I've run a lot of sets of pads on my car at the track, so I figured I'd post my findings for anybody else who's interested in tracking their car inexpensively. For me, pad life is measured in 2-day track weekends, since I don't really feel like having to change them at the track. In other words, if a set of pads would last 5 days on track, for me that's really only 4, since I never do single-day events, and I'd have to change them mid-event at the 3rd weekend.


My car:

• Base 2001 C2
• Stock engine
• Eibach Pro-Kit spring, adjustable swaybars, Bilstein dampers
• Stock wheels, Michelin 4S or similar tires
• Standard rotors
• Completely a street car
• Driven at a reasonable Advanced/Instructor pace. I'm not the fastest guy but I run respectable lap times and I'm very consistent, so this is a pretty fair apples-to-apples comparison of equipment life.

Ferodo DS2500:

• Used only 1 set of these
• They caused terrible vibrations, and also faded very badly when new. Inconsistent bite; felt different every time I touched the pedal throughout the life of the pads. No trust. Will never buy again, for those reasons.
• Lasted 4 weekends though!!
• $~200 a set, so ~$50/weekend

Hawk HP+

• Used only 1 set of these
• Felt exactly the same as the OE pads to me in terms of stopping performance on track; they just make more noise. Squeal when cold, pop when turning in parking lots, and growl when hot. MAYBE you can stop slightly harder, but it didn't measurably affect my lap times.
• Appear to run hotter than OE pads, since they slightly yellowed the white lettering on my calipers.
• Lasted 3 weekends
• $225 a set, so $75/weekend

OE Textar Pads:

• I've used 4 or 5 sets of these.
• Stopping performance is as good as you could want. Zero hint of fade. IMO if you are fading these brakes, you are overdriving your car, or just using the brakes too much.
• Routinely get 2 track weekends out of them (~4 hours of track time)
• They are *close* to making a 3rd weekend, but not quite comfortable to do so.
• $~90 a set, so $45/weekend

So for my money, given how easy is it to change pads on this car, and since I take the wheels off after every event anyway to clean them and check the car over, there's really no reason to put anything other than OE pads on there. I spend an additional 5 minutes to change pads every other event, rather than having to do 2 pad swaps per weekend to keep putting track-specific pads in there.

Your mileage, of course, may vary!

 

My instructor recommended using Textar pads with Meyle rotors. I am a beginner/intermediate driver at Road Atlanta on track days. I don't overuse the brakes. They have worked great for me. My instructor drove my car at 10/10 last track day and he had no issues with the brakes.

 

Nice! I think that setup will support you all the way up to the advanced group as you progress. Unless the price for those pads or rotors goes up, there's just really no reason to use anything else. I did put 997 GT3 front brake scoops and 997 Turbo rear scoops on my car for some additional cooling. Those parts are really cheap, and I'm coming from an Audi that used to eat through its brakes on track, so I figured why not.

Enjoy Road Atlanta. Awesome track!

 

Pagid Black race only pads for the win. Amazing pad, really. You obviously can't run it on the street unless you have unlimited funds for rotor replacements and potential damage due to lack of stopping power when pads are cold.

But when these babies get toasty, they never, ever feel like giving up the ghost and the bite is fantastic with a linear brake feel that's better than the compromise Pagid pads. I know Pagid renamed all their offerings, but I have a stockpile of them.

 

+1 on the above post...When I had my 2003 Carrera I tried various brake pads on the track. Personally I liked Pagid Black RS14's (both front and rear) the best for performance and pad life. When I switched to my 6-GT3 the blacks were way too much pad for the larger brakes. That said track pads are highly personal and driving style specific.

 

I have a similar setup as you but with Endless. Happy with them, expensive but good ($370 each)
Haven't seen much wear

Endless EWIG MX-72 Front Brake Pads Porsche Carrera C2 C4 99-04EIP 072 MX72

Endless EWIG MX-72 Rear Brake Pads Porsche Carrera C2 C4 99-04EIP 073 MX72

 

Just a general observation,, not Porsche specific.. Most of my experience with them is at Portland International,
its a flat track that reward consistency and only has about 3/4 out of 12 corners where its a pure breaking contest...

Don't know if they are still available but Carbo-Tech Panther+ are an awesome all around track day/race pad.
They tolerate over heating very well and recover quickly. Run them on multiple enduro cars.. Easy to
get them broke in well. Run several 8 and 12 hour enduros with them all the way through.

Hawks, are very hard, tough on soft rotors. I use a dedicated set of NON vented rotors to break them in.
I don't break them in on the race rotors because initially they tend to groove too quickly on drilled rotors and
they seem to tear up slotted when fresh. Once broken in they are great for sprints, where the breaking is hard and
your going in against other competitive cars. Once broken in they work on smooth/drilled/slotted and hybrid rotors.

Pagids are really good for racing in the rain, slightly lower smoother torque than most race pads,
don't as need much heat to get them started. Don't recover as quick if you put down a
couple hot laps and push too hard..

Akebonos are good for 8 to 9 tenths,,, but don't take the heat well and dont recover well.

Haven't had any real good luck with ceramic pad compounds, too sudden of torque curve when hot..

Just my experience on a specific set of cars,,, YMMV

 

PFC 08s last forbloodyever. Maybe not the best initial modulation, but they get you stopped liked right now. Not the easiest on rotors, but **** those rotors anyway. Work fine driving to the track.

Front 08s lasted me 6 events or roughly 15 days. Rear 08s will last longer than keith richards.

As for OE textar pads, I wouldn't run them if they were free on the track. I also disagree with your assertion that overheating them means you are overdriving car. Perhaps post some laptimes at well known tracks so we can get a sense of your pace.

 

Oh boy here comes the criticism! I'll bite so you can tell me how slow I am.

Watkins Glen 2:15
NJMP Thunderbolt 1:35
NJMP Lightning 1:17
PittRace N+S Combined 2:02
Mid-Ohio 1:45
Road Atlanta 1:43
Summit Point Main 1:25
VIR Full Course 2:16

Like I said, not the fastest in the world, but good enough for an 18-year-old street car, on regular street tires, maintaining a nice margin of safety and playing nicely with others in my run group. IMO braking at DEs is totally preference. Late, heavy braking into a corner is something you do to complete a pass on somebody during a race; it's not an absolute requirement at a DE in order to run a decent lap time, if you don't want to. If you're only interested in running smooth, reasonably fast lap times, you can back WAY off on the brakes, making them last much longer, at the cost of only fractions of a second per lap.

The original intent of my post was to encourage people that, if they're interested in tracking their car, even up to an A-group level, for fairly low cost, they don't need to buy any exotic parts for it. And in fact if they are happy with the braking performance of the OE pads (as I am), some of the standard "track pads" that people make the next step up to will be a waste of money and they'll be disappointed. Obviously people's priorities are different, and that's fine!

 

I run a 996 as a road legal track car and have tried various pads, Pagid RSL29 are about as good as it gets.

Cold bite is not great, not dangerous but not great for road use, once warm they stop well, modulation is good and they are relatively kind to discs.

Downside is the price, they are expensive, however they have good life and you will get at least twice the life of a DS2500.

Cooling also has a significant impact on pad life, 997 GT3 front lower ducts are a cheap and easy upgrade

 

"Cooling also has a significant impact on pad life, 997 GT3 front lower ducts are a cheap and easy upgrade"

Installed them on the Boxster S and the Targa, Haven't tracked the Targa yet, but definitely helped the track days in the 986S

.20.00 I think from Suncoast ?

 

I've club raced an 02 996 for over 10 years and the PFC11s are my favorite. Excellent bite, even when totally cold, so they work fine on the street. They can be run beyond half way before their performance drop is noticed, whereas I found pagid yellow/blacks to worsen by the time they hit 50% thickness.

 

In my experience, Most race pads are actually worn out at 50% wear,, the heat cycles have cooked the material by then..
Depends on teh car weight and speed of course.

 

Used to run Pagid for years. But they require bedding and would chunk if you didn't do that right. They also would transfer lots of heat to the calipers when under 1/2. So they were useless after that. [There are a number of posts on Pagids in the racing forum.]

Switched to PFC and everything was better. Ran PFC on my 996C2, GT3 and SPB. No bedding, run to the backing plate, and the endurance pads can last last 10 events [20 days] if you don't over brake. Ran them on my race car for a year and they were still over 1/2 left before I sold the car.

IMO race pads don't cycle out. I've never actually heard that and I've run GT3 thousands of laps and raced a spec boxster. Just put the pads on and replace them when they get to the backing plate.

I think you can get them from Rennlist sponsor Apex Performance. They usually have a discount and sometimes free shipping.

On your C2, if you are overheating the brakes, you can run 996.GT3 scoops [not to be confused with the brake ducts that go under your car]. This will eliminate the need to run SRF. You can run Motul and just bleed every other event.

-td

 

All depends on the car in the end,,, setup and weight, power tub or space frame..
Caliper piston type,, quads and 6 packs are easier on the pads than singles or duals especially single sided pistons...

The thickness of the brake pad backer makes a huge difference, I've used ceramic to back
the brake pads to keep the caliper cooler, not perfect but can help in a spec class..

Used to work with a shop that had a brake dyno,, you could put a caliper rotor and pad set
on it and test the torque at different pressures and speeds. Not perfect but it did let us compare brands,,