Originally Posted by KA MOTORSPORT

Certain pads even under similar on track conditions and car setups can offer improved stopping power without always generating the extra heat...that can be a real gain. We have tested pads which have offered less bite than others but generated more heat into the brakes.

Its' why we look at caliper and rotor temps individually as a piece of the car setup when doing setup. We don't always run the same pads everywhere and "data" is all relevant.

I can tell you from personal experience that if a pad which generates about even 10-15% more heat into the brakes in certain cars and tracks translates to higher avg brake temperatures over the length of a stint and by the end of a certain races...can cook the brakes or leave the equipment pretty dead looking. Even with a driver using less pressure initially from the better stopping power...the overall confidence can be lost by the end when most needed.

Example: Some pagid endurance pads generally don't generate a lot of heat to the brakes and sometimes work better in certain high temp conditions over others. That is why many teams use them still.

Originally Posted by ShakeNBake

Interesting. Last time I went down this path to figure out what pads generate the least amount of heat (before a buddy shook me to my senses and explained the laws of thermodynamics again), it turned out to be gradually failing caliper seals - which were causing the pads to drag. Fixed that and suddenly temps went way down, less rotor cracking, more life out of the same pads.