Brake pads

[2F45T4U]

my brake pads are getting thin after a good few hard thrashings. will need to bleed them now as ive lost a bit of pedal.

theres green-stuff on the front and ive never had the rears off to see what they are, im assuming there nothing fancy though.

im not overly impressed with the 'greenstuff' is there a mintex pad with a decent compound i should consider as i found these pretty got on the 300ZX. its a whole differnt beast to the elise so im unsure what to go for.
im presuming i want something a bit softer on the rear as they dont seem to get baked as hard.

any recommendations?
cheers,
Fraser

[tuscan_thunder]

Mintex 1144s are the choice. They squeal when they're cold but does it matter?

[campbell]

And to make it more exciting, Pagid RS4-2s are an excellent mid-spec choice too

[roadboy]

And to make it more exciting, Pagid RS4-2s are an excellent mid-spec choice too

If RS4-2s are mid-spec then what would you consider to be better? They are carbon mettalic pads, ie. race pads, essentially.

Mintex 1144s for road/track use.

Dan@JPS

[campbell]

Dan,

Realise you may have a lot of experience here. But from my own personal experience over 9 years:

- std Elise pads as shipped from factory are "OK" but poor for track and don't stand a harsh B-road beating with good fluid, braided hoses and grooved discs installed

- Mintex 1144 I think I had on the car after first pad change, they were better certainly

- Pagid RS42s have been on my car for about 6 years now and I have never looked back. I do few trackdays now, but when I did, they were very fade-resistant yet needed little "bringing up to temp". And for road use that latter point is critical, so I get decent braking at the end of my housing estate instead of shooting straight over the main road 1st thing in the morning

Oh, and they seem to have a very light wear rate under normal usage so in terms of value for money, I have no problem forking out the few extra £ they cost.

Can't say more than that - but as the last of the late brakers (!) I really can't recommend them highly enough.

Campbell

[roadboy]

Don't disagree with any of that. Only the use of "mid-spec" when referring to RS4-2s as they are really a high end pad.

Just my 2p.

Dan

[mckeann]

I read mid spec to mean that it was a great choice for midspec cars, i.e tuned K series, as opposed to high spec cars, like SC honda's. As opposed to being a mid spec brake pad.

[philthy]

Pagids will cope with everything you can throw at them. If they are mid spec, whats better than them?

[Shug]

Pagids will cope with everything you can throw at them. If they are mid spec, whats better than them?

When you're racing (not just playing about on trackdays) with a supercharged Honda, you'll want RS14s at least, or go for something like PF Carbon metallic. Full-on race pads though, don't work till hot and eat discs. RS42s will do most other things brilliantly.

[Edin430]

Another for Mintex

Get them cheap on ebay

[campbell]

I admit it, I was lazy in my choice of words around "mid-spec". I know what I meant. Clearly few others did (except Neil)

Do we throw the EBC range of pads into the debate to help / hinder too?!?!

[steve_weegie]

And SBS which i know a few folk here happily run...

[roadboy]

When you're racing (not just playing about on trackdays) with a supercharged Honda, you'll want RS14s at least, or go for something like PF Carbon metallic. Full-on race pads though, don't work till hot and eat discs. RS42s will do most other things brilliantly.

Not sure I agree with this either. If you're racing an SC Honda you should be running larger diameter discs and therefore there is no reason why you can't run RS4-2s. I can understand the use of RS-14s for endurance racing though. RS4-2s are carbon mettalic pads and are full-on race pads.

I think the common misconception here is that people find the limit of the pads when pushed hard but it is in fact the limit of the whole brake setup which the very good pads have done their best to mask.

Dan@JPS

[tut]

Load of pussies..............

Was on MMC's at Donnie, and do not recollect any car passing me in the morning dry session, unless I wanted it to.

Afternoon in the wet was different, as with bald 48's I was all over the place. Must admit though that it was disappointing to see the lack of cars on track once the rain came down. I was taking the paying Charity passengers out at £25 a time for three laps, though I always took them for at least five, and most of the time there were very few cars out there to overtake and at least give them some value for their money.

Maybe it is because KH is my home track, so I have more wet experience than most, but surely you have to be able to cope in the wet as well as the dry?

tut

[robin]

Load of pussies..............

Was on MMC's at Donnie, and do not recollect any car passing me in the morning dry session, unless I wanted it to.

Afternoon in the wet was different, as with bald 48's I was all over the place. Must admit though that it was disappointing to see the lack of cars on track once the rain came down. I was taking the paying Charity passengers out at £25 a time for three laps, though I always took them for at least five, and most of the time there were very few cars out there to overtake and at least give them some value for their money.

Maybe it is because KH is my home track, so I have more wet experience than most, but surely you have to be able to cope in the wet as well as the dry?

tut

Here here. We did a fair few laps in the wet - some of them better than others - you were holding us up most of the time though, so we got bored and came into the pits

Cheers,
Robin