T(h)or's GT86 hammer (Europe) - essential track setup

[Twinguin]

Brilliant! Love your "footage".

[Tor]

Originally Posted by Twinguin

Brilliant! Love your "footage".

Thanks! I really enjoy to edit video and it's nice when someone likes to watch it.


An update to the RC5+ pads ( @brzest , @Iceman): I am not so happy anymore.

After a 3 hour trackday (see video previous page) they now look like this:





And my brakediscs look like this:



So I lost 5 mm and parts of the pad has broken off in just 3 hours. To their defence they performed flawlessly as long as it lasted. I might try out the RC6 next or something Ferrodo. I will also change to Tarox F2000 discs.

[Iceman]

That is very interesting, mine have 3 trackdays and a lot of "spirited driving", i haven't checked the pads but the discs are not even close to yours!! I'll keep an eye on them anyway, specially after seen what happened to you.

RC6's should perform much better, but they are noisier and they can destroy your wheels/paint, the later being the reason i went for the RC5+'s instead... Plus, i've been told rotor wear is even worse.

Let me know what you go for next, i'm thinking about changing pads/discs before going to the Nordschleife in August.

[Twinguin]

Wow, haven't seen brake pads with parts broken off for a while - last time I saw that on some Yellow Stuff pads that broke apart completely.

My pads always looked more evenly worn - that's Green Stuff (these did not last long though, not recommended for track days or even "spirited" driving) or the DS Performance (worked well with EBC Groove Discs)

[ysu]

Wow...

I've only had a run on the stock pads, they look bad already.
But I've got the new ones now!

[brzest]

Originally Posted by Tor

Thanks! I really enjoy to edit video and it's nice when someone likes to watch it.


An update to the RC5+ pads ( @brzest , @Iceman): I am not so happy anymore.

After a 3 hour trackday (see video previous page) they now look like this:





And my brakediscs look like this:



So I lost 5 mm and parts of the pad has broken off in just 3 hours. To their defence they performed flawlessly as long as it lasted. I might try out the RC6 next or something Ferrodo. I will also change to Tarox F2000 discs.

I recently installed my RC6's with new discs in the front the morning of the track day. Did ALOT of lapping, probably nearly 300+ km with warmup/cooling laps and the pads and the discs were destroyed in a single day... Discs warped, probably didn't do the correct bed in before... Had scheduled service the next day and Subaru changed the discs and pads under warranty (stock pads ofcourse), they said they had never seen pads so melted before
I'll post more info soon in my thread

[Tor]

Originally Posted by brzest

I recently installed my RC6's with new discs in the front the morning of the track day. Did ALOT of lapping, probably nearly 300+ km with warmup/cooling laps and the pads and the discs were destroyed in a single day... Discs warped, probably didn't do the correct bed in before... Had scheduled service the next day and Subaru changed the discs and pads under warranty (stock pads ofcourse), they said they had never seen pads so melted before
I'll post more info soon in my thread

Thanks for that info, had had RC6 under consideration too. But my brake pusher told me all the RC pads have similar heat resistance.

This car really needs a BBK if doing any longer sessions than 20-30 mins. Nice of Subaru to change the discs under warranty. That's really good service.

As I posted elsewhere, I will try my luck with Ferodo DS 1.11, but to be honest I don't expect a much different result. A "problem" with the CL pads is that there is no warning, they just take the abuse and keep going. So no way to know it's time to back off. Maybe a bit of pad fade would be preferable (aside from a proper BBK)?

[Mr.Impreza]

Hey, how are the Yokohama's AD08r's for daily?

[Tor]

Originally Posted by Mr.Impreza

Hey, how are the Yokohama's AD08r's for daily?

My daily driving needs are not that high. Some days I don't drive at all and I have another old car that I take for short trips or if I go somewhere where I don't want to park my GT86. E.g. we had a lot of days with thunderstorms the last month, where I didn't drive it at all because I didn't want to risk hail damage.

The last month it was actually raining almost non stop, but the roads drain well here. The wet grip is not "just" surprisingly good, it's great actually! With standing water it may be different. In that case I would be cautious anyway. What it will be like when they age may be different as they are very soft and I can imagine they will get harder over time. So another aspect may be how long you expect for them to last. The noise level is not too bad either. Fuel economy I don't know and not so important for me.

[Mr.Impreza]

Originally Posted by Tor

My daily driving needs are not that high. Some days I don't drive at all and I have another old car that I take for short trips or if I go somewhere where I don't want to park my GT86. E.g. we had a lot of days with thunderstorms the last month, where I didn't drive it at all because I didn't want to risk hail damage.

The last month it was actually raining almost non stop, but the roads drain well here. The wet grip is not "just" surprisingly good, it's great actually! With standing water it may be different. In that case I would be cautious anyway. What it will be like when they age may be different as they are very soft and I can imagine they will get harder over time. So another aspect may be how long you expect for them to last. The noise level is not too bad either. Fuel economy I don't know and not so important for me.

Thank you very much for you feedback on the tires!
&
Beautiful build, loving the way the car is coming along

[Iceman]

I just checked my RC5+'s today, after 14000km and 3 trackdays, they look like yours back on post #51, with plenty of pad material left, i didn't measure it but i'd say they're around 50% or more. While i do brake hard, i don't punish my brakes as much as other drivers, i must say.

Quite happy with them, but i may ditch them after my visit to the Ring this August, it's time to go Essex, probably...

[Tor]

Originally Posted by Mr.Impreza

Thank you very much for you feedback on the tires!
&
Beautiful build, loving the way the car is coming along

You are welcome and thank you!

Maybe I should change the thread title, "economy" sounds cheap? I can't find a short phrase for "good quality track setup, upgrading the essentials without throwing away money unnecessarily". Anyone?

Originally Posted by Iceman

I just checked my RC5+'s today, after 14000km and 3 trackdays, they look like yours back on post #51, with plenty of pad material left, i didn't measure it but i'd say they're around 50% or more. While i do brake hard, i don't punish my brakes as much as other drivers, i must say.

Quite happy with them, but i may ditch them after my visit to the Ring this August, it's time to go Essex, probably...

I was super happy with the RC5+ pads as well. I would highly recommend them still!

I think when the pad got overheated it went into atomic meltdown! With the amount of pad material on the rotors the wear probably increased exponentially.

I am sure I am to blame to some extent. My brake technique is probably lacking a lot. In fact I'm not even sure I have a technique, I just slam the brakes when I want the car to stop. I read that most beginners don't brake hard enough in the beginning of the brake zone and too much at the end. But my knowledge of any techniques ends there. Any tips are appreciated.

Otherwise Zolder is also to blame. There are a lot of semi-fast straight parts followed by tighter turns. So lots of braking and because the straights are short no time for cooling. The setup I had may work well on other tracks. Zolder is about 1 1/2 hour drive from where I live, they have lots of track days and it's very uncomplicated to participate, not to mention cheap. So I need something that works there.


Some more pictures of the rotors where you can better see how thick the deposits are (probably a good part of the missing 5 mm are smeared all over the rotors):
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYBlXEuC9ms"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYBlXEuC9ms[/ame]

[ysu]

Originally Posted by Tor

You are welcome and thank you!

Maybe I should change the thread title, "economy" sounds cheap? I can't find a short phrase for "good quality track setup, upgrading the essentials without throwing away money unnecessarily". Anyone?

In the marketing world, it's usually expressed as "great value" or "best bang for buck"

I reckon economy does carry the meaning that it's a bit frugal.

You could say "essential"...?


I reckon you might need something like the DBA5000 rotors (it was recommended to me by a toyota86 racer) and some nice race pads. If that does not work, you can try for a ducted brake cooling system...but it's possible that eventually you do need a big brake kit.
I'm just talking about what I heard & read, feel free to disregard it, no first-hand experience

[Tor]

Originally Posted by ysu

In the marketing world, it's usually expressed as "great value" or "best bang for buck"

I reckon economy does carry the meaning that it's a bit frugal.

You could say "essential"...?


I reckon you might need something like the DBA5000 rotors (it was recommended to me by a toyota86 racer) and some nice race pads. If that does not work, you can try for a ducted brake cooling system...but it's possible that eventually you do need a big brake kit.
I'm just talking about what I heard & read, feel free to disregard it, no first-hand experience

Essential it is. Thanks.

You are quite right about the brakes. Better rotors and pads combined with proper ducted cooling works I'm sure. BUT, looking at the cost it doesn't pay off. That would cost (almost) the same as going directly for a BBK. The BBK might not necessarily need the cooling and you can run less expensive brake pads and will wear the rotors less so in the running cost will be less.

I would eventually like the AP Racing Sprint Kit. For that reason I'm trying to minimise the costs right now with good pads (but not the best), good rotors (but not expensive 2-piece like you suggested) and small inexpensive cooling mod (Porsche air guides) instead of expensive ducting.

In line with the "economy/essential-theme", I am looking for something that is sufficient.