Ubercar

Some of this may be addressed in other threads, but I would like to hear others' thoughts and recommedations for someone who is now hooked on track events and planning for upgrades or aniticpated maintenance and replacement:

1. How many track days, typically, until new pads are needed? I realize this depends on in part on the compound and the street driving in between.

2. What recommedations for replacement/upgrade pads? The Carbotechs sound good and look to be relatively inexpensive ($165 for Carbtech Bobcats for the front at Pure Motorsport if I read the site correctly). There are several grades of Pagid upgrade pads, but they are expensive ($335 - $421 for the fronts) and I am unsure as to which grade makes the most sense.

3. What is the recommended fluid for the brakes? The high grade Motul seems to be universally accepted, but Castrol is also great, but expensive, stuff, and there are others such as AP. Carbotech's site says no mineral fluid with their brakes, but Castol racing fluid seems to be mineral based. Can anyone make sense of the different bases and their applications?

bhvrdr

It is a solid pad that you can street (has great initial bite and performs well cold) but it can handle autocross with no problems and medium speed HPDE with no problem. For all out endurance racing on a fast track they have a DS3000.

I found the initial bite FAR superior to the Carbotech Bobcats I used and they are very quiet pads comparatively as well.

The only drawback is the dust. With high friction and high initial bite you will get high dust. This didnt factor into my decision but it may yours.

Price is a steal if ordered online at www.raceshopper.com You need to call them though to place the order.

I use a ceramic for the rear brakes because they dont dust, last forever, and I dont need a lot of bite out of the rears. They hold up to track and street well too.

Fluid that is great is Motul RBF 600. It has a great dry BP like most do but the wet BP is superior to many fluids. Even their less expensive 5.1 fluid is good to use. You can use either one for up to 2 years unless tracking than go to your track duty intervals. This fluid is safe for the shared clutch and brake resevoir. Do not use ATE superblue. Castrol SRF is the best of the best although i'm not sure it's needed as I have yet to boil RBF 600.

larryV

I have gone through 4 sets of them now, each set lasting about 2-3 days depending on the track and your driving style. My lastest track day used up a brand new set of front pads down to near the backing plate in just one day. This happened for two reasons: track demanded more braking from higher speeds, and I did not bed the brakes in. In past events, I did a proper bedding-in procedure on the stock pads and they lasted longer. Regarding the rears, I'm still on my original factory set of rear pads and it looks like there's still a good 40% pad life remaining on them. Going to a race-compound for the rear brakes is not necessary in my opinion.

In a few weeks, I will be trying a more track-worthy compound for the first time. I went with Pagid RS14 black, and after a proper bedding-in process, I am confident that they will perform better than the stock pads, and hopefully last longer. I'll report back here to share my experiences later.

As for brake fluid, I've been using Motul RBF 600 with no problems. I bleed the lines occasionally but only replace the fluid entirely once a season.

Aside from being heavier than aftermarket options like the 6-pot Alcons, I think the stock brakes work very well at the track even with stock pads, and hopefully even better with 'race' compounds.

Parikh1234

and your rotors are fine right?

larryV

I'd still be on my first set of rotors if I wasn't as greedy as I was and went out on the last session on the last day of a 3-day hpde despite knowing I was already dangerously low on pad material and I'd be risking scoring the crap out of the rotor with the backing plates... which is what ended up happpening. It was a bonehead moment for sure.

The second set of rotors has gone through 2 new sets of pads (now on third set) and still looks fine. I might need a new set of rotors after I go through this set of oem's and a set of Pagid RS14's that I haven't put on the car yet.

Parikh1234

damm, how the hell did my rotors go so quickly!

larryV

if you don't, it may result in premature pad and rotor wear.

The pad deposits on the rotor surface from proper bedding-in procedures will not only provide more efficient stopping power during repeated hard braking at the track but it also creates a less abrasive relationship between the rotor surface and the brake pad so either doesn't wear as quickly.

My driving style is pretty hard on brakes and I noticed that the one time I didn't bed the brakes in, a whole new set of pads was gone in just one day at the track. I'm sure that day wasn't kind to the rotors either but there was no way I could measure that at the time.

bpp

the RBF 600 for half the price for easier justification to change fluid more often. <ul><li><a href="http://www.ecstuning.com/stage/edpd/pagebuild_v2.cgi?make=Audi&amp;engine=4.2T&amp;mod el=RS6&amp;submodel=&amp;category=Braking&amp;subc ategory=Fluid">Pentosin</a></li></ul>

Parikh1234

on my brakes down to about 10 mph. I do that 2 or 3 times and then just cruise at like 60 to lets some air through. Should I do that again before track days? Thats all that needs to be done to bed in brakes right?

bpp

60, 70 mph to 10 mph to put some heat in them, scrub off the prior materiel coating and put the current pad materiel coating on the rotor. DO it about 6,7 times. Afterword you need to cool them down.