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The Do-It-All Brake Pad

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  • The Do-It-All Brake Pad

    We are often asked for the single brake pad that customers can daily drive -AND- use on the track.
    That pad doesn't exist for the sorts of heavy, powerful cars we see on the track.
    Asking for that pad is asking for a unicorn.

    Any pad that holds up to track abuse will not be suitable for daily driving.
    The best (and only) strategy is to change pads for track days and change them back for street use.
    You may be willing to deal with dust and noise, but there are other issues with track pads in a daily driver.
    First, the pads that will hold up on track will need some heat in them to work right. When cold they won't stop well. You'll press on the brakes, and press harder, but they just won't have any grip.
    Second, when used outside of the appropriate temperature range they don't just squeal and dust, but they will also wear quickly. Both the pads and the rotors will wear out extra fast when used for daily driving.

    There are options.
    Many of our customers will change pads the night before their track day and drive to the track and back on their track pads. They will still dust, squeal, wear and have a numb pedal during that trip, but it should be manageable for that short trip.

    Some of our customers will change pads at the event. Depending on your pad strategy, this can be easy or, well, less easy.

    The pads should be bedded in to the rotors. "Bedding" is actually two things. First, it heats up the pads enough that some of the binding chemicals are cooked enough by the heat that they release some gasses and stabilize. Second, and most important, the pads transfer a layer of their specific brake pad material to the rotors.
    If you are switching from the OEM street pads to a set of track pads, changing pads will also mean cleaning the old pad material off the rotors and bedding in the new pad material. If you are switching from a street pad with materials compatible with your track pad, the transfer of material is already done and all you have to do is swap in the track pads and go.

    For these reasons I recommend using two sets of pads. A track pad and a street pad made from compatible material to your track pads.
    In the G-Loc pads that means the GS-1 compound street pad and typically the G12 front and G10 rear track pads.


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