how quick do race pads eat through the rotors?

[e90m3_6MT]

I am looking to track pads, but I would like to drive them to the track and back, but I don't want to destroy the rotors.

any ideas

[elh0102]

You'll be fine. The accelerated wear on track will far outweigh the commute damage. Depending somewhat on the specific pad, it can be a good idea to drive home on them. The high track temps will cause the transfer of pad material to the rotor, by design. When cool, the harder and more abbrasive track pad compound will scrub the rotor clean faster than will the street pad. So it's really not a bad practice at all.

[e90m3_6MT]

thx, I'm asking because I went to the track last sunday and my brakes are still vibrating from the uneven transfer. I was thinking that instead of ruining my stock pads and rotors, I would put on track pads and brake ducts but I heard that DD on them would just wear the rotors down. I am 400 to 1000km round trip to the tracks I go, do you think a 1000km round trip bad on my rotors even if it's mainly highways?

[elh0102]

Most track pads would cause accelerated rotor wear for daily street use. Sounds like your street pads transferred some material to the rotors that may be slow to wear off, which is a potential problem when using street pads on track. Given the distance you are driving to the track, it seems that maybe the best compromise would be to switch to the track pads at the track, and keep them on until you get home. As you will discover, anything short of a dedicated track car that goes to and from the track on a trailer, is a compromise for street driving. You just need to experiment to find out what works best for you and the specific components involved. These are extremely heavy cars for track use, and brake components are especially challenging with such cars/

[kitw]

It really depends on the pads. The DS3000s are really rotor friendly, but they don't last long. The Cobalt friction pads I've used have been fairly hard on rotors when cold. The Porterfield R4 destroyed rotors when it was cold. The PF97 and 01 are nasty on rotors when cold. The Hawk Blues and HT10s and HT14s are not a pad I'd use cold either.

[mpegripper]

100% depends on the pads, in my experience hawks are the worst for your rotors when cold and pfc were bad, but not horrible.

what track pads are you using?

[1MORELAP]

I think OP's question was about driving to and from a track event. But not daily driving.

To and from event is great, likely to cleanup your rotors nicely.

Daily driving with a track pad is not advised for many reasons. Wear, noise, dust and lousy cold friction. Supposedly endurance pads like Pagid Yellow could be driven on a street and work well if you can live with noise.

I drive my car with Pagid Yellows for few days after an event, if I am lazy and they cause no harm.

[VSmotorsports]

I agree having a dedicated set for the track and another set of pads for the street is the way to go. Driving to and from the track on race pads will not destroy your rotors just make sure to switch back as soon as possible. Maybe with the longer trips just leave the street pads in and make sure to get the track early to switch them out.

[skierman64]

I've put 9000 miles on my track car this summer using Hawk-10s with no issues. Most of my driving to and from the track is highway so I seldom use my brakes. When I know I'm going to have to slow down I downshift early and let the car slow without the brakes as much as possible, only applying the brakes at the end of slowing down. Other times I will drag the brakes slightly to get some temp into them before using them a little harder. It's the cold stops with track pads that's hard on the rotors. But I've seen little to no rotor wear the whole track season.

I made the mistake of using Hawk-60s over the winter while street driving. It killed my rotors, but the temps were down in the 20s and 30s F at time. Track pads weren't designed to operate at those temps.

The Hawk-10s are more rotor friendly and still give great track performance.