street/track pad options for TSE BBK
 

I'm currently using Carbotechs on my car. 1521s for street, XP12 (from XP8) for track. I am considering switching from Carbotech and need some recommendations on pad combos.

Background: I've run Carbotechs on my car for 5 years. With the stock sport brakes on my car, I was very pleased with the XP8's. I ran them year round for several years, and did several boosted track days, on one set of pads. They had 50% pad depth left when I took them off. When I upgraded the the TSE 11.75 BBK last summer, I again went with XP8's. However, they only lasted me 5 track days. I have been unable to get the pads & rotors properly bedded together. Let's assume that's my fault, and move on. I assume I'm simply not getting enough heat into them in my bedding attempts.

So there's two, maybe two and a half issues with me now with the Carbotechs.
* First, due to lack of proper bedding, I'm not getting the pad life I should.
* Second, the Carbotech pad for the Wilwood dynalites is larger than the TSE rotor. This results in a lip of unworn brakepad on the bottom of the pad, making removal difficult. So I'm not getting the thuper-easy pad swaps I should be with the Dynalites.
* second and a half - due to I assume improper bedding, I am not getting the friction & bite I feel I should be. With my current XP12's, standing on the brakes only barely activates the ABS.


So recommend me some track & street pad combos. What I want - good bite, good feel/modulation, good life on track. Easy on rotors under track use a definite plus. Corrosive dust a minus, but I've been washing my wheels anyway to put them in the basement, so I've gotten over that.

I'm leaning towards giving the Cobalt Frictions a try for track use, I've heard good things about them. Local drivers that use them really like them.

So recommend me a combo. Relevant information - car is 2800lb with me in it, 200 whp. Requirement - no super-picky transfer layers, and no incompatible transfer layers between street & track pads.

Hawk DTC60

Cheap, effective, and awesome. With the TSE brakes you will stop faster and brake later than every other car on track. They meet all of your requirements except for the corrosive dust. :dealwithit:

Couple it with the HP+ for street use

It's really enjoyable braking later with a heavy pig on street tires than the stripped and gutted r-comp equipped 500lb lighter car in front of you.

FYI, Hawk makes a DTC-60 for the Dynalite that has that little section of pad cut out of it so pad swaps stay nice and easy. We switched from the standard backing plate to the new style about a year ago.

While I love my Cobalts I would first try DTC60's in your shoes. I have the more expensive 949 11" rotors so it makes sense for me to use a pad that gives better rotor life. With your $30 rotors that's not a concern. If for some reason you don't like em you can always go Cobalt but I would start with the less expensive option (DTC60) first.

Hmm, I hope I don't run into the same problems since I'm getting ready to go with either the TSE 4-wheel kit or the FM 4-wheel kit.

I didn't have problems getting the Carbotech XP10/8 bedded on my stock 1.6, so I'll just hope yours is an anomaly.

I had bedding issues with the Carbotech's as well and have since switched to Cobalts. Cobalts have been great so far but will not work on the street.

I think the bedding issues are squarely user error, at least in my situation they were. I just don't pay enough attention to how I treat the brakes between uses and that probably screws things up. Getting water on the brakes during rainy track days, driving them on the street with light braking as needed, etc. Basically the Cobalt's offer me a more dumby (me) proof pad.

Edit: Will probably be trying the DTC-60's at some point due to the cost factor. Also Cobalt offers an "optimized" pad for the stock calipers for a little larger pad surface area when you remove the anti-rattle clips.

Interesting. I bedded mine on the street on the backroads behind my house.

Just constant 70-10 stops and until the brakes were nice and stinky, drive them home, let them cool. And I drive them to and from the track, but that's only about 35 miles for me and only have to stop a few times.

Since I haven't had problems on my sport brake setup, I'll assume it won't be a problem for a 4-wheel BBK setup either.

I'm sure you'll be fine. It's a good product backed by a good vendor with lots of positive experiences from racers all over the country. I just had a bad experience for what I'm sure is a multitude of reasons so I switched. Have liked what I've been using so far with the Cobalts.

Although I did wait almost 2 months to get the Cobalts through a GB order....can't win lol.

I say cobalts, Martin, Nail, Eddie, no one says anything bad about them, concerning their track characteristics though. If I was in your situation, I'd probably do that and some cheap wilwood Q compounds for the street. A little squishy, but gloriously quiet for us old men.

P.S. I get your used hand me downs.

Everybody that has tried the DTC-60s likes them, and they're inexpensive, so I am going to go that route.

However I am confused about whether DTC-60s exist for the rear Sport calipers. If they don't, what are other people running? If they do, where do I order them?

I'm wondering the same

What about the Wilwood track pads? I noticed the BP-10s are crazy cheap, but don't seem to have the cf/temp range of a real track pad.

Since I'll be going to all Wilwoods before the next time I go to the track, I'll be adjusting to new brakes anyway.......maybe the time to try a different pad as well?

Hawk in their infinite wisdom does not make a sport version of the DTC-60. With a little work you can fit the very slightly smaller non-sport DTC-60 by...
- file the pad to fit sport bracket
- file the caliper backet to fit the pads
- replace the sport caliper bracket with non-sport and M-Tuned brackets
- replace sport caliper bracket and rotor with non-sport offerings

If you hold a sport and non-sport pad back to back you'll see the small amount of metal removal required in order for it to fit.

I opted for filing the pad. Have the 1.8 non-sport brackets in the garage but can't quite justify $120 for M-Tuned to machine a couple pieces of aluminum. Next pad change I'll have to give some serious consideration to filing the sport brackets.

I thought the sport calipers fitted the 1.8NA brackets so you could benefit from easy to find 1.8 pads and the larger piston in the sport caliper. Must've misread I guess.

Sport calipers will fit 1.8 brackets, 1.8 brackets will not fit sport rotors.

1.8 pads + 1.8 brackets + sport calipers = 1.8 rotors
1.8 pads + 1.8 brackets + M-Tuned bracket$ + sport calipers = sport rotors
1.8 pads + file + sport bracket + sport calipers = sport rotors

Props midpack. That's useful info.

Ordered DTC-60 fronts for the 7112 caliper from Andrew. My front XP12's are shot after two track days. The rears are ok, though, so I'll keep running them until they're gone. Then I'll file some brake pads.

Curly - normally I would recommend my leftovers to anyone, but in this case you don't want them.

DTC60. I've driven on them to and from the track for years with zero regrets.