Let's talk about track day brakes

[Wh33lhop]

I DD mine on PFCs, they're quite streetable but are very dusty and do make noise sometimes (not always), and they do wear out pretty quickly. The most annoying part about street driving them is that the pads are still contacting the rotors as you're driving so depending on the condition of your calipers you may occasionally get a squeak-squeak-squeak as you're driving along, which is annoying and sounds super ghetto.

PFC makes a street compound called Z-rated, you may want to give that a shot if you're not going to track it at all as it will be kind of a waste.

[Northern]

dumb question, but how awful is the noise/dust/wear on the PFC08's? Obviously they're track pads, and they supposedly last longer than any other option. Would they be streetable in any way, or worth running in an autoX car?

Trying to replace my shitty HPS with something that may stop half decently, but if I'm running something as loud/rotor eating/dusty as HP+, maybe I should just go further and run an actual track pad?

[agent]

Good info brothers! I am going to redo mine and the lines for some upcoming track duty. Are the 4 rear lines a pita or not? Chris you been going up to Bowling Green or is Nashville reopened? I noticed a drift session somewhere mentioned Nashville again.:coolphoto:

The rear outer lines are easy. I didn't see any way I could do the inner lines without dropping the subframe.

I've been going to Bowling Green. I heard someone bought the super speedway facility in Gladeville and has plans for it, though I haven't seen any full track events advertised there yet.

The Bluegrass Bimmers CCA HPDE is 5/15-5/17. Be there!

[nando]

yes, I stand by my earlier assessment - HPS pads are garbage.

[bikerjim2000]

Good info brothers! I am going to redo mine and the lines for some upcoming track duty. Are the 4 rear lines a pita or not? Chris you been going up to Bowling Green or is Nashville reopened? I noticed a drift session somewhere mentioned Nashville again.:coolphoto:

[Ether-D]

Yep, I was handing people tools for a good 5 minutes. Glad I could help ;/

[agent]

I put the PFC 08s and the new Brembo rotors on yesterday, along with the stainless lines and fresh ATE 200 fluid. I only drove the car for about 10 minutes to bed the brakes, but there is a HUGE increase in stopping power. Thanks to chondamx and Ether-D for the assist!

The HPS pads were thrown away. There was plenty of meat left on the rears but the fronts wouldn't have lasted a day at the track. The consensus in my garage was that they had definitely been overheated, likely multiple times.

In the pics you can see where I was able to pull a chunk of the material off the bottom of the pad with my fingernail after it had cracked. Kinda scary, actually.

[ajhostetter]

This is a great thread. I just ordered PFC 08s from Bimmerworld. $260 for the whole car. I think those with fresh Motul 600 should do the car well this year. I had a horrifying experience in turn 10 at PIR last year where the HP+ pads I was using suddenly disappeared. Not fun. Thankfully you have a series of turns to recover, but it was scary.

[Axxe]

^ Similar story here. We run Stoptech STR-660 fluid and don't have any issue with just a fresh bleed between events. Every day of competition is overkill if you aren't experiencing any issues IMHO.

DOT3 on the other hand, cooks pretty fast when someone doesn't own up to the fact they used all the good stuff chasing an issue and top it up with jobber crap. That was fun at the Glen, coming down the chute into the toe and having the pedal hit the floor. So yes, if you value your life, make sure nobodies wires get crossed....that could have ended much worse than it did for us (just used up the rear tires scrubbing speed).

[squidrope]

We run Motul 600, Carbotech pads, and stock rotors/calipers in our lemon car. We only bleed the brakes after a race weekend (including practice) and have never had any problems.

[AlpineCoupe]

We typically do a brake bleed between on our Lemons car between sessions because brake fluid is cheap and we use our power bleeder so it makes it super easy.

Do we absolutely need to? No, probably not, but it is easy and cheap insurance. We're using Wilwood fluid, btw.

[JGood]

So glad to hear all of the great reviews on PFC 08's. I ordered a set for the F&R along with centric $15 rotors for our Lemons build. I had already read a few good things, but this thread seals the deal. Looks like we'll have no worries.

How often are you Lemons/endurance guys changing fluid? Can I get through an 8+6 hour weekend or should I be flushing between days? Was planning on using Castrol or Valvoline synthetic since it's cheap/easily available locally.

[z31maniac]

I was a big fan of Carbotech's on both brake setups I ran on my Miata.

Great, great feel. Could always find the threshold even in the rain on R888s.

And never complained even when a friend I shared the car with back to back sessions at a track day. Did something like 11-12 sessions in one day and almost no wear.

[DTFE30]

I run the PFC08's all 4 corners with centric cryo rotors from rock auto. I also use motul 660, stainless stoptech lines, and the brass guide pin bushings for the ate calipers. Its an awesome upgrade short of a BBK. I am also installing a duct kit from Harrison Motorsports for this upcoming season.

[Wh33lhop]

Do the stock rotors ever seem to warp using the PFC's? Or do the pads die before the rotors wear out.

warped rotors aren't really a thing. what actually happens there is uneven pad transfer from when you stop on hot brakes. avoid this by doing a cool down lap before you come in and some slow parade laps around the paddock when you come off track before you park the car--and park it in gear or use chocks instead of the brakes to stop the car.

what does happen with aggressive pads and track use is heat checking (normal, basically little micro cracks) and occasional actual rotor cracking. I haven't had a rotor crack yet and I use Chinese blanks, but your mileage may vary.