Brake pads....which ones are best ?

Aimee

Aimee

Moderators
Staff member
Hello all!

Ant has booked a track session at Silverstone & wanted to know what brake pads to go for.

He has the willwood 310mm brakes & he currently has green pads on at the moment....which are shocking (he has no idea what brand they are :roll: ).

So..... what pads would you recommend for road & track use ( this is ants 1st track day so he could over compensate & start braking too much!) ?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks!

Aimee :-D
 
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GTIR-LOZ

GTIR-LOZ

New Member
i have been really happy with the ebc yellow stuff pads on my 310 wilwood they do not require heating up from cold but do have very high friction properties up to 1000 degrees
 
Fazz

Fazz

New Member
Go to rally design and try the poly Q's... they fit under the wilwoods and supposed to be good for road and track.
Getting them myself in a week or so.

Have tried the Poly E's. not great imo.
 
Y

youngsyp

New Member
If he has Greenstuff pads (if they're green, that's what they'll be !), any choice he makes for replacements will be a huge improvement ! :shock:
I found those pads so bad on my car, I'd even go as far to say they were dangerous !!

Any of the very fast road/odd track day pads will be good. To add to the list about, Mintex M1155 and Feroda DS2500 will both be good for the job, if you can get a set that fits. There's also the Pagid range, with the RS blue pads iirc, that are good for heavy duty road work and track days.

If he plans to use them on the road and track, you're just looking for a high temp pad, that will maintain a decent friction coefficient, across a wide temperature range.

You probably already know this but, for those that don't, you should change the brake fluid before and ideally after a track day, and make sure the system is bled well. Also, sticking to the correct pad bedding in cycle, will pay dividends on both the road and track !
 
fubar andy

fubar andy

Moderator & N/W Rep
Staff member
GTIR-LOZ said:
i have been really happy with the ebc yellow stuff pads on my 310 wilwood they do not require heating up from cold but do have very high friction properties up to 1000 degrees
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I’d like to point out that these are my opinions and no-one else’s: ;-)

Yellow stuff was total and utter shite. The fiction from the pads was poor and with heavy trackday braking they got to the point where the pad was so hot it deformed and the backing yellow plate bubbled from the heat that was created.

The Poly ones I had from Rally Design were also poor and I didn't rate then very well. However when I acquired my Wilwoods and pads I wasn't sure what compound they were so I could be wrong.

The best I have used so far are Mintex 1144 and 55's
The 44's would be best for day to day driving and any track action or sprints the 55's would be better suited. You can use the 55's for everyday, but I find they squeak a lot and can become tiresome after a while.

oh and Ant, still got to wait another 5 weeks for my car :cry:
 
D

deslynam

Guest
EBC Yellow Stuff are supposed to be good on the whole, although they were very quickly rather than destroying the disc.
If you get them, machine a groove along their length, in the middle of the pad, to allow the hot gasses to escape. That's what I was told my my mechanics at the time (they did rally team event support & servicing). Otherwise you'll have the same happen as stated above.

Mintex 1144s will probably be ok on large discs like that as they won't be overworked.

If you can get Ferodo DS2500s they're an improvement over them for not (usually) much more money. I wanted these on mine but my mechanics advised me against - the week before we spoke about it they'd been doing servicing on the British Rally Championship, and the ONLY car using Ferodos had the pad material fail and fall off the backing plate (that was ~18months ago)!

Mintex 1155s are similar to Pagid Blue, track & racing specific pads, and as "fubar andy" says, they'll squeal like a piggy! They'll be great on track though. ;-)

As it's his first trackday, I can guarantee he probably won't be over-braking, more likely that it'll be a case of braking far too early until near the end of the day.
 
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Mr GTiR

Mr GTiR

New Member
I've got the Polly Q's in mine and have had no problems with them so far. Once they are dead i'll be looking at replacing them with a set of Padgid pads.

If i was Ant it's not the brakes i would be worried about i would get an oil cooler fitted to his car A.S.A.P as the engine temps have a habbit of going through the roof!!
 
M

MarkTurbo

Well-Known Member
Mr GTiR said:
If i was Ant it's not the brakes i would be worried about i would get an oil cooler fitted to his car A.S.A.P as the engine temps have a habbit of going through the roof!!
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Thats a good bit of advice, the standard oil cooler just isnt upto long periods on track ;-) And if they are greenstuff pads replace them as soon as possible, they are shockingly crap even on the road let alone a track :shock:
 
Mr GTiR

Mr GTiR

New Member
The first things i did to my car to get it track ready was 4 pots and an oil cooler. Also invested in an EGT and A/F guages since.
 
Aimee

Aimee

Moderators
Staff member
Thanks everyone for the above advice. Ant seems to be swaying towards the mintex 1144s or 1155s. Any idea where you can buy them from ?

Andy Fubar - Ant said he's gutted for you mate!
 
Aimee

Aimee

Moderators
Staff member
Mr GTiR said:
If i was Ant it's not the brakes i would be worried about i would get an oil cooler fitted to his car A.S.A.P as the engine temps have a habbit of going through the roof!!
Click to expand...

Ants pads are getting low & with the track session approaching he thought he might aswell kill two birds with one stone & all that.
 
antgtir

antgtir

New Member
Can anyone please tell me where i am able to get the Mintex 1144's / 1155's for the Wilwood Dynalite Caliper for the 310mm discs?

Plus can people let me know part number for the 310mm discs for the Wilwood application and explain why the straight vane is more expensive than the curved vane but both have the same qualities?

Many thanks,

Ant.
 
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P

pulsarboby

Guest
cant help you with pads ant, as ive not got wilwoods, but agree with the greenstuff pads, they are useless on a track!

please take my advice though and run a switch to link your fans up so they run constantly, this will do more than an oil cooler could ever do;-)
will keep engine coolant at coolest level, which in turn will help keep the engine oil temp at a reasonable level too!
by all means fit that cooler, as its a must really. but imo constant running fans are a must must, if you know what i mean!
also leave them running for 5 minutes after you come off track as this will cool things down a lot quicker.
 
antgtir

antgtir

New Member
gtirx2 - Thanks for that, i have already looked at Rally Design and came to the same conclusion as you i.e. dont know if the Mintex are made to fit the Wilwood caliper, grrrr, will have to phone them i think.

Bob - Yes thanks for that, defo a good idea and cheap to install really, I will hopefully have time to do that this weekend.

Cheers,

Ant.
 
DanDud

DanDud

Member
I just spoke to rally design, and they dont seem to think that mintex have made a pad to fit the midlight caliper, it could be worth contacting mintex themselves though. He couldnt comment on ferrodo as he didnt know, they dont seem to list them on their site though.

For a lot of track work he said that the wilwood smart pads are good on track and road, they work from 0-1000 degrees. The poly E's and poly Q pads both are rated up to 900 degrees but aparently the E's would be slightly better on track.

I might try those wilwood smart pads to see what their like, their around £30 whereas the poly E, and Q are around the £50 mark. I dont know why the smarts are cheaper if they are meant to be slightly better.

Has anyone had any experiance with the poly E's?
 
GTiR_Mic

GTiR_Mic

New Member
I had the smart pads for everyday use on my car and they where great.

I did buy the Ploy E's I think and they where $hite, couldn't feel the peddal at all. Rob will say the same.

Mic
 
DanDud

DanDud

Member
How did the smart pads cope when you gave the car abuse? They may be great for fast road work as you said but would you say they could take track time better than the poly E's?
 
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