Daily drivers, do you swap street and track brake pads?

[qoncept]

I'm in the market for some brake pads for autox. Lots of race pads will squeak or dust like crazy, some more than others. A guy I was talking to yesterday said he swaps them. For whatever reason I don't get along well with brakes - something always comes up that turns a half hour job in to at least a couple hours.

I don't want to swap pads all the time, but race pads are all pretty expensive (plus the other cons above) to be running on the street. Who does this?

[CSG Mike]

I used to, but then I got lazy.

It takes about 10 minutes with a floor jack, impact gun, and two wrenches.

Also, a major contributing factor was proper bedding. If you brake a little harder on the street with proper bedding, the noise is mostly mitigated.

[oofie]

I will.

I bought a set (F/R) of Project u HC+800 for my car but after driving with them on for about a week, I decided to "save" them for the track. I will go to an HPDE this Saturday and will take them out on Sunday. This makes sense to me as I won't be doing HPDEs every month anyway. I can see leaving them there if I were to attend an event every month.

I know the HC+800 are not as expensive as true race pads, but I think stock pads are good enough for my daily drives.

[qoncept]

It takes me more than 10 minutes to change tires :P

What kind of life could I expect on, say, a set of Ferodos doing about 10 events and 10k miles a year? I suppose $300 a year would be better than changing pads all the time.

[7thgear]

i used to

then i said fuck it

choose a nice compromise pad and keep your hands clean.

If you're out to win the championship then that's a different story... but sicne you're asking i can assume that you're not.

i don't know about the other racers but at one point i got tired of carrying bins of parts and tools, crawling on my knees early in the morning, getting sweaty, dirty, withour proper facilities to clean myself up.... all for a few tenths. Not to mention the absolute fact that the more work you do the higher your chance of doing something wrong one of these days.

Nowdays i prefer to work on my car in my garage... once a year... and focus on more important things like driving the damn thing.

[GTM_Challenge]

Depends on what compound I am running at the time and how corrosive they are for my wheels.

[Dave-ROR]

I do, I take off the wheels, etc to inspect everything anyways.

[smbstyle]

swap pads - wheels are off to bleed brakes after the event anyways, only takes like 2 seconds to change out the pads.

[mla163]

You should. You can live with Ferodos as a daily pad, though.

[WolfpackS2k]

I swap pads for HPDE's. I don't autox anymore but when I did it competitively for 4 seasons I never found any gains by making any braking modifications. My car wasn't fast enough for any changes to make a difference.

[ImperiousRex]

I swap unless I have back to back track weekends in which case I just leave the race pads in...

[bedabi]

I only do when I swap summer/winter tires and wheels.

[Dezoris]

For Autox no need for a super aggressive pad honestly.
I hate swapping pads all the time. Your hybrid pads will make noise on the street unless you late brake or brake harder often as Mike said.

Austin or Mike what pad is below the HC800 or the XPS8 that would be quiet on the street but pump up initial bite?

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

For Autox no need for a super aggressive pad honestly.
I hate swapping pads all the time. Your hybrid pads will make noise on the street unless you late brake or brake harder often as Mike said.

Austin or Mike what pad is below the HC800 or the XPS8 that would be quiet on the street but pump up initial bite?

NS400, AX6, for the respective brands.

Technically B-force is between NS400 and HC+800, but that's $$$$$