petawabit

exactly, you're going to let ~$100 or less ruin your $100+ track day? Just buy new pads for the track and swap them out, they're very easy to swap if you're a little mechanically inclined.

gerryk

Always get the best brake pads and fluids you can afford. never start out with half baked oem pads and old fluid. its one less thing you need to worry about--the other is tires.

lovegroova

I managed plenty of trackdays as a novice with the excellent OEM pads. You just need to keep an eye on the time spent on the circuit and make sure you do proper warm up and cool down laps.

If you treat the brakes correctly you'll be absolutely fine.

For example, you wouldn't rev the engine to 10,000rpm as you'll damage it, so why would you push the brakes beyond their limits. Same thing with the tyres, exceed their performance and you'll find yourself facing the wrong way over and over again.


I recently attended a trackday at the heavy braking Rockingham circuit here in the UK. I had my trackday special Dixcel pads on the car for the morning session, and finished them off (they'd already done a few track days). As I had no spares, I had to switch to OEM for the afternoon. All that meant was that I had to run shorter sessions and brake a little earlier than before. Wear rates were fine with OEM and I had just as much fun.

deepbluejh

Thanks for the feedback. The track day would include (6) 20 minute sessions on the track. I assume those sessions are relatively short compared to what most people run, right?

Also, how long of a break in period would I need for high performance pads? I assume I couldn't just swap them out the morning of then get on them hard immediately.

lovegroova

20 mins is the absolute maximum I'd run on OEM pads - you'd be better off doing 15 mins maximum.

20 mins is a long time to concentrate for a trackday novice.

Fit pads a couple of weeks before the day and give them a good workout on a couple of occasions as well as doing some good mileage on them (different pad manufacturers have different bedding in procedures, so see their recommendations).

We have a pretty good track day FAQ on the UK side https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/582...k-day-faq-v03/ which is worth a read.

deepbluejh

How does the "Street plus" package look on this page?
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/804...-and-packages/

takchi

If you're going to look into that sponsor and its package setup, then go track package.

psychoazn

If you want to do it right, go with a full track pad. On the track, its better to have too much pad than not enough pad.

Just remember that if you're not on the verge of hitting ABS, you can brake harder

I'd venture that with a decent instructor, you'd OEM pads without even trying by your 2nd track day.

deepbluejh

Honestly, I'm just looking to go have some fun. I'm not trying to break any world records or anything. Given the amount of money it's looking like it's going to take just to get a stock S2000 up to track duty, it might have to wait a bit.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

lovegroova

In that case, take heed of my advice.

Plenty of people here in the UK have had great fun on track days with completely stock S2000s. All that's required is to drive according to the equipment you have.

Go out and enjoy it.