Quote:
Originally Posted by HapaZ
Ok I have a base model because when I purchased the car I didn't foresee getting into tracking. 5 years later, that seems to be changing. I've done some autox events and now I think I'm ready to step up to my first actual track day at Thunderhill in a few months. I know people are going to say that if I am serious about tracking the car I should do a sport brake upgrade. I will be budgeting for an akebono upgrade over the next year but I wanted to see if anyone has tracked with the base brakes. Maybe with a pad/fluid upgrade? I see that z1 sells carbotech xp8's/10's for base brakes and I'm considering those before the akebono's. Any input on whether I should skip the track until I've done the full upgrade or if I can get by with pads/fluids in the meantime so I don't have to sit out until next year. Thanks!
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I never ran on the base brakes personally but have feedback from one or two guys who have. They work until they don't, the pads and smaller rotors will overheat faster than the Akebonos when pushed to the limit. A friend of mine who ran with the base brakes ended up putting down similar lap times to mine at Fontana Auto Club Speedway but was pushing his brakes to the max, after his session was done he pulled into the garage with smoke billowing from his wheels.
His brakes got so hot that his stopping power dropped significantly. Pretty sure his pads and fluids were toast after that. So to summarize, yeah you can run em and even be competitive but you won't get the longevity, the stopping power or the ability to dissipate heat as easily as you can with the Akebonos