Preferred brake pads?
 

I got 2 track days in Monday and Tuesday with a coach. He drove about 5 laps yesterday morning and said while he liked the car and the setup, the brakes were a serious disappointment.

I got the car used in June and it came with Ferodo DS3.12 pads,,about 50% worn. New rotors, new Castrol SRF fluid. Don't know if the current pads got overheated along the way, or wore oddly. I've seen photos in some threads showing uneven wear on this spec pad.

Car will remain street legal, and used for HPDE and Autocross. Coach says go for Pagid Yellow (RSL1?).

I really liked a set of Endless MK72 Street/Track pads I put on the 911S along with bigger rotors.

You didn’t elaborate on exactly what the problem was, but I’d be looking for some other issue besides pad selection. I run the 3.12 on my GT4 and I have been very happy with them. Very consistent pedal and stopping power and what I consider to be acceptable, uniform wear. I take pad thickness measurements after each event , and after 10 days (including 4 open track days at CMP) I still have 55% remaining pad up front and 75% in back. I just purchased another set.

Preferred is ones w free replacement from FCP Euro, for me.

If you don’t already have studs, the make switchovers easy.

If anything the ds3.12 has a much higher friction coefficient than OEM pads and even other track pads. These should have had excellent track performance.

agree that you should ask the instructor what he didn’t like about the brakes.

My shop recommended Pagid RSl29. I had been running OEM and was happy with them. pagids are good if a bit noisy on the street. Manthey have created a pad - maybe try those?

What does FCP carry in terms of decent track pads?

I’ve been running Ferodo DS3.12 on both my Cayman and my Turbo and been very happy with their performance. No complaints here.

Instructor drives standard Caymans every day with Paged Yellow brake pads. He said those cars brake better than mine. More bite, less pedal force required. Given that he drives on a race track every day, and gets to drive lots of other vehicles, that observation comes with a lot of credibility behind it.

Given my new rotors, plus fresh good quality brake fluid, that leaves pads as the obvious culprit. Could be, as I wrote above, that this set of pads suffered some overheating/glazing. Maybe the driver ended a hot session and sat in the paddock holding pressure on the brakes for 5 minutes while the rotors were really hot? What other explanations are plausible?

These Ferodo DE3.12’s do get good reviews. Leaves me at a loss to understand what’s going on.

DS 1.11 or PFC11, most of the proven track pads perform similarly its just how they modulate before touching the ABS that varies. Fluid makes a bigger difference to pedal feel in my experience.

Given that the DS3.12 is literally used on race cars and is one of the highest friction pads they have available (even higher than DS1.11), the possibility that the pads were abused somehow is definitely possible. In fact, a lot of GT4 owners report that they need to recalibrate their braking foot for how little pressure the DS3.12 requires compared to the DS1.11 and other pads.

Another possibility is that the brake booster on GT4s simply requires more effort than a standard Cayman, so your instructor is not used to it. You should be able to get into lockup very quickly with the DS3.12. Are you able to do that by stomping on the pedal?

If he is used to the Pagid RSL1 compound, which is very aggressive, it's possible the characteristics of the DS3.12 are a little different from his liking. However, I have had very few customers ever report back that they didn't like the performance of the DS3.12 on track. Excellent bite and is very consistent. Without more elaboration as to what he didn't like about the brakes, I would venture to say that perhaps there is air in your system somewhere. The pads being improperly bedded and glazed could also cause adverse results. How do you feel the brakes are performing, aside from his comments? To clarify, is this for a GT4?

Thank you Rick and Vantage. I had an outside source with technical knowledge bring up the issue of Porsche GT cars requiring more pedal force by design, which could be what the instructor experienced comparing to base Cayman brakes. And, yes this is a GT4.

I don't have enough experience in different cars on track to know one brake feel from another. A grand total of 2 cars over 6 days.

They carry Pagid rsl29.

That is interesting, as the GT cars are much better in regards to pedal feel (less assist, more pedal effort as you mentioned). The non-GT Caymans/Boxster (981 gen) are notorious for not having a great feel along with being over-assisted. If he thinks 981 Cayman/S/GTS brakes are better than your GT4, then something could be wrong. Again I would point more towards air being in the system vs the DS3.12 compound being the culprit. Glazing is possible, but these pads are relatively foolproof in the sense that it's very easy to bed them in, and its somewhat hard to screw up. Plenty of GT4 owners run the DS3.12, may be worth having one of them do half a lap in your car, should be able to tell you right away.

Didn't know they also carried these pads...I'll be ordering from them from now on :)