Suggestions on brake pads

I finally had the ***** to do a track day, and I'm officially hooked. However, I managed to completely destroy a set of pads in a day (they were around half worn). Anyway, I need pads so I'm shopping options. I do mostly street driving, but I'd like to get in at least 3 DE's next year. Suggestion on pads? Should I upgrade from OEM?

Did you do a search? There are about a million posts on brake pads.

Im using Porsche sports pads with motul brake fluid.... i like them and will use them gain. Lots a brake dust though. http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/me...6BrakesCarrera

"Did you do a search? There are about a million posts on brake pads. " Yes, I did. Thank you for your suggestion... Now back on topic. What do we like for brake pads on 996's these days? Are pagid yellows still the clear winner? I was hoping there would be something a little better than OEM but not quite as expensive as the pagids.

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I didn't even know there was an OEM sport pad. Why are they not recommended for street use? Will they still stop at colder temps and do they squeal like a school bus?

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yes they stop fine... but squeel like a pig... but I took out my anti sqeeking dampers for easy R&R on the brake pads... so Im not sure how bad the squeel with the dampers on... I personally dont mind it, its not a DD.

I like Pagid Blacks on my 986. Don't forget to upgrade your brake fluid (I like SRF) and be forwarned that most good track pads will squeal a little when not up to temperature.

Stick with the stock pads. I've done 9 Trackday/DE's in the last 2 years and my original pads are still good. Mind you, #1 Mosport isn't the toughest track on brakes or #2 I'm just too slow. Probably #2!

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You can easily burn through a set of stock pads in under 2 days at the track (even with street tires). Additionally, it is possible to "chunk" the stock pads and boil stock fluid (again on street tires) at the track (ask me how I know ). An upgrade pad and fluid upgrade is not a bad idea IMHO even for only three DE's per year. If the OP does not like the occasional noise from track pads you can always switch back and forth between street and track pads (I prefer to leave mine in).

Pagid Blacks +1

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I'm not sure how that's even possible... My pads were 50% worn and I managed to kill the remaining 50% in one day at Sebring.

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My master cylinder failed at my last event (that was a little scary) so I already have the upgraded fluid (Motul). I should have done pads at the same time.

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The price is certainly right. $250 for the front and rear set isn't bad at all.

Here's a good link to decipher the pagid color/number codes. http://www.braketechnology.com/racecharacteristics.html How bad do the pagid's squeal?

For those that are running blacks, which ones? I find their chart a little confusing.

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As I said, Mosport is a very fast track with only 10 corners, some of which you don't really need to really brake hard for if at all. My car is a C4S that has the larger "big red" brakes like the TT and I run street tire (Bridgestone S02-A). I'm not the fastest guy there, but certainly not the slowest at around 1:53 a lap (fast guys on street tires are in the 1:45 range, while "r" compound tire 996/997 are in the sub 1:40 zone. FYI: fastest lap during the ALMS was 1:04!). I've owned the car for 2.5 years and put 35,000 kms including those track days and have yet to change the pads. Everytime I go for my pre-DE tech inspections, I expect my tech to tell me that my pads and/or rotors are almost done, but no. Last inspection in Sept, he told me I still had 50% left on my fronts. Guess I'm lucky.

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RS14

If the car is a daily driver, I'd recommend that you either swap out pads after each DE, or just do the DE's with street pads. I've run Pagid Yellows and Hawk DTC60's so far. Both have been great, but both squeal like crazy on the street. It's tolerable for a while, but not for very long. The track I run on is easy on pads, and I went for quite a while on stock pads on my 997. For the kind of speeds you'd be doing as a beginner, stock pads are fine. Also, track pads will quickly point out the limitations of your street tires. Best in my opinion to stay with stock pads while running street tires, and go to race pads when you start running on track tires. Of course once you start doing that, you'll end up with new seats, a roll bar, harnesses, a HANS,.. And then you'll buy a track car. Ask me how I know...

No, it's not a daily. Just a weekend fun car. I don't know if Sebring would be considered a fast track or not, but it certainly has a lot of hard braking. My 996 is supercharged with a bunch of other junk (around 435 to the wheels) so I'm hitting around 140 on the back straight and then having to break heavily into a long decreasing radius turn before jumping back on to the front straight. I'm hesitant to use stock pads again because I managed to use 50% of my stock pads in one day. Oh, and I've already sourced new seats I'm getting a hookup on some used GT3 seats out of a totaled GT3.

No, it's not a daily. Just a weekend fun car. I don't know if Sebring would be considered a fast track or not, but it certainly has a lot of hard braking. My 996 is supercharged with a bunch of other junk (around 435 to the wheels) so I'm hitting around 140 on the back straight and then having to break heavily into a long decreasing radius turn before jumping back on to the front straight. I'm hesitant to use stock pads again because I managed to use 50% of my stock pads in one day. Oh, and I've already sourced new seats I'm getting a hookup on some used GT3 seats out of a totaled GT3.

140 for first DE - bonus

RS-14 is what I meant by Pagid Blacks. And yeah, they sometimes squeal in the street, but not as much as pagid Oranges (4-4) or Blues (4-2)... in my experience. I haven't tried any of the others.

the racers group is running a special on brakes FYI... http://www.theracersgroup.com/shop/ I've liked the PFC-01 or 97 compound, they are a bit cheaper but the dust is hard to get off the wheels. IMO just stick with pagid yellows...

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That's not a bad deal. Thanks for the heads up. ATTENTION TRACK DAY DRIVERS TRG has created new brake tune-up kits for your Porsche. These kits include front and rear Pagid RS29 or RS19 �Yellow� brake pads, a set of Goodridge steel-braided brake lines and a bottle of Castrol SRF synthetic racing brake fluid. It�s everything you need to improve the braking potential for your next track day event! 996/997 Carrera (except 997S model) � $675 996 GT3 (99-01) & 996 Turbo � $720 997S - $720 996 GT3 (02-05) � $799 997 GT3 & 997 Turbo - $830

Pagid Blacks RS14.... I could run an entire summer of DE's with my 996 (street car on Hoosier R6) with the same pads. Also learn to use less brakes that will help save you money and time.

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What is your opinion the squealing? I'm surprised more people don't run the sport OEM pads based on the price.

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They will squeal a little, but it's mostly at low speeds when cold. It doesn't bother me. Good Luck

If you are going to upgrade, heck, upgrade. Go for the yellows. I've found the OEM pads, at least the ones that match the C4S brakes, to be so good, that IMHO anything less than the yellows is not really an upgrade. They do squeal, but bearable. One more thing. I went through my OEM pads in one Friday day at Mid-Ohio, and had to go emergently to the dealership for an fresh set of pads as I still had Saturday and Sunday to do. I thought I started Friday with more than 50% pads left. But, after bedding in the new pads Friday night, those lasted well through Saturday and Sunday. What I am saying is, you may not "really" have started with 50% pads. You may have started with less than you thought, as I did. If the idea of squealing brakes bother you, give the OEM pads another try. You may just be surprised. Definitely go with Motuls. I boiled my brakes at Watkins. Thank goodness it was at the one place where you could do that with no damage at Watkins. I just went straight at the bus stop pumping at the pedal 'til I got something..

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OEM sport pads are not endurance pads. The OEM sport pads will perform better than stock pads, bet will still wear quickly. You can eat a set of these up in one weekend. Whereas a performance pad will last you many weekends. As for noise, all performance pads will squeal. It's part of the trade off. IIRC, even the OEM sport pads made some noise. -td

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I got that 50% number from my tech. I had my master cylinder fail at a previous track day the month before. I was going to replace the pads then but he suggested that I leave them be since there was half left.

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I thought that they might last longer based on pad the online description. Thanks for the info. I guess I should just focus on the yellows. Factory Porsche Sport Brake Pads Special formulation offers greater stability over a wide range of temperatures than standard pad compounds. Other benefits include exceptional wear resistance under heavy track use. Not recommended for street use. This kit includes both front and rear brake pads. * Fitment: Boxster S - 2000-2004 * Carrera - 1999-2004

After using just about all of the pagid compounds, the best way to do this is to use OEM pads for the street and an endurance pad for de if you run street rubber or r compounds. The higher perf pads squeel like crazy and can be unsafe due to their operating temps not being reached on the street. Also, your rotor life goes down with aggresive pads running cold

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I agree. I initially thought swapping track and street pads would be a chore. Bit it's actually pretty easy. I already swap R-compounds and street tires for track/street use, swapping pads does not add that much more.

I ordered some pagid RS29 yellows today. Ouch they're expensive... I'm going to have my shop teach me how to do it, and then I'll decide if I want to mess with it or not. If I had a lift at home I would be more open to doing the swaps myself. For now I'll run them on the street. It's not a daily driver so it shouldn't be too bad.

Did you buy from TRG? I am ordering their special today. Why did you choose the yellows? Realize this is going against what most people have said on the boards. These pads will be very loud for street and you will not notice any improvement over stock pads except for less PAD wear, at the expense of increased rotor wear. The Porsche sport pads resist fade well on track, and don't make any noise on the street, but do wear/dust fast. Luckily they are much cheaper than Yellows. IMO, unless you are doing more than one even per month drring track season, i wouldn't leave these on the car. The bigger, more expensive pad is not always best. Regards,

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No, I ordered them from Vortex Motorsports. They're actually less expensive than TRG. I went with yellows based on my shop's recommendation. They work on a lot of race cars and seemed to feel that the new yellow compound has more bite than the motorsports pads, will resist heat better, have tremendous longevity, and minimal street squeal. I guess we'll see They didn't seem to have a high opinion of the motorsports pads and felt that they don't offer much performance over the stock pads and only wear marginally better. The problem is that my car has an upgraded suspension as well as the supercharger. I'm carrying more corner speed and a lot more speed on the straights than a stock 996. The brakes really throw my car out of balance since I'm still running stock rotors and calipers, and I'm not ready to plunk down $8K for new brakes. I'd like to see if a really kick butt set of pads combined with performance fluid will do the trick. The new compound for the yellows really does seem to be a best of both worlds scenario with almost no compromises other than the price.

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Porsche Sport pads are only marginally better than the regular street pad. The sport pads are really more of an upgraded street pad than a true track pad IMHO. Here's an analogy for you. If your going into a gun fight, wouldn't you really rather just bring a gun than upgrade your knife? The sport pads may be a better "knife", but they are no "gun". Just my opinion.

How much cheaper? The TRG package comes with $120 SS brake lines and a $70 liter of casterol SRF

NO love for the Orange (RS 4-4) here? I've been running Orange's up front for two seasons (black rears). They've got less bit than yellows until warmed up but once warm they offer better performance than the Yellows. Still allows you to run Black's at the rear to adjust the bias rearward a bit which is needed. ??? They're all gonna squeak. changes take 30 minutes once you know how to do it. andy

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Andy, I used to run "Oranges" on my 986. I probably ran 3 or 4 sets through my car and every time I had pad transfer problems. When I switched to "Blacks" the problem went away. As a result, I won't touch the "oranges" ever again.

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. After you see how easy and quick it is, you'll be kicking yourself for not doing it yourself sooner . Just in case the tech tries to tell you it's not that easy or that it should only be done by professionals, check out Renntech. org. Good step by step and excellent pics on pad replacement, among other things.

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Does Loren have a write up over there? I haven't been on Renn tech in forever. My shop (Vortex Motorsports) is great. They said they would be happy to show me how to do it. I'm just lazy but I'll check it out I love working on bikes, but working on cars gives me a rash.

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What's a pad transfer problem?

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Honestly, I don't remember. I didn't buy the whole package as I don't need the stainless lines and I use Motul in my car. I had him quote me on just the pads. I know when looked up the pricing on the pads my shop seemed pretty reasonable compared to what I had seen online with the few US distributors I could find. Google Vortex Motorsport. They do online parts distribution as well although I don't think you can order stuff right off the site. You'll have to call them. I know they do a PCA discount, but I can't remember if it's on parts or labor.

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Pad material adhereing to the rotor during very high temps that can cause vibration and bad pedal pulsation. Some pretty good pics here: http://forums.racingbrake.com/showthread.php?t=73 I have had this happen with Pagid "Oranges" on multiple occasions.

Hopefully the yellows don't suffer from the same problems. I'm going to pick up some 7GT3 ducts from Suncoast tomorrow. Fortunately they are down the street from my office.