"Phantom" fabia II vRS estate

[sharkrider]

Ok peeps not impressed, I'm a little ignorant, I have very limited funds, and have been offered these by another member who changed his stock pads after the first castle Combe because they faded when hot, put the green stuff pads on for the next track day at castle coombe and had none if the problems of the stock pads, no fade at all, so from that particular drivers point if view, they did the job perfectly! I know him, and know he drives fast on track , so I trust his judgement .... If it made a world of difference on his vRS, why wouldn't it on mine? I'm sure there are better pads out there, but I simply don't have the money to pick and choose :(

[sharkrider]

Also this is my every day driver, I teach people to drive on it too, there has to be a comprise.....

[sharkrider]

Everybody is saying different things to me, and everyone has their own opinion, for example the instructor I had said DON'T get federal rsr's as they are too hard and are generally not as good as say kumhos, however lots of other people ( sy included) rate them! Again a lot of opinions discount money..... I can 4 rsr's for less than £400 , and 4 kumhos would be £600, and they would be less useful on the road! Soooooo it's Likley to be the rsr's, or if money won't stretch to them I will buy more maxxis z1's and use them...... £63 each....

[vRSy]

I rate the Federal 595RSRs purely because for the money they are untouchable!!  Im sure there are soft compound Kumhos that are better, but as you say they cost much more and soft compounds last less.  Also Kumhos aren't great in the wet whereas the Federals are awesome, just look at my mallory park vids which were in torrential rain!!  If i was looking at the best track rubber then i would be using Yokhoma AD08's!!  There is such a thing as too much grip IMO.  A bit of slip is good fun.

 

Personally, i would wait another month or two until you have extra savings then put that money towards a better pad from the offset.  Even if i hadnt experienced of crumbled EBC pads (Red) in the past I would steer clear purely based on reviews from simple google searches!!

 

Valid point about the compromise though.  That IMO puts you in the realms of a Ferrodo DS2500.  Better bite when cold than stock and much better when hot.  Mintex M1144 are another option I would chose over EBC but lack the initial cold bite of a DS2500, but work when warm but fade when hot.  Mintex M1155 work well when hot on track, but dont fit your compromise for daily use.

 

But as you say, everyone has their own opinion.  I just cant see the point of swapping a stock pad for an aftermarket equivalent!!  It makes sense to upgrade.

[Sparkly]

All of the above is fair enough Dave, unless you put a car on a trailer and drive it to the track then there will always be compromises to be made as said car will need to be driven on real roads.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the kit that is "best" for track use is a nightmare to live with on a daily driver.

I understand a lot of "track" brake pads have utterly apalling bite when cold, not what you want on the run to work on a cold winter's morning.

I'm sure all the recommendations are only trying to help you out.

[rover220]

Fitting greenstuff pads isnt a compromise. You will destroy them on track and they will almost certainly break up.

[sharkrider]

lol.. when I said "Ok peeps not impressed," I wasn't talking about myself, I was talking about comments , from example sy and rover above, I appreciate the feedback because I am a noob to track days, but my car WILL be going to work with me in the early mornings with winter tyres on and -19C temps (if the last 3 winters up here are anything to go by!) so I want it to be usable...

 

rover220 are you saying my standard pads will be better than the greenstuff? I didn't destroy them at oulton park, but they were easy to overheat.....

[sharkrider]

PMSL... just make me seem more like a noob, the pads are yellowstuff (sorry James! lol..)

 

are they the next step up from the greenstuff?

[Sparkly]

Sharks I believe it goes Greenstuff, Redstuff and then Yellowstuff. Green - OEM ish replacement, red - fast road and yellow - fast road/track.

That's like 2 louder than Green and considerable upgrade I expect.

[Sparkly]

Have found a couple of links suggesting some of the pads advocated for cars that frequent the track, like the popular Ferodo DS2500 might not be legal/capable of voiding insurance http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/264770-feredo-ds2500/

[sharkrider]

Sharks I believe it goes Greenstuff, Redstuff and then Yellowstuff. Green - OEM ish replacement, red - fast road and yellow - fast road/track.

That's like 2 louder than Green and considerable upgrade I expect.

ahhh! so my friend would have been right with saying yellowstuff was a vast improvement from stock on the track then! lol.. just me having no idea about upgraded pads I suppose :P

[Sparkly]

My pal with the R32 Golf running 260hp+ in a heavier car which gets 'driven' has also got yellow stuff from EBC and loves them, no complaints on the life he gets from them or how they treat the discs either.

He doesn't get on track though, which is a different level of abuse.

I get the sense you are loving the track action Dave, will have to get some pointers from you before I get out for my first run.

Also looking at my brakes and tyres now that I am running more power.

[sharkrider]

yes, I'm kinda hooked...... and the instructor sessions I had this time were awsome.... I'm an experianced driver, a DSA ADI, and a blue light response driver, but nothing (apart from maybe sighting points on blue light drives) corresponds to track driving, trail braking really opened my eyes on this one, dont think i'd ever do it on the road, but it works very well in a FWD car to get you into the corners... I also learned alot on the lines, and also on how to calm it down to get a smoother line in and out of the corners rather than going too fast and fighting it..... this also is MUCH nicer to the car, and faster! I pulled away from a scooby, over the course of about 3 laps... pleased with that! lol.... (instructor in with me at the time!)

[vRS19TD]

Will be following with interest.

[rover220]

Good quality standard pads will perform better than greenstuff everytime.

Greenstuff pads will not last on track at all. They will fall apart. Google for images.

[Dark_Hero]

I have green stuff pads on mine and have been used on all 3 of the brisky sessions at Combe. So far they have been ok, if a little discoloured. As mentioned the ds2500 aren't road legal, so I may get the yellow stuff pads too in future

[sharkrider]

cool, it is yellowstuff I've been offered, I was mistaken before!

[Dark_Hero]

Good stuff, will be interested to see how you get on with them

[sharkrider]

how are you getting on with your tyres? and what tread depth do they come with?

[Dark_Hero]

Not quite sure what they come with and I have no way of measuring, but they are doing very well I could feel the difference at Combe, no tire squeal at all compared to the falkens looking forward to any future track days

[vRSy]

YellowStuff makes so much more sense.  But going back to your compromise, have you now gone too far..... ;-)

[sharkrider]

pmsl..... it says they meet this "test" that they must give at least the same response from cold as standard ... so hope so!

[Sparkly]

He'll be throwing a BBK on there before you can say Brembo

[sharkrider]

I met a man (James, brisky member ) at a seaside carpark, for a clandestine exchange....

 

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a small ammount of money changed hands, and here we go , yellowstuff pads with a theoretical 900C+ operating range, and some spare discs too less than 300 miles on the pads

 

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should really help next track day and yet still work from cold in the comming Cumbrian winter!!!!!

[Sparkly]

Have you got Yellowstuff pads to go front and rear? Looks like a box for just the fronts.

Are the spare discs 288mm stds?

Do you know if there is scope to go 312mm discs using the standard calipers, same braking friction applied on a larger lever etc.

Currently reading up on Porsche Boxster Brembo conversions............immense upgrade, but many many cash all in