Im going to be tracking my car soon and was wondering what the best brake pad set up is for track (about 2 mile track). My current brake pads are stock im running 4 piston brembos up front and stock 1 piston rear.

 

The hawk dtc30 or the "street/race" pads should work well for you, they basically the same get whatever you find cheaper. Leave the rear stock. Also look into brake ducts for the front and definitely change brake fluid, go with dot 4

 

Ooh, best thing is to contact Sam Strano. We buy all of our brake pads from him.

 

I'd need to know what front calipers, as 4 pistons Brembos are not stock on 98 Trans Am (going off your screen name, no car listed). Maybe you means stock for a gen 5 SS but didn't say that?

DTC30 or "street/race" are not up to the task are they Ramey? There are better options

 

Yes they are stock 4 piston brembos off of a 2015 camaro. Car is a 1999 Trans An

 

Just a word to the wise, that's an important detail. You said stock, they aren't, at least on your car, and not everyone pays as much attention as I do.

I don't know the track or what your have done to the car, or what it weighs, or what tires, or even if it's a stick or auto. So it's really hard to recommend anything with certainty, and like most things you need to define what you need or want. Some tracks are easier on brakes than others, track length is unimportant. The hardest track I run on brakes is one of the shortest and not particulary FAST, but lots of hard braking after straights and not much cool down time between those places.

And dual purpose pads are by definition a compromise. There are some that do ok at both, but aren't the best at either street or track.

My BASE suggestion would be EBC Bluestuff front, with Hawk HPS 5.0 rear.

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetai...142&ModelID=29
and
http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetai...D=17&ModelID=7

If you need more we have lots of other front pad options. LOTS. I run 4 piston fronts with stock rears on my Camaro, and I use a Raybestos race pad in them on front, with the HPS 5.0 rear. I can street drive on them, but it's not as nice as the Bluestuffs are for that, but I have more power and heat tolerance with them on the track. I run Bluestuff to street drive it, when I do much, but if I am doing more than a session or two on a track I swap to a race pad, which is easy on a 4 piston caliper.

 

I have Cobalt brake pads on my Miata. I think they are ceramic based. They offer several different levels of aggressiveness for the Camaro. I wouldn't recommend them for street driving due to cost. Nice thing about them is that they don't require bedding. Just slap them on and go.

Raybestos makes a ST43 (IIRC) that are inexpensive and many people swear by them. might be a good choice for front.

Back pads tend to be slightly less aggressive than fronts but varies according to driver.

 

Considering he will be a first timer I think they would be good. And by the time he drives hard enough to need something better it will be time for a new set anyways.

 

Matter of opinion. Often the new folks are harder on brakes than people with experience, becaue they tend to use them less hard, and longer. Brakes aren't a game to me, having dealt with pads not up to the task on a customer's car before. And just a few weeks ago a One Lap setup Corvette (not from my shop) left the ballpark @ PittRace due to brake failure.

 

Absolutely nothing to play with. Problem is there is so much opinion, trying to compare different experience and use cases is a daunting task. I know you've probably used most everything on the market and used it hard so I wasn't trying to disagree with you, just continue the discussion. Curious what you think of the Wilwood "H" and BP-30 compounds for track use, not actual racing but heavy hpde. I just tried st43's but wasn't impressed, but also think I might have had knockback and/or not bleed enough.

 

I'm all for the discussion, and agree that there are a lot of OPINIONS that aren't based in much reality.

I melted DTC30 almost instantly and they glob up rotors with the ooze. I had the same issue with the H wilwoods on a C5 FRC. So, there are two. ST43. If you didn't like those, I say you have a problem somewhere, I run them on the front of my Camaro and on my C7 for track use. Videos to follow, but pay particular attention to the brake zones, and mostly to the Corvette video as it shows both speed and has a factory g meter on the PDR recording.

Corvette @ Summit Main with steel rotors, ST43 pads with Z07 calipers, Michelin Sport Cup 2 ZP tires
Camaro @ Summit Point Jefferson, This is also with ST43, my brake kit with the Wilwood 4 piston front caliper and C5 sized rotors. HPS 5.0 rears (that's it) and on BFG Rival S's. You can hear the ABS in action on those laps. and they never went away on me (on either car).

 

Yea that's some serious brake torque. I suspect there's something else, though I bled before and at the track some more to fix it but probably just need to get someone on the pedal and run another bottle thru it. Thanks for confirming

 

Some guys on FRRAX have said they liked CarboTech XP10 and 12. But I've not used them personally. There's a lot to know about pad compounds. Also consider cooling ducts of some kind if you are serious about track days.

 

GLoc is very similar to CarboTech and some claim they are better. One thing about the higher friction levels of CarboTech is that if you drive them on the street you can wipe off the transfer layer and then have chatter issues when you get back on track.

Sam is right about street pads on track. I was at a track day and a guy had a BMW with factory pads on it. He came in after about 5 laps on the car and the brake pads were hissing from being overheated. He was done for the day, he said he wasn't going to risk the car.

Those Raybest St 43 get pretty good reviews from some endurance racing guys. They seem to last a long time.

 

I think the st43s are a good choice, I did a full pedal pumping session and got a firm pedal again but my street pads are on now so can't compare. I did get two full days at VIR and have at least half the pads left and if you've been there then you know it's a brake killer. Only problem was I thought the nasty growling was from the front race pads but it was the rear pads metal to metal, doh!

A guy locally runs gloc r12s on his spec Corvette wilwood setup and says they are really good, better than the bp30s that come with the kit. Hard to find but he got them from Sam, just not listed on his site but I'm pretty sure he can get most things anyway.

 

That's correct. I can get most things. The problem is I can't put the massive variety of all these different things, for all these different cars, for all these different uses, on the website. We're not IT folks we're car people.

Finding pads through me is no harder than giving me a call, or sending me a message.