Track Day Brakes
 

OK I'm driving a 2006 G35x. Planning to use it mostly for Autocross, the odd track day and occasional daily driver duties. Took it for my first track day at Pacific Raceways in WA and experienced SERIOUS brake fade i.e. after 3-4 laps the brakes were almost non existant. At present I am using stock brakes and pads. I have no problems upgrading the entire system. I am looking for recommendations for kits to upgrade my brakes. I would really like them to fit under my stock rims

Hugh

Sweet! I've heard you need an upgraded trans cooler too for those auto trans.

Are you looking to spend a couple grand for a BBK, or you can find OE Brembo's for about 1k, then you just need decent track pads, rotors, and some high temp fluid, and bingo bongo you'll be ready to rock!

Performance brake fluid (motol or something equivalent) and some Hawk HPS will be good for the track and not too obnoxious off the track, EBC is a lot more harsh, dusty and very track oriented but could still barely pass for street use, carbotech or equivalent for full track pads.

If for some reason that won't suffice you could always do a full swap with some giant rotors and calipers, it's expensive and usually not necessary since there's SO MANY other ways to increase lap times before dumping $6k on a full kit.

I've had great experience with Stoptech sport pads and would recommend them.

Pacific raceway looks like a pretty fast track. You really should get a dedicated track pad for that purpose because the temp range for track use and autox is not close enough for double duty. An aggressive street pad like HP+ or project mu HC800 would do great in street driving and autox. But if you are tracking and brakes go up to 500-800 degrees, you need something to handle that range. Like others have said, upgrade your fluid asap. Common choices are ATE typ200, RBF660, Castrol SRF, project mu gfour 335. Use ATE if you're on a budget. Otherwise go straight to SRF or project mu because RBF 660 isn't much better than ATE and it is twice as expensive so don't waste your time and money with it.

Update
 

OK had to do quick upgrades on a budget. I just ordered a Stillen transmission cooler but still have to install it. I got a track day coming up April 29 at Mission Raceway. I went with Akebono stock size rotors front and rear (I'm wondering if I should have gone with slotted rotors but I still can upgrade if these don't work out) I upgraded brake fluid to Motul 5.1 and Hawk HPS (Street) pads front and rear. My brake pedal still has a lot of travel and is very "mushy" compared to other cars I've had. Is this normal? Anyway I'll get back and post after the next track day.

Hugh

If it's bled properly (nonstandard order, not just the typical farthest to closest on this car) and still has a mushy pedal it's probably a worn brake master cylinder.

I'd keep bleeding them a couple more times, if that doesn't fix it try engaging the abs and rebleeding, that still doesn't fix it look in to replacing the master as cleric suggested.

Make sure the car is off when you test "brake pressure feeling spongy." The car being on means it always feels damn spongy.

Your track day is coming up, let us know how it goes!

If you are not happy with your brake pads, look into Winmax circuit pads W3 - W4 series pads should take of you.

OK back from the track day. Very disappointed. After 5 or so laps (10 mins) fade was significant and I had to stop the session to let the brakes cool down. I was advised that now that the rotors have been used with Hawk pads I shouldn't use another brand with those rotors since any residue on the rotors could interfere with the new pads. Is this true? If so what would you all recommend from the Hawk line that will hiold up at teh track but I can also use as a daily driver? If this is false what other recommendations do people have.

Hugh

Yes and no - generally speaking pad manufactures will use the same base 'filler' compounds in all of their pads, so switching between pad compounds you can simply re-bed (since the bedding process will fuse the new formulation in to the old transfer layer). However, if you wanted to switch compounds, you can simply remove all or most of the old transfer layer by either turning or lightly sanding the entire friction surface, then bed the rotors with the new compound.

Ok this picture will give you an idea how the different Hawk pads compare to one another. This wonderful graph was made by ECSTuning out of Ohio, they specialize in European sports cars.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/g35driv...ef3295d3e3.jpg

I'm on HP+ at the moment and they're noisy and a bit dusty, anything more aggressive than that will be a real pain in the *** to keep clean for a street car.

Plus they will wear quickly, the HP+ seem to be wearing nicely though.

Also keep in mind that the more aggressive the pads are, the quicker they will wear down the rotors. Rotors are fairly cheap so if you track regularly than it wouldn't hurt to have an extra set put aside.