Attached is a pic of one of my front rotors.

In April I installed PF Z front pads and did a 2-day track event. Brakes were great, but I noticed my rotors look like the attached. My guess is it's pad deposit, but I wanted to get others opinions on how to take care of this.

 

Define "track day." Pf's z's are only rated to like 525 deg i think and our heavy cars average around 1100 for decent drivers on decent tires round regular road courses. You could be melting the suckers lol. Are they glazed?

 

Track day = HPDE.

I was braking pretty hard. The course was Putnam Park just outside of Indy.
I tracked it with the stock pads for nearly a year.

 

Looks like pad deposit to me ... Usually the rigors of daily driving tend to scrub my rotors clean.

 

If you don't have any major cracks on the rotor, then you should be fine. Do they feel warped?

 

yeah join the club. ive always taken the time to resurface the rotors when they get like that either with a piece of sand paper or a die grinder just to rough up the surface so you can bed the pad material back in.

 

Nope, nothing of the kind.

I did try to take some steel wool to them, but didn't seem to make a difference. Maybe something more course like sandpaper would do the job though.

 

Should be alright then.

 

I noticed this too on my driverside rear rotor. The rest of the rotors were all fine.

My stock rotors and pads now have 26k miles on them. Front ones are almost gone. TIme to change.

 

Hmm, interesting. Well if it works stick with it For safety i would swap out for race pads next time round, this would also enable you to brake later and thus turn faster laps without worring about destroying the pads you DD with.

 

The pads are Performance Friction Z pads found here.

Does anyone think that the pads I need to be using a more aggressive brakepad? The pic above was with the stock wheel setup, and I will be using R-comps for my future track days.

 

I found some information on the temp ranges:

 

So the general consensus is that I'm fine for now.

I do have a 2-day weekend at 2 different tracks coming up! I'll be running 255 RA1's now instead of the stock Advans as I have been until now so assume more heat. I'll be learning the new setup (the RA1's) and a new track, but still you'd figure more heat at least down the road.

I believe I need to consider upgrading my front brakes down the road. I've been trying to research and find a good set of pads that I can drive to the track, use on the track and occasional daily driving (I have a beater). I really don't want to switch my front pads in and out.
I know that's a hard bill to find, but what are some suggestions.

From what I've read it goes something like:
PF Z > DS2500 > PF97 > PF01

I'm not sure where to place Hawk (ex HP+) pads into this, but I've read they really can chew up the rotors - similar to the PF01's - and aren't recommended for street use. Also not sure where to place Pagid's in this comparo?

Currently:
PF Z pads in front and stock setup in rear.

 

From what I have heard Hawk HP+ is comparable to the DS2500s but I spoke to a few track drivers that weren't very impressed with the HP+ pads and said it was more of a street pad than a track pad. I've used both stock pads and DS2500s and was amazed with the performance of the Ferodos over the stock pads. But I honestly don't believe the DS2500s are capable of withstanding the rigors of higher speed track events. With that I have decided to use the DS2500s as street pads and use the PF97s in the fronts as my track pads.

I think the list should go something like this:

Stock/HPS > PF Z > DS2500/HP+ > PF97 > PF01/ST-43

 

my rotors look like that 24x7!!

get used it if you keep taking your car out on a road course. or upgrade to race pads, PFC01's are excellent and leave behind very little deposits.