Impressions: HPDE in FR-S and ... did I glaze my pads?
 

Took my FR-S to Thunderhill 5 mile course today and had a blast. The car is all stock except for a TRD exhaust and TRD intake. Stock tires, stock everything.

I haven't had this much fun driving a car in a long time, and I don't miss my BMW at all. The FR-S is so communicative, I really feel like more days in this car is going to make me a better driver. I was able to controllably slide through turns without worrying about some unpredictable snap, something that always worried me in my Z4M.

I would venture to say that driving this FR-S is just as fun as driving my 911. In a different way, of course. More power would be fun but I think the first thing I am going to do is get wider wheels, and sticky tires. I was surprised by how fun the stock tires were, and can't wait to get some real rubber under this thing.

One problem I did have is that on the last session, I lost braking power. The pedal wasn't squishy. It felt solid. But my brakes just don't feel strong anymore. I'm pretty sure the pads are glazed. Can someone help me out and check out the pictures below? Should I try to salvage these pads or just go for an upgraded set of pads? I plan to do a few HPDE's this year but the car is also my Daily Driver.


http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-6...-6t5XgrC-L.jpg
http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-9...-9Mv2p3n-L.jpg

Yep that looks like you melted the pads for sure.

Looks like you may have scored your rotors.

Use race pads at the race track. We have a ton of options for you.

If those marks are deep enough to catch your fingernail in, I'd replace the rotors as well.

It's so easy to swap pads on these things that it doesn't make sense not to swap before you go on track.

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It's not the best thing to do, but you can probably keep using the rotors... but you definitely need pads.

The funny thing is that I usually do this on my other cars. But the beauty of this car is that it drives so well in stock trim that I didn't think it was necessary. It did handle really well until that final session.

I was so excited about the trackday that I left home and realized I didn't pack a change of clothes ... I was wearing Walmart undies and socks the next day. I don't think my little brain could have handled a pad change for this one ;-)

My first track day I glazed my pads over. I got a nicer set of pads and the difference is awesome. Now that I'm doing more track days though, I'm looking at doing a full brake upgrade. I'll switch the pads at the track in the morning and switch again before leaving.
Glad you had fun in the fr-s!

I made the mistake of not swapping out my stock pads for my track pads at my last track day last season and my rotors looked just like yours. I posted pictures last fall.

Since it was almost winter I just left them on since winter isn't a hard braking season. Once spring got here the rotors looked a lot better. I think the scoring might have actually been pad material deposited on the rotors that was slowly scraped off over the winter. I did swap the stock pads from left to right to try and even things out.

Since brakes are the most important part of the car at the track I put new rotors on anyway this spring but the old ones will probably go back on for next winter since they still have a bunch of life in them for normal duty.

I did notice that my braking was getting better yesterday. I'll try swapping the pads left and right this week. Now I'm deciding if I should do a pad/rotor upgrade or just go for a BBK up front. If I get the BBK I might as well get sticky tires. But if I get those I should get wider wheels that can accommodate wider tires. In which case i should get coilovers to lower the car a smidge. :)

Don't spend money on upgraded rotors. Get better pads/fluid first, then once you outgrow the thermal capacity of the stock rotors go to a quality BBK.

I glazed my stock pads my first track day last year (though the track is not brake heavy). It took a few miles but they eventually returned to the original performance.


Since then I now run carbotech xp10 fr and rr with hi temp fluid and I noticed no difference in performance between before, during or after my most recent track day.


All on oe rotors for now.

Sounds definitively like glazed pads for sure. But if you take the pad out of the caliper and look at it, a glazed pad will look like a very smooth, almost mirror finish when it glazes. On a street pad, the glaze will slowly wear away and the pad will come back. On pads that are race only (when I've glazed them), I've actually taken a file and filed off the glaze between sessions (didn't have sandpaper). But then I got smart and stopped by low-quality racing brake pads.

But for street pads, give it a week or so of driving around town and the "feel" should return, or you can speed up the process with some sandpaper.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of catching more flies with honey and how to appeal to your audience when asking for quality advice. :thumbsup: