Performance/track day brake pad
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 4:59 pm
I am up for an overhaul of the front brakes on my WRC. The car is a road car but since I do the occasional track day (1-2 times per year), I'm after a performance pad that won't fade away completely after a couple of laps.
I've been peeking around in different forums and there seem to be many that like the Ferodo DS2500 for track use. However since they are not road legal, they are out.
A well known road legal pad is the Brembo HP2000. This was the pad that I was using previously and I liked it, it held up better on the track than the factory Jurid pads. However while I was driving on the road recently, my brake pedal unexpectedly almost went to the floor when braking. It turned out that on one of the Brembo pads, the entire friction material had fallen off while driving, leaving only the steel backing plate in the brake caliper. I drove carefully home and then installed my old factory pads, which I thankfully didn't throw away a couple of years back when installing the Brembos. Because of this incident, the Brembo HP2000 are also out.
One alternative that I have been looking at is the EBC Yellowstuff. I have never used EBC pads and I have read mixed opinions about them, but I get the impression that those that complain about them are often people that tried them 10-15 years ago. Their dust rating is "medium", of course I'd like as little dust as possible but if there is no better alternative, I will have to live with higher dust.
Now I'm turning to this forum to ask for other alternatives regarding pads for these cars. Although there are tons of discussions of brake pads on other forums, they are often about pads for M3s and Boxsters and whatnot, which is of little relevance when discussing pads for PQ25 cars.
I will also be replacing the rotors since they are worn (still far from minimum thickness but they have a bit of a "wear lip" along the edge and the surface is a bit "striped" and uneven). At the moment I'm considering Zimmermann plain rotors. Although I have at some point considered a slotted rotor like the ATE Powerdisc (since I think a slotted disc can improve initial bite in wet weather, something that is really pad on my Polo, even with the factory pads), I am not really interested in having to replace rotors prematurely because of cracking.
I've been peeking around in different forums and there seem to be many that like the Ferodo DS2500 for track use. However since they are not road legal, they are out.
A well known road legal pad is the Brembo HP2000. This was the pad that I was using previously and I liked it, it held up better on the track than the factory Jurid pads. However while I was driving on the road recently, my brake pedal unexpectedly almost went to the floor when braking. It turned out that on one of the Brembo pads, the entire friction material had fallen off while driving, leaving only the steel backing plate in the brake caliper. I drove carefully home and then installed my old factory pads, which I thankfully didn't throw away a couple of years back when installing the Brembos. Because of this incident, the Brembo HP2000 are also out.
One alternative that I have been looking at is the EBC Yellowstuff. I have never used EBC pads and I have read mixed opinions about them, but I get the impression that those that complain about them are often people that tried them 10-15 years ago. Their dust rating is "medium", of course I'd like as little dust as possible but if there is no better alternative, I will have to live with higher dust.
Now I'm turning to this forum to ask for other alternatives regarding pads for these cars. Although there are tons of discussions of brake pads on other forums, they are often about pads for M3s and Boxsters and whatnot, which is of little relevance when discussing pads for PQ25 cars.
I will also be replacing the rotors since they are worn (still far from minimum thickness but they have a bit of a "wear lip" along the edge and the surface is a bit "striped" and uneven). At the moment I'm considering Zimmermann plain rotors. Although I have at some point considered a slotted rotor like the ATE Powerdisc (since I think a slotted disc can improve initial bite in wet weather, something that is really pad on my Polo, even with the factory pads), I am not really interested in having to replace rotors prematurely because of cracking.