Hawk HP Plus front brake pads on the track
 

Hi I need help from the track guys here.

Here is a pic of my front brake pads after three days of HPDE track events
A total of eight 30 min sessions.
I also included a pic of my rotors DBA T3 club sport rotors.
The pads are breaking up at the edges and showing pits. There is still plenty of thickness left.
I am wondering if the pads are done and need to be replaced before my next event?

Thanks

mike

Are those pads the Hawks? Or are you asking about them?

I'm curious what mine (stock) are going to look like after the HPDE I'm getting ready for. 255 RS3's all around might put a hurting on them lol!

those are the hawk HP plus
my stock pads were completely destroyed after one track event

The pads have seen better days, but if they aren't falling apart and still worked, I would use them again, or keep them as spares and get something that has a higher heat range.

If I need a higher temp range what do you guys recommend?
dedicated track pads or diff brand?
I usually drive up two 2-5 hrs for track days so it need to be ok on the street.
In the 30 min sessions i did not have much fade at all, the brake fluid looks a little cloudy though

i hear the hawk DTC series brake pads are very good for intense track action. :P

they look overheated - brake ducts might do the trick

Those pads look terrific. I don't see a problem at all. There's not glazing, cracking, delamination or anything really going on and they look to be wearing even.

That's actually how I would like my pads to look after (8) 30 minute sessions!!!

never impressed by pedal force on my hawks, wont buy them again

I heard haws are awful, i know a m3 driver reported complete failure after the heat got to them. I would recommend you talk to essex parts about some ferrodos!!

Hugely depends on compound. DTC/HT pads are both decent lines, Blues have great bite and work well for lighter cars, anything else I wouldn't touch from Hawk. Hawk pads (at least blues) also love to coat the car with rust :)

Definitely agree with Dave here. You need to definitely wash your wheels after each track event or probably clean them before you leave as the dust will get embedded in your wheel and rust when running the HP+s and other Hawk pads. With that being said I used Hawk HP+ for over 10 HPDE weekends on my E30, and I loved them. The only track I ran into an issue with them was Talladega GP where there was never a straight away long enough to cool them, and I managed to overheat them and the pad wear got insane to the point I killed my rears during a session and the baking plates got hot enough that my caliper piston went right through one enough for the brake fluid to escape. I then moved to HT-10s, then DTC-60s once I started racing, and I liked them, just didn't like how long they lasted. This season I moved to the PFC 06s which have amazing wear, and I look forward to trying the new 08s next season.

Your pads look just fine in the OP, but just barely. There's a tiny bit of glazing on the outer edges. As far as fluid goes, just flush it anytime it starts to feel bad.

As you get faster and/or transition to stickier compounds, if you want to stay with Hawk, DTC60/70 is the way to go.

Alternatively, Project Mu and Carbotech both have proven race pads, and we've tried both on our car with great results, and we carry both lines.

Assuming you are braking at all close to correctly (aka, hard ;) ), your front stock pads will be completely gone by the end of the day. I would highly, highly recommend having a spare set of front pads before your track day - even if it's just a set of replacement street pads. Better than limping home on the backing plate - I made that mistake before, lol

I've been swapping pads at the track - I have Carbotech XP8s. It doesn't take long to swap at all, maybe 45-60 minutes total for all 4 wheels? Alternatively you can swap to a track pad before you leave and just deal with the noise on the way to/from the track. Only thing keeping the XP8s from being street-able is the noise - they bite just fine in the cold, as do a handful of other track pads, it's just the noise you have to deal with.

But like others are saying, your pads look fine. Assuming you have a set of spares, might as well keep tracking 'em until they're gone.