HPDE mods

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by Jim968

You are 100% correct. DTC-60 and DTC-70 pads suck on the street. They are a no compromise track pad. My view is if you're spending the time and money to track your car, why compromise on something as important as your brakes? Pads are easy to swap. You can do it in under an hour in the comfort of your garage before you leave for the track, and swap back to OEM when you return. Not much effort for the best of both worlds.

The Cobalt Friction folks say that their pads do not require bedding, and I believe them. So, one set of rotors, no steel wool, etc. Easy. The Cobalt Friction pads also work on the street but after a day make you sound like an out of control dump truck. People's heads snap up from 3 blocks away, expecting to see an accident. It's funny. But after a while gets annoying. I'll be switching back to OEM tonight.

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by Jim968

You are 100% correct. DTC-60 and DTC-70 pads suck on the street. They are a no compromise track pad. My view is if you're spending the time and money to track your car, why compromise on something as important as your brakes? Pads are easy to swap. You can do it in under an hour in the comfort of your garage before you leave for the track, and swap back to OEM when you return. Not much effort for the best of both worlds.

When you bed in a brake pad it embeds pad material into the iron matrix of the rotor. If you bed in a street pad and then swap to a racing pad, unless you turn the rotor or thoroughly sand the rotor front and rear the alternate pad will not be fully bedded into the rotor. I find it is better to use a noisy racing pad with a wide temp range all of the time than to swap pads. Plus, I do occasionally push the car a little when driving on public roads, I like to know that my car will will stop just as well if some idiot pulls in front of me as it does when I'm on the race track.

[Jim968]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

When you bed in a brake pad it embeds pad material into the iron matrix of the rotor. If you bed in a street pad and then swap to a racing pad, unless you turn the rotor or thoroughly sand the rotor front and rear the alternate pad will not be fully bedded into the rotor. I find it is better to use a noisy racing pad with a wide temp range all of the time than to swap pads. Plus, I do occasionally push the car a little when driving on public roads, I like to know that my car will will stop just as well if some idiot pulls in front of me as it does when I'm on the race track.

Hawk race pads bed VERY quickly. No sanding required. A medium speed warmup lap is usually all it takes.

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by Jim968

Hawk race pads bed VERY quickly. No sanding required. A medium speed warmup lap is usually all it takes.

I still think most of the pad material bedded into your rotors is street pad compound. The hawks are pretty good. I have run a lot of hawk pads over the years. If it works for you go for it. I still think it is better to bed in a wide temp racing pad and run it all of the time.

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

When you bed in a brake pad it embeds pad material into the iron matrix of the rotor. If you bed in a street pad and then swap to a racing pad, unless you turn the rotor or thoroughly sand the rotor front and rear the alternate pad will not be fully bedded into the rotor.

I hear you, and have read a lot of stuff about bedding, too. I trust Andy from Cobalt Friction, who is the guy who designs their brakes. The guy knows what he is talking about.

Some good info on bedding in post 365 at this thread: http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7079394

[SSSoon]

Check your CV boots before you go to see if there are early signs of failure - see attached pics. If <36000 miles you can get them replaced under warrant.

[SPCBA]

Dont think anyone will have a problem bedding track pads on a track...

[ssmike]

Originally Posted by SSSoon

Check your CV boots before you go to see if there are early signs of failure - see attached pics. If <36000 miles you can get them replaced under warrant.

Same thing happened to my driver's side CV! I pulled both axles and sent them to DSS for the road course upgrade. Only cost $100 plus shipping. They remove the CV's, polish them, replace the grease with high temp stuff, replace the boots, and add vents for releasing gas when the grease gets overheated!

[charlietuna]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

You definitely do not want to be having brake issues while lapping.

I'm going to go one step further with the driver mod. As was pointed out in one of the earlier posts, you can have an awesome car and run a lot of laps but if you are running bad laps, you will just get more consistent at running bad laps. I think if you find a good driver that is also a good coach and pay them for instruction you will see more gains in lap time than any other investment in car parts or many many many laps, trying to figure it out on your own.

I don't think anyone instinctively looks far enough up the track without some instruction. Good instruction would be the best way to improve your lap times.

THIS X 1000.

Although I have invested on some track mods instruction is by far the best investment you can make. Worth every penny. Find some local instructors and check their resumes and ask others around your track days who they like and recommend. Find an instructor that you enjoy learning from. Most "good" instructors will tell you where you and your set up will most benefit from and what progressive changes should be made to reach your goals.

I hope you continue to enjoy the spirit of driving we need to see more Camaro enthusiasts out on the track where they belong.