure there are other pads out there decently quiet as well.

If you're willing to sacrifice rotors to not have to change pads, the key is to not mix compounds. I put these same pads (as in same physical pads, not just same model) on a friends car that ran Wilwood pads before, the drive home from the track was so loud under braking it gave me PTSD for a week. I'd prepare myself and get all tense every time I had to brake for the next week driving my normal street pad daily.

 

[chadwicke619]

If you're willing to sacrifice rotors to not have to change pads, the key is to not mix compounds. I put these same pads (as in same physical pads, not just same model) on a friends car that ran Wilwood pads before, the drive home from the track was so loud under braking it gave me PTSD for a week. I'd prepare myself and get all tense every time I had to brake for the next week driving my normal street pad daily.

I don’t think what you describe has anything to do with the pad compound - that’s what my drive home from the track is like every time. Once you leave the track and start driving home, there’s not even remotely enough heat to bring a track pad up to temp, so it’s just going to grind against your rotor and wipe it clean of any compound that might have been on it.

 

[warmmilk]

I don’t think what you describe has anything to do with the pad compound - that’s what my drive home from the track is like every time. Once you leave the track and start driving home, there’s not even remotely enough heat to bring a track pad up to temp, so it’s just going to grind against your rotor and wipe it clean of any compound that might have been on it.

naw its the mixing compounds, at least this specific pad. like I mentioned in the paragraph above, I daily'd this same actual pad for a winter with zero to minimal noise. Drives home from the track were always quiet... The track pads I have, Porterfield R4, make a little noise. Just enough to be annoying, but not PTSD inducing like the mixed ST43 and Wilwood compound was

 

[chadwicke619]

naw its the mixing compounds, at least this specific pad. like I mentioned in the paragraph above, I daily'd this same actual pad for a winter with zero to minimal noise. Drives home from the track were always quiet... The track pads I have, Porterfield R4, make a little noise. Just enough to be annoying, but not PTSD inducing like the mixed ST43 and Wilwood compound was

Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but I don’t think you can really “mix” a street and track pad compound. When you put your track pads on, when cold, they simply scrape everything off your rotor to the point where they’re basically clean. After a few minutes of driving around, there’s no transfer material left.

 

[warmmilk]

Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but I don’t think you can really “mix” a street and track pad compound. When you put your track pads on, when cold, they simply scrape everything off your rotor to the point where they’re basically clean. After a few minutes of driving around, there’s no transfer material left.

naw, it takes considerably longer than a few minutes. and you have to have super abrasive pads to get rid of it 100%. going back to this specific case, these pads stayed super loud on my friends car till he got new rotors and sanded down the pads a bit on a belt sander. we're talking months later. and they got quiet again after that.

and the initial drive home from the track was a 5 hour drive, including over a pass. so brakes had plenty of cold braking on the drive home.

 

[chadwicke619]

naw, it takes considerably longer than a few minutes. and you have to have super abrasive pads to get rid of it 100%. going back to this specific case, these pads stayed super loud on my friends car till he got new rotors and sanded down the pads a bit on a belt sander. we're talking months later. and they got quiet again after that.

and the initial drive home from the track was a 5 hour drive, including over a pass. so brakes had plenty of cold braking on the drive home.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I regularly drive from San Diego to all the tracks in SoCal, and then I drive home. I swap my pads beforehand, then after I get home. The rotors are always bare as new, both when I arrive at track and when I get home. In fact, all the track veterans on CivicX told me that this is exactly how it would work, and so far, they’ve been 100% correct.

Still on OEM for street and CarboTech XP10 for track.

Also the sanding of the pads sounds like maybe he didn’t bed properly in the first place to release all the gasses in the pad or something. Weird.

 

[warmmilk]

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I regularly drive from San Diego to all the tracks in SoCal, and then I drive home. I swap my pads beforehand, then after I get home. The rotors are always bare as new, both when I arrive at track and when I get home. In fact, all the track veterans on CivicX told me that this is exactly how it would work, and so far, they’ve been 100% correct.

Still on OEM for street and CarboTech XP10 for track.

Also the sanding of the pads sounds like maybe he didn’t bed properly in the first place to release all the gasses in the pad or something. Weird.

not really agree or disagree kinda thing... I'm talking about a specific experience I had. the sanding was to make sure to get any residue of the wilwood compound it picked up out of it. Didn't try it on the new rotors before sanding, maybe it woulda been fine. But since he got new rotors to kill the noise he didn't wanna risk it, so sanded the pad down a mm.

and the end of the day, pad transfer theory/opinions/whatever don't matter, what matters is noise or no noise. And there was noise till we got rid of rotors that have had 2 different pad compounds used on them. He even tried standing down the pads on the same used rotors. Noise didn't go away till he got new rotors.

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