need Gallardo street/track pads

Not too surprising - VIR has has some heavy brake zones, especially into 1. I am surprised you did not have fade, too. You must have had SRF or some other uber fluid in the brakes.

I use EBC blue or yellow; I personally helped develp the blue compound and both are pretty rotor-friendly and less abrasive than many others out there. Even so, I can go through a set in 2 hours or less at speed, so check pads carefully and always use fresh high temp fluid.

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/automotive/ebc_disc_pads_for_racing/index.shtml

I never attend a track event without spare pads, so alwasy bring an extra set to the track.

Finally, when you change pads, inspect the caliper dust seals - good chance you toasted them and you should rebuild the calipers.

 

That car is a pretty blue! Saw you parked next to the 430 Spider. Cool day, huh?

Normal for the rotors to glow. That's what brakes are, converters of kinetic energy into heat. The friction compound was designed for lesser operating temperatures so that the brakes function well cold and on the street.

You should use Porterfield R4E (Enduro) compounds and put up with the hard, cold pedal and noise in exchange for life and good stopping when hot. They're designed for big, heavy, fast cars like yours.

The "poof" was actually friction compound cheese-grated off the drilled rotors. Normal. You just need harder and more heat-resistant pad material. Then, feed enough air to them and you'll be fine.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being highest pad wear, VIR ranks in the middle. Barber is MUCH more demanding. Why? Less time to dissipate the heat between braking zones. Also, as the ambient air temp goes up, pad wear increases substantially.

R-4E from Porterfield or call Brian Hooper and ask him in Greensboro. Good luck!

 

Barber-awesome track you'll have a blast. set aside time to do the museum (probably the best motorcycle collection in the world, plus a huge Lotus collection, a Dino, John Surtees' F1 car, etc)

maybe PM Daniel from Ricambi? he does Lambo parts too but not sure if he does aftermarket pads.

ProCoach is on the right track (excuse the pun ), get in touch with Porterfield, EBC, Hawk, etc to find the right fitment size. you'll probably find they have an application that can be borrowed from one of the high end Audis (S6, S8, etc)

 

I have not tried Porterfield, but I have tried Pagid (various) and Hawk DTC 60, 70 and for dual purpose use EBC. They wear a fair bit quicker, but (1) they cost about 1/3 as much; and (2) they remove less rotor material. A lot of pads are designed to be abrasive to "machine" away the micro-cracks that form due to thermal shock at the rotor surface. EBC put a lot of time into trying to reduce that shock and eliminate rotor unfriendliness.

If I was racing I would definitely try all the pads out there to see what I like and works best. But for dual purpose (and probably more street), I run EBC. Got them on my Viper, Z06, Gallardo and even my Elise and simply love them. The F40 is next.

Note - ALL performance pads require a VERY firm brake application on the street and may make some noise if not used with some brio. So don't be a whiner if your brakes squal a bit - just USE them.

 

No one has mentioned them but I'll throw my suggestion into the ring...Carbotech. They make some amazing pads. Able to handle very high temperatures with relatively low rotor wear and dusting, and reasonably prices to boot. Of course everything is a compromise so the more track focused the pad, the more wear/dust. I do believe even their most extreme pads are still better than the competition in those departments though.

Browse the site (www.ctbrakes.com) or give Mike Jr a call. They'll take care of you.

I've used XP10's on three different cars now and can't say enough good things about them.

 

+1!

Plus, they're in the Charlotte area. Tell them EXACTLY what you're doing and let them help you decide the appropriate compound.

Rotor wear is a necessary part of the performance equation. If the brakes fade, fix that by getting more air to the rotors, calipers and pads.

The last thing is to brake properly. That'll help matters a great deal.

 

Nice! I'm certain you'll love them.

 

Street/track pads--I happen to use Ferrodo DS2500s on my F355. I can get 9K total miles and 5 track weekends on them with Bridgestone S03s. I understand that th eF355 is not as fast as a Gallardo, but we are using similarly capable tires.

Rotors glowing is just part of the game. Where you can do your part is in making sure that there is air ducting to the front and rear calipers.

But overall, novice drivers tend to use more brake than necessary and this shows up on the equiptment consumption rates. As you accumulate more laps, your brake useage will slowly drop, bottom out and your times will improve. In HPDE driving, you are typically quite far from the capabilities of the car. You may think that you are being heroic by late braking, but most of the time, this leads to late corner entry, missed apexes and you pay twice what you gained due to poor lines and corner exit mishaps. Slow In Fast Out works better.

 

Not sure I agree, Mitch. To drive the car is to drive the car properly, and that includes shaving off the requisite speed in the shortest possible distance!

You say novice drivers "overuse" the brakes, but then say HPDE drivers are usually "quite far from the capabilities of the car." You then encourage people not to "late brake," and then go on to advocate "slow in, fast out," which is good counsel, but has nothing to do with developing proper braking technique.

The major reason why novices overheat their brakes is because they use them too softly for too long, not allowing them to cool. I've NEVER measured a driver's deceleration rate anywhere close to maximum in their novice stage, typically braking is THE most underutilized capacity of the car!

I encourage all drivers at every experience level to learn, practice and teach proper braking technique EVERY time out. Read Carl Lopez's excellent "Going Faster" and just DO it.

If the brake pads come apart, get more robust ones. If they overheat, brake properly or get more air to them. The reason why people overshoot corners is a problem with braking release (often premature), not late and proper braking!

 

It's funny. I never had the problem of using my brakes too softly in the Maranello. Memory fades, but I seem to recall several moments of going, "Oh, ****. Oh ****," as the ABS was doing the cha-cha-cha.

Dale

 

Peter, I need to drive with you, perhaps the next time I am at VIR, unless you come up to WVA. I am in complete agreement with you as to braking, but as a result have been having one hell of time with my 360 front brakes. I come into 1 and 5 at Summit Point extremely hot and trail brake through until I feel the car settle and try to get back on the gas as quickly as possible. But, I now have over heated my Brembo big brakes necessating the removal of a backing plate and consideration of ducting the front brakes. I have also just switched from Pagid blacks to yellows, at least in the front. I think part of the answer is to for me to get up my nerve and throttle steer through the corners.

Robert

 

Sure, if you are within 2 seconds of the lap record and looking for the lap record, push your braking zone.

If, on the other hand, you are 10 seconds off the lap record, you have at least a dozen things to fix in your driving before even beginning to contemplate pushing your braking zones.

One time I got a ride with EFR (yes the real one) in a F355 challenge car. In a car he had never driven, on old race rubber, on a track he had never driven upon, his reconnaissance laps were within 2 seconds of the then curent lap record at TWS (1:52); With a passenger as added balast! The more interesting part of the experience was how graceful he operated the controls. I could have sipped my tea and spilled narry a drop as he was zipping around.

how does this apply to the current thread?

Another thing EFR showed me is that there are times to use the brakes hard, times to use them soft, and times to just take some throttle out of the car and let it go around the corner without any brakes. (T6 for example). Never did he wait for the last split second, never did the nose drop faster than the spring/shock package would endure. In short, avoiding pushing the suspension beyond its natural wheel rate speeds helps the car remain settled and more responsive to the driver in control.

When ask how he developed this style he said: "If I drove any harder those 900 HP prototype cars would spit me out."

From about 5 years ago.