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So, just done my first track day in my new to me NC-2. Brake pads turned to dust after 4 sessions and blew away in the wind as I suspected they might, so it's confirmed they were standard sort of crappy road pads.

I've been doing a bit of research since. Car is not a daily driver, I don't mind dust. I'm old and lazy and don't want to be constantly changing wheels and and pads. (Otherwise I would be keeping my NA-8). Car will be used for occasional country runs, occasional Auto-X and occasional sprints with 10 minute sessions. Car has stock power and at this stage is likely to remain that way, running Pilot sport 4 tyres although something more track orientated isn't out of the question in the future.

Research leads me to, in no particular order.

Hawk DTC-30
Winmax W3
EBC Yellowstuff (can be had for cheap, $320 for front and rear)
Porterfield R4
Porterfield R4-1
DBA XP (can be had for cheap, $116 only make fronts though)
Maybe Forza FP3, maybe Forza FP3 rears only (these are ceramic pads, that makes me suspicious, reasonably cheap too)

Anybody got anything to share on this subject?

Nothing?

OK

I went with the EBC Yellowstuff

Now you can all tell me I've made a terrible mistake....hahahhaha

Red_Bullet wrote:Nothing?

OK

I went with the EBC Yellowstuff

Now you can all tell me I've made a terrible mistake....hahahhaha

EBC. What a terrible mistake.

LOL
You were not very patient. Not even 24 hours between asking and buying.

When I had a stock NC I loved using Carbotech AX6.
Never had them fade.
They had long life.
And the correct amount of bite for Hankook RS3's.
The bonus was the dust was a lighter colour and pretty much just rinsed off.

BTW used there brother pad GLOC R6 on a standard ND as well.
Was good as well but the ND is under braked a little compared to the NC so probably needed XP8's.

I only ever used 2 other brake pads on the stock NC.
Stock OEM pads. Were OK for the factory Michelins. Struggled more when Kumho KU36 were put on it.
Hawk HPS. Upgrade my arse. They were worse than the the stock pads.


I now have a NC2 with a few mods, Header, Muffler, Tune, MCA Coil overs and 17x9's wrapped in 245/40/17 Hankook RS4s.
Car also has DBA4000 T3 rotors. BTW I am not a fan of the T3 slot design. More on that below.
When I got the car it came with a front and rear set of QFM A1RM's.
Put them on and they worked really well.
But I had the ill fated problem I read about on bigger heavier cars. 2 of the fronts had the friction material separate form the backing plate with 4mm of material still left on them.
Don't buy for that reason alone, not that you can since QFM is kaput.
I actually had the old Carbotech AX6's from the previous NC in a box with a little material and fitted them on to get me through the rest of the day. They worked better...

I then bought Winmax W3 as a replacement.
Bedded in nicely.
But then on track I started getting high frequency vibrations.
I could clearly see it was an incompatibility between the DBA T3's and the friction material.
BTW I had this same issue before on a NB SE with Carbotech XP10 pads.
From what little info I had been able to find on various car forums I am not alone on this. It seems any pad that relys on a transfer layer with track use is a no no with T3's. The slot design does not let the transfer layer stay even.

I was given a half worn out set of Hawk HP+.
Worked with no issues.
Just horrendous dust.

Since then I have put the WInmax W3's on again as the slots are now shallower on the rotors.
They are now working.
So they will work with a plain rotor no problem.
Just don't throw them on with new T3's.

Interesting about pads not working with T3 rotors, Good reason to save some money on rotors too, plain rotors might be the go then.

Thanks for your detailed reply!

Standard rotors are all you need. Spend the extra money on the best pads you can afford.
Even on a race car (which is what I have) the standard rotors are the best option, plenty of breaking power and no fading.

Snowmotion wrote:Standard rotors are all you need. Spend the extra money on the best pads you can afford.
Even on a race car (which is what I have) the standard rotors are the best option, plenty of breaking power and no fading.

Any particular brand/model of plain rotor? OEM?

Red_Bullet wrote:

Snowmotion wrote:Standard rotors are all you need. Spend the extra money on the best pads you can afford.
Even on a race car (which is what I have) the standard rotors are the best option, plenty of breaking power and no fading.

Any particular brand/model of plain rotor? OEM?

Regarding NC rotors.
Only ever ran factory rotors on the previous NC1.
Never changed them at all.
Sold the car with the factory rotors at 80000km's and lots of track use.


This is on my 2 SE's I have had.
DBA 4000 HD is the best I've used on my current SE.
Never warped one.
Metal wears down slowly.
Have heavily heat crazed them. Never cracked one though unlike the slotted T3's which I have cracked, always on a slot!!!

Tried OEM on that car and they started warping very quickly.
They don't wear down as the metal appears to be hard, just they warped.
They were used rotors off a road car. They were perfectly flat and bugger all wear when fitted.

I have used Protex plain rotors as well. OK for most cars. Worked fine on my previous SE for many, many track days. The metal seems to be quite hard like DBA's so does not wear down quickly. Never cracked one through as you get enough heat crazing to prewarn you.
Would definitely say the DBA 4000 HD is still better so was not willing to try them on the current much more powerful SE.

Never tried RDA plain rotors, but judging by how quickly I wore though their slotted and dimpled rotors on the rear of the previous SE I would probably say the metal is to soft for heavy track use.
Probably would work well with EBC pads though as EBC and RDA seem to have a connection.

Thanks Luke, that's some great info. I've been running DBA T3s on my supercharged NA-8 for a few years, only run about 6 sprint sessions a year, never had any issues with cracking them. (yet) Been happy with PFC-11 pads on the front of it. I'll probably go with the DBA 4000 HDs next time around for the fronts at least. Now I'm waiting on pads to show up from the USA, 17 March estimated.