[kieranlavin]

After driving someone's car on the track at the 2002 SE-R Convention in Phoenix who had Carbotech Panther pads, I decided it'd be well worth buying a track-only pad. I called up Carbotech and decided I'd order the middle-of-the-road Panther... the Panther Plus. Well, they didn't have the Plus but decided to try to sell me the XP's instead. I figured they were just trying to sell the more expensive one ($140 vs. $120) I balked for a second while thinking and the guy told me that he'd give it to me for the Plus price... sold! I put them on the car and the car handled flawlessly (especially under braking!!!) at the track. I was outbraking all kinds of other cars (I have a 95 200SX SE-R with NX brakes, SMC lines, NX master cylinder, and Panther XP pads) It was amazing. I finally decided last night to change the pads (the squealing was getting to me!) and they're hardly used! The pads look just about as thick as when I put them on! I got some great braking out of the pads *AND* they look like they'll last me several more events - especially if I use them for track-only like I had intended originally!

 

[kieranlavin]

Well, the trade off for long pad life (esp for track pads) is shorter rotor life. From what I've seen, most of the race pads are made out of a harder compound than rotors which will take a huge toll on them. Just thought you might want to know.

Believe it or not, the rotors are actually quite good! I was expecting to see some rotor wear but there really hasn't been any! I *DID* get the pads up well into their operating temperature at the track (probably a *LOT* less so on the street for those two weeks or so that I drove around with them). The harder compound of the race pads is meant to get softer as it heats up so that it doesn't eat the rotors quite as much. That's why you only want to use them at the track! We'll see how the rotors stand up to 4 or 5 more track events this summer... guess I'll have some rotors on hand just in case though!

 

[kieranlavin]

I prefer Hawk Blue pads. The carbotech ones seem to wear much faster.

When I get home tonight, I'll have to post the pics of the pads... you wouldn't believe they were used (except for the brake dust on my finger) I couldn't believe how much pad was left for the kind of braking I did that day. I'm not sure that I'm going to do a *HEAVY* braking track this year. Watkins Glen and Limerock aren't terribly hard on brakes. Maybe Nelson up in Canada... we'll see