Don’t use race brake pads on the street.
I thought I’d make it work. Just like I thought that I could use street pads (Axxis Ultimates) and make those work on the track.
Horses for courses. Using race pads when driving on the street:
- Make tons of dust that, even though it’s not technically corrosive with my pads (Hawk HT-10), still can be a bear to clean off of my nice Contour II wheels
- Squeal horribly, so that it sounds like you’re an old rusty school bus every time you come to a stop
- Don’t give much stopping power when cold, so you’re constantly trying to keep the brakes warm in town, which leads to…
- Premature wear on brake rotors, because race pads operate in abrasive mode when cold
Of course, I knew all of these things before I started to drive with race pads on the street. But, it’s one thing to know something, and another thing to experience it. Even though the S2000 is my daily driver, I still want to jump in the M3 occasionally and drive to work or somewhere else around town. As it stands now, the M3 just sits in the garage (or, rather, my neighbor’s garage, who is so kind to let me use her empty space).
Which is sad, because it’s a really nice car to drive.
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