Interim update on braking stuff: I did get the CL brake pads in (RC6 front, RC5+ rear). I like the look of the pads so far. I lightly sanded the front rotors and hit them with a Brake Hone before the pad swap to try to help eliminate vibration issues from plain deposits.
The new pads pretty quickly wiped the rotors back to shiny clean bare metal driving them cold on the street, no Carbotech material left at all. Front's still got a steering wheel judder though, which I assume means I already created hotspots and thickness/hardness variation in these rotors at the last track weekend (and/or the street driving on the deposits afterwards) and there's not much to be done about it. It could also just be mounting issues: they used too much of some "high temp" paint on the Z1 hats, and it melted near the lugs and made a bit of a mess. I tried to sand that back flat before re-installing, but I couldn't get it all off since it's pretty tough stuff at room temp. Whatever, just tired of messing with those rotors anyways.
Ordered a new set of
1-piece DBA-4000 front rotors through kamispeed, they arrive monday, hoping this combo will survive a bit better than the last, but only time will tell
. I left the rear rotors alone (the cheap slotted 1-piece from Z1) since they seem healthy for now.
The feel on the new pads is pretty nice so far, at least on the street. It doesn't have the extra-grabby initial bite of the XP-10 front on light pedal application, but seems to have plenty of torque once you lay into the pedal a bit, and seems easier to modulate too. Can't wait to see how they perform back at the track.