[jamestown]

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks! Everything got completed except the alignment, but it was fairly rushed with me finishing the brake duct install track side minutes before my first session. I'll post some more pictures and details to catch the thread up.

I swapped in the carbotech xp12/xp10 last week and I have a new appreciation for brembo calipers. The speed and ease at which you can swap pads in these things is really great.

As far as the carbotechs, I installed them on a slightly used set of rotors that had the stock brake pad compound on them still. I know carbotech goes on and on about bedding the brakes properly and/or other compound pads not being compatible. In the past I have followed their instructions, but this time I was more curious what would happen.

The result is, if you put these pads on rotors bed with stock compound they feel normal under normal braking. However when I went to bed the carbotechs, the abs would come on at a lower deceleration level than you would expect under hard braking. I didn't think much of it and drove the pads on the street for a few days leading up to the event and they felt fine, and as you would expect had more initial bite than the stock pads.

I then got on the track and in my first few sessions they just felt kind of limp. Like they were never not there, but the overall deceleration I was getting was just noticeably reduced. It wasn't exactly confidence inspiring.

Luckily the more sessions I went out for the better they got, back to what I would expect from the xp12/10 pad. Lesson learned, in the future I will try and sand down the rotor somewhat before swapping pad compounds (if the rotor is still thick enough).