Stock Pads at Track - Not Good

[03SG///M3]

I have RS19's installed and my next event is not until the end of August. I wonder if this will damage the stock rotors/use up the track pads if i just leave the RS19's on the stock brakes without changing back to stock pads for everyday street use as my M3 is daily driven. Anyone done this?

[JJM335]

Originally Posted by kitw

I've found there is a lot of technique to braking. I run in the instructor group, and I am usually not pushing my car super hard, but I do like to go fast... I try to be nice to my brakes though.

Just some tips to help eek more life out of stock pads: (and I haven't tracked my E90 M3 yet, but I have a ton of track time in my supercharged E36 M3, E46 M3, Z4 and 335i, and have done events on stock pads as well as race pads.)

- brake firmly as little as possible
- the longer you are on the brakes, the harder they have to work and the more heat you put in them
- get as much time off the brakes as you can
- don't be afraid to take a cooldown lap in the middle of a session, or come into the pits for a few minutes to cool your brakes (At thunderhill, I can usually get an entire session on stock pads, but at Laguna, I usually have to come into the hot pits for a minute or so, to cool them if I want them to last)
- if you are fully threshold braking into every braking zone, your stock pads are not going to last
- remember that you are still doing driving schools and that going 1 second faster isn't going to net you more prize money

seriously, though, try riding with more experienced people and take note on how they brake, when they apply the brakes and when they come off them. Intermediate group is usually a really bad place for this, ride with some of the faster instructors.

The M3's factory brakes are pretty good. It is a very heavy car, though, and there isn't a whole lot of brake cooling. You may end up having to go to a more aggressive pad... (and the Cool Carbons are an ok dual purpose pads, but you still need to use good technique or you will overheat them too)

+1 and very well said. I have spent the last couple of years working on my braking technique and can attest that it makes a profound difference regardless of the brake pads used.

[swamp2]

Should be obvious but keep in mind also that if you both run R comp tires AND threshold brake (or even brake more aggressively than at the limit with non R comp tires) you will be pushing your brakes WAY harder and that will multiply any other unwanted effects.

[Throtex]

I am a noob with a grand total of 8 track days (ever, all this year). I'm on stock pads/rotors (fluid recently flushed, still on DOT 4). Everything has held up remarkably well despite my fairly harsh usage of the brakes.

That said, this past weekend on Jefferson (Summit Point) was the first time I experienced some noticeable material transfer, regardless of any efforts to cool the brakes down. That's just a harsh track on brakes compared to the other Summit tracks, in my limited experience. No stopping issues, just a minor bit of shuddering at the wheel.

It's quickly going away under regular driving this week, just got to wear it down a bit. No big deal. The stock brakes seem perfectly competent to handle 20 minute-at-a-time HPDE events.