Yesterday I took a trip to Buttonwillow Raceway with a bunch of my friends. It was fairly pricy since we rented out the whole track, not just one of the loops, but it was a lot of fun. Being a novice on a track I didn't quite know what to expect with my '05 Coupe 6MT, but I decided to find the limits. After a couple runs in the morning I was getting more and more agressive on the brakes, trying to brake later and harder before my corner entry. That was mistake #1. I also decided that I could run 5 hot laps which was a big mistake #2. While the stock '05 brakes are excellent on the street they are clearly not meant for the track. I expected them to fade but unfortunately it was a little worse than that.

If you guys know Buttonwillow, then Sunset, the hard left near the pit entry (if you're going clockwise) requires you to scrub down from about 100mph to 30-40mph or so. On lap 5, the brakes totally faded and I had to plow straight ahead into the dirt. Luckily, I felt it coming from the moment I hit the pedal, and I just let the car drive straight into the dirt rather than going sideways and kicking up a huge cloud of dirt. When I got back to the pits, I saw that not only were my rear rotors smoking, but both rear roters were heavily scored. We put an IR thermometer up to it and it overloaded it....meaning that the rotor was upwards of 1700 deg F. Now, I don't know if the thermomeeter was screwed up, but my rear rotor was totally fried, so I guess I could see it being so unbelievably hot.

I let the car cool for a while (45 minutes or something) and tested it out to see if my toasted rear brakes would still function, and it somehow did. I figured I would try my luck and went out again in the afternoon for more hot laps, but instead doing only 3 at a time and braking much earlier and going softer on the brakes. The car still responded well, but I think I'll be in the market for new pads and rotors. I haven't made up my mind about doing a big brake kit, but rotors and pads will be necessary at a minimum.


Anyway, the moral of my story here is: Don't tear up your brakes on the track. I was told that the stock setup will fade before permanenet damage is done, but that is clearly not the case. Granted rotors aren't ridiculously expensive, but if you want to go home from the track without having to work on your car, realize that our stock brakes will damage and not only fade after a longer track session. On the bright side though, I learned a lot about my car, with the Hotchkis sway bars, the car felt very neutral through the turns and it handled very well for its weight. My friend's Lotus Elise made my G look like a dump truck on the track, but it still kicked the crap out an '03 Mustang Cobra. 390HP from the Cobra kicked my *** on the straights, but I could carry so much more speed through the turns which payed out a lot more on the track.

For those of you that really want to enjoy a track day, I would reccomend upgrading cooling (like an Oil cooler. Chebosto from my350Z forums came out with us but was having oil temperature issues....of course he is twin turboed), and upgrade brakes. HP is nice, but 10-20hp probably won't do much of anything for your track times, but upgraded brakes I think will. Hopefully you guys can get something out of my mistake. If i can, I'll post pictures of my rear rotors later when I get home from work.

 

Yup, the rears are absolutely horrible. My rears got hot to the point where the pad material just came right off.

 

LOL! Easier said than done. When you are progressively getting faster and faster as each lap goes by, you want to enter the corner as late as possible and have more fun. But there is always something in the back of your mind saying "Can't ruin my brakes!"

Even though I had upgraded my rotors/pads/fluid before a track event, I still found my self backing off the throttle on the straights so the brakes would have to do less work.

 

I always say our brakes are really good and right up there with the Brembos FOR STREET USE. Yeah, if you are going to track, don't do it on our brakes. What were you thinking? If I ever plan to track my car (oh, I may one day), I would definetly get some Stoptechs, AP, or Project MU's BBK. Those brakes look sweet! I agree our brakes are great but NOT for tracking!

 

It is definitely not recommened to use stock pads and fluid when going tracking. Is that what you used hayaku? If you are using stock rotors and calipers, you will need to swap out for race/semi-race brake pads such as the Hawk HP+ or Carbotech Bobacts and brake fluid with higher boiling points. The upgraded pads and fluid will be able to withstand and absorb more heat. I have done two track days at Buttonwillow using my '04 stock brakes (smaller rotors than '05) using Hawk HP+ front, Hawk HPS rear, and Valvoline Synthetic fluid. Had no problems all day long except for hints of fade toward the end of each session. Of course as your skills advance and start thrashing the brakes more a BBK will be necessary. Sounds like you had fun though.

 

I recommend changing your rotor and pads at the same time for track days. screw using HP+ pads if your going to use separate pads for track duty. They're OK if you dont want to change your pads out. If you plan on using separate pads, get something more aggressive...Hawk Blues or Blacks are good enough for track days. You could try out Project Mu's Sintered pads too. I know a few drifter that use them, and they continually praise them. These arent your track day drifters, these are guys that are Formula D competitors...So I'll take their words for granted. Porterfield makes great pads too, I've heard good things about their R4 track pads. Porterfield brakes are rather well known in road racing. It's also a good idea to use separate rotors because more aggressive pads will eat up the rotors. Using a higher boiling point brake fluid helps with fade a little. I prefer using Super Blue or Motul. You should upgrade your brake lines to stainless steel or kevlar braided brake lines. Kevlar disipates heat a little better but s/s holds the lines integrity better, each one is opposite of each other..but duties are the same to help reduce fade. I think s/s would have slightly higher advantage just because they're, structurally, more rigid. you could also go as far as ghetto rigging some air ducts to your brakes for cooling.

 

Yeah, but the HP+ pads give you the option of leaving the pads in there for a while. And being able to drive to and from the track with those pads in there. I guess it all depends on where you live. If you are nearby you can drive the short distance on the pure track pads. But for me, I switch to HP+ pads the day before in my driveway because the track is 2 hours from me.

Or I guess you could change them at the track if you are willing to go through all that trouble.

 

Count me in as a big Porterfield R4 fan. Love these pads.

 

here's some pics

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2119064783

The first 3 pics are just random ones of my friends and I. Chebosto from the My350z forums is the 4th pic, and my fried rear rotors are in the last 2 pictures.

 

[QUOTE=636Racer] These arent your track day drifters, these are guys that are Formula D competitors...QUOTE]
to be honest i don't think drifting is hard on the brakes at all. if anything they use a high mu pad on the rears for a more responsive lockup when the handbrake is pulled. high mu pads will heat up faster than stockers. who from formula D do you know?

 

Barry Wong, Ross Petty, Steve Oliberos. Trust me...in Drifting, it gets hard on the brakes too.

 

I just did 6 sessions at Road America with my 05 6MT and the OE brakes (replaced front pads and rotors and rear pads last weekend). The pads are like new, well not so new.

I did get a crap load of heat (a newby mistake of braking to soon does that). My rotors were showing about 520 degrees F. All together now, say, "Brake Fluid Boiled!" The discs look great and while I did get shudder during hot laps, it was gone during my way home. I did brake hard at highway speeds to see. I think the OE pads and calipers are fine. I think the rotors are the problem (oh, and my left foot). The pad and rotors are the same size as the Brembo's. Maybe the rotor design is different to dissipate heat better?

I will try to learn better braking techniques rather than spend $4,500 for a BBK. Besides, the Brembo's were eating pads. The 05 OE's are still in grate shape.

Cheers.

 

myG35ZX, glad to hear your track session left you without damage. I understand that part of it was my fault for doing too many laps together and braking too hard. 4 hot laps around configuration #1 at Buttonwillow while braking late and hard is the very most I should have done. Lap 5 should have been a cool down lap. In any case, I've decided to upgrade my brakes all around. Wilwood brakes are well known and are very reasonably priced. I think I'm most likely going to get 13" 6 piston fronts from Arizona Z Car:

http://www.arizonazcar.com/350zbrakes.html

I'm not sure about the rears yet though. If Evolution Autosports can do 13" 4 piston rears for $1300 or so, then I'll hit them up. I should hopefully get 4 wheel 13" discs for under $3000 I think which will really help with my heat issues. Plus if I go with Motul RBF600 fluid (dry boiling point is 593 deg F), I shouldn't have brake issues at my next track day.