Good advice here, I agree with all of it but I do have a question.
Doesn't driver ability and ACTUAL inteded useage factor in here? The typical new guy running 20 minute sessions at a PDX certainly isn't going to hurt a set of HPSs on stock rotors...we haven't. 10,000 street miles, 200 autocross runs, and a couple of pdxs and we are still in good shape. They will get changed out before the next "big track" but we could autox and street drive the rest of the summer on whats left. FWIW, we are Brembo equipped.
I realize that we don't drive as hard as most (we'll get there) but maybe this guy doesn't yet either.
Of course, the driver's ability and speed on track GREATLY effect brake pad & rotor wear and heating issues. We can't know how fast a driver is when folks ask these questions, so I always assume "this guy is pushing 10/10ths". I'd say the OEM brakes are good for about 5/10ths in a Mustang. But yea... some people ARE THAT SLOW. Most people are, really.
I've instructed 100s of track newbies over the decades, and I've seen a lot of the "Mr. Magoo" super tentative drivers that brake 500 feet early, never brake at anywhere near full potential, and never squeal a tire. That's fine, and a good place to start (much easier to speed people up than reign them in from near-death over-driving). Rolling around at 5/10ths is probably not going to tax the brakes, tires or anything. But I've seen others that were also
total newbies to track events, that either had some natural ability ("Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline?") or experience from another form of motorsport (ie: motocross, autocross, etc) that
quickly translated to lots of speed track, from the very beginning.
Most of the in-car videos I watch of typical HPDE folks are... painfully slow. I dunno, but to me, it usually looks like a large percentage of HPDE folks brake 300-1000' too early, use maybe 40-50% of the braking system's potential, and get on the gas WAY too late. Braking on a road course is a
tricky thing to master, and can have dire consequences if you get it wrong, so I understand the reason why most folks brake too early. And I don't push my DE students to
"Go faster!" until they have mastered all of the new, strange skills that you
just won't have at your first few HPDE events (proper seating and hand position, smooth down shifting, learning understeer/oversteer/car control, passing etiquette, throttle application, etc, etc). On the rare occasion that I get a GOOD student in say... HPDE2, one who has worked hard and mastered these basic skills and is confident and safe driving at 9-10/10ths, sure...
then I'll work with them on pushing the brakes, pushing braking zones, and going faster. Speed is just so far down the list of "needs" for HPDE1 students.
But so many folks graduate out of HPDE1 to drive solo, then never get the "go faster!" instruction they might need to actually.... go faster. Brake later. Learn car control (but they should
learn this in a parking lot, dodging around cones). Coming from an autocross background myself, where we Left Foot Brake like mad and push every braking zone to the inch to squeak out every thousandth, you quickly learn to PUSH THE BRAKES. I just watched some in-car laps today someone sent me and it was... sad. 20 seconds off the pace he should be running in that car at this track (ZR1 at TWS, CW), for his experience level. The guy was braking 1000 feet too soon, everywhere. Coasting through corners. On the throttle 100's of feet too late. What do you say to these folks? There's no nice way to tell someone, "Your lap times are slow because you're just driving too damn slow". You can get away with that in person, with friends, but most people just don't take that criticism well. When you can get in and show them what 20 seconds faster feels like, with real timing equipment, then... maybe you get through. Maybe. Being an effective "Driving Coach" for track drivers takes mountains of patience and diplomacy skills that I probably just don't have.
So one rambling diatribe later, yes, driver ability is a huge factor in brake pad wear.
Sorry if I came off as a know-it-all snob, but I see a lot of
really slow laps on video, and in person from the right seat. I'm sure there's someone, somewhere, that watches my in-car videos and says the same thing.
Stock brake pads or even HPS pads just will not last that long when you are pushing it. I've used Hawk pads (HPS, HP+, all of the DTC variants) on a number of cars and S197s and... well, I guess all I will say is that
any of the low cost brands have LOTS of filler, which makes for poor wear. I've had some pads literally crumble and fall apart when removed, even with more than 50% pad material still left. Does not make for a cost effective set-up. The more expensive pads just don't have these useless filler material and/or don't crumble and fall apart, so they last longer, and have a much better cost-per-mile factor, too. I've gone through the cheap pads, and the expensive pads (PFC, Ferrodo, Carbotech), and always end up saving money with more costly pad brands. That's a whole other subject.
Cheers,
