I have a 07 GT and was curious what brake pads other S197 drivers are using on track days / road racing circuits for 05-09 GTs with the stock calipers/rotors?

I've normally used Hawk HPS on my daily drivers and for applications where I want a good compromise of low noise, low dust, long rotor life, fade resistance, but the track is a different story. The pads/rotors are taking a pounding and the HPS pads will last a handful of laps before they need cooling.

For example, my Cobalt SS Turbo has stock Ferodo pads that are used on the CTS-V and other GM high performance applications, designed for road course racing and essentially tuned for the Nurburgring (Nordschleife). I saw a video of a stock 05-09 GT on the Nurburgring where the driver loudly exclaimed "no brakes" right before km 8 or so. The video I saw of John Heinricy taking the Cobalt SS Turbo around the same course wasn't nearly as exciting. They say the stock Ferodo pads and the stock Continental tires (Porsche-spec ContiSports) only last about 10k miles!

So what are some of your recommendations for road racing/track day brake pads using the stock calipers and rotors, that could also be used for daily driving?

 

run your HPS pads on the street and to the track and then swap in the track pads, most track pads are down right awful for the street and most of my buds do it this way that do alot of track days with heavy repeat braking. Take a look at the Hawk DTC or HT pads, stop tech has some good stuff also for the track, take a peek at ebc but I'm eh about them. keep in mind rotor wear is going to be crazy but run a good quality set of blanks or have some on hand, stay way from cross drilled ( great for looks) they like to crack but most important that take away braking surface, good pads along with grippy tires will do the stopping just fine.

 

Thanks. The stock factory pads (Akebono ceramic??) seem fine until you get them really hot on the street. I'll give the HPS a try next time on the GT. I run them in the front on my Crown Vic and the initial bite isn't as good as I'd like, but with some heat they seem more grabby. Is this the case on our S197 GTs with the HPS pads?

 

I find the HPS to be a nice "street" pad but I would run them on the street only and run a different "track" pad for track days like i stated. A track pad is really awful for daily street driving but really not that hard to change out at the track. A street pad isn't going to hold up has well as a track pad for obvious reasons( heat) but on the street your not seeing the same types of repeated high speed braking or repeated hard braking.

A whole entire page could be written on pad material and rotor material.

 

I can fade out most pads on the street and that's not even with aggressive driving. The stock pads on my GT are OK in cold weather, but with faster stop/go traffic in the summer, they will fade easily.

 

I run HP+ and love them.

 

Carbotech 1521s for the street, XP10s for the track. There really is no street/track pad.

 

I'm starting to see that when looking for new pads on the Ducati. I'll take the high performance street pads though.