Street and track pads?

[brainfood]

I was wondering if you ran a set of "street" pads on the street and had a set of track pads for track days and a nice set of rotors. ie. I have a set of rotora drilled/slotted rotors is it possible to switch out the pads for the track and still have them bed/work correctly or do you need to change rotors also?

[_PG_]

No, don't do that. Find a happy medium. Usually, at least for drifting, err on the side of "street". Get good street performance pads. Many track pads take a couple of hot laps to get up to operating temp. This sucks for the streets. Lots of squeeling and almost no stopping power until they are heated. Also, as far as drifting, the e-brake won't lock if you need it to cause the pads might be too cold, etc... I would stay away from $10 pads (i use them in the rear in a pinch). FOr the fronts (I have Z32 30mm brakes) i used Endless or Hawk street performance type of pads. Those are awesome.

[Whisky]

There are some people that do that at NASA events, but I wouldn't bother.

The reality is that a true race pad will perform poorly on the street, and can be dangerous. They are often designed to operate at much higher temperatures than those normally seen in daily driving, and most do not become effective until they reach that range. Good luck stopping for that red light you didn't see if you have true race pads. True race pads also tend to destroy rotors as a matter of course. You just accept that with a track-only car.

For a dual duty street/track car, I would suggest getting good rotors, but nothing absurdly expensive, and I would suggest running a street/track pad also. My experience with pads for the 240SX has been that the Axxis Metal Master pads wear quickly and generate a LOT of dust, but they have good fade characteristics and excellent initial bite. I hate all the dust, so I've used a number of pads and found that the Porterfield R4-S works well for me. They lack the initial bite of the Axxis pads until they get hot, but they still perform well on the street and they are awesome on the track. Combined with Motul and Goodridge SS lines, my car stops well on a rainy night on the street and brakes smoothly and consistently in mid-summer high desert heat in 20 min run groups at HPDE events (buttonwillow, willow springs, etc).

Why would you run a race-only pad at the track when a good rotor and street/track pad setup will give you the best of both worlds? Constantly re-bedding pads and rotors will be a hassle and will wear all of the parts prematurely.

[brainfood]

Thanks I wasnt really planning too I was just thinking about it and was wondering what everyone else thought. Right now I have stocks up front with shitty pads and rotora drilled/slotted rears. I have a set of 26mm z32 alum, calipers and stock rotors that were just turned in my garage I just need to go by portorfield and get a set of brake lines and then hub auto to get a master cylinder and I am going to swap them on. I run axxis ultimate pads in the back right now but they dust so much I am thinking about changing them out and I will probably run porterfields in front and maybe swap the rears also. I ran r4s's and portorfield rotors on my last car and they worked great So I might go back to that. Just trying to get a good pad that work well and doesnt dust so much since my bbs meshies are polished alum lip with no clearcoat they look nice clean but they are a pita to keep that way

There are some people that do that at NASA events, but I wouldn't bother.

The reality is that a true race pad will perform poorly on the street, and can be dangerous. They are often designed to operate at much higher temperatures than those normally seen in daily driving, and most do not become effective until they reach that range. Good luck stopping for that red light you didn't see if you have true race pads. True race pads also tend to destroy rotors as a matter of course. You just accept that with a track-only car.

For a dual duty street/track car, I would suggest getting good rotors, but nothing absurdly expensive, and I would suggest running a street/track pad also. My experience with pads for the 240SX has been that the Axxis Metal Master pads wear quickly and generate a LOT of dust, but they have good fade characteristics and excellent initial bite. I hate all the dust, so I've used a number of pads and found that the Porterfield R4-S works well for me. They lack the initial bite of the Axxis pads until they get hot, but they still perform well on the street and they are awesome on the track. Combined with Motul and Goodridge SS lines, my car stops well on a rainy night on the street and brakes smoothly and consistently in mid-summer high desert heat in 20 min run groups at HPDE events (buttonwillow, willow springs, etc).

Why would you run a race-only pad at the track when a good rotor and street/track pad setup will give you the best of both worlds? Constantly re-bedding pads and rotors will be a hassle and will wear all of the parts prematurely.

[Whisky]

I'm glad to hear you are going to do the master cyl along with the z32 front brakes. Throw some good pads on all around and you should be good to go. With those Z32 fronts you should be running bigger and better tires, or you'll just lock them up (big brakes are only useful if you upgrade your tractive capacity as well).

I see you and I had the same experience with the Axxis dust. Its unreasonable. The porterfields work nicely. Other good brands (if you buy their preformance pads, not the cheapo ones) are Performance Friction and Hawk. I've heard good things about hawk pads (hps, hp+) but have minimal experience with them.

[brainfood]

thanks for the help, yeah I drove my friends car exactly like mine except it he doesnt have the master cyl. and I decided then and there I wasnt going to do the fronts till I bought them new master. The brake pedal feel is horrid without it. I havnt driven it with but everyone says the car brakes soooo much better and is all around awesome with that setup so I am going to put it on at the same time. I just test fitted my bbs meshies and they clear the brakes by a coupl eof milimeters so I am going to shave the nissan raised letters off polish them up and paint them and then put them on hopefully this week cant wait! I have es100's 205/50/16 in the front but I am thinking about putting 225/45-16's up there since I run 225's in the rear I will see how I like it with the 205's since right now the chassis is so perfectly balanced to my driving style with the kei office xr's I dont want to mess with the handling too much. Right now it understeers very little and right at the edge and it is very easy to induce oversteer so its vary balanced, easy to control over/under with the throttle. just like I like it.