E30 Zone

Completed my first track day on Friday, hands down the best thing I've done in years Really, really impressed with the 325i, especially the tyre and suspension setup we ran. However, as expected the one thing that was highlighted was the brakes (we were running Ferodo DS2500 pads but standard discs).

Looking to uprate the discs and the options so far look to be Tarox G88s, Nitrac 16 groove, Red Dot 20 groove and EBC Turbo Groove. Due to the lightness of the car the actual stopping power of the standard disc/Ferodo combo was pretty good (letting us outbrake nearly eveything save Caterhams) so what I'm more concerned about is longevity and resistance to fade - basically which discs are going to allow me to stay out on track the longest before letting go?

Standard solid discs are my choice. Put the extra cash on your next set(s) of brakepads and some good cooling for the fronts. Your brakes should never fade, if they do its lack of cooling or you need some more aggressive pads. (or bigger brakes altogether)

Seconded - if you are sticking to the OEM calipers etc then you should put the money into pads first, grooved discs won't gain much (if any) performance as modern pads don't suffer as badly from gassing or glazing as they did in the past (making most grooved discs a visual thing mainly).

Could you explain what problems you had with the ds2500 and standard pads?

I'm running Pagid discs and ds2500 pads on my car and I only cooked them when bedding in. I'm interested to find out how they perform when really pushed

To be honest there weren't any 'problems' as such, but we ran them for 6-7 lap sessions where the car was driven VERY hard and at a couple of points this resulted in the discs smoking on returning to the pits and subsequent glazing of the discs (to put the braking into context the alloys have yellowed due to the heat generated!)

Do the PBMW guys tend to run standard or uprated discs and how do they deal with fade over the course of a race?

They tend not to use the brakes so much . A few different options being used, one of the most popular is standard discs and Pagid pads.

We are running TAR-OX F2000 disks with Pagid RS 29 up front and Pagid RS 71 on the rear
http://www.raceperformancemodified.com/ ... rake-Disks

As said above though, look to a good pad first, cant fault the pagids having run them for 2 seasons now after moving over from Mintex

If you look to do both, drop us an email and I'll see if we can do you a package price

BTW What track were you at? Was it somewhere like Donington which is notoriously heavy on the brakes?

Did you not have the option to do a cool down lap? Is there any ducting fited to the brakes? and also with everyone saying look for a good pad first, I thought the ds2500's were rated as a good pad, although for more serious track work I would have thought the ds3000's would have been better or the pagids seem to be as good if not better with far better longevity.

Hey Jackflash, you weren't at Abingdon were you?

jb1 wrote:Hey Jackflash, you weren't at Abingdon were you?

Hello mate, yes it was us at Abingdon. That hard left after the straight was the brake killer!

Ducting is probably the next step needed. The DS2500s were indeed a good pad, I just felt that the standard discs weren't the greatest match tbh (though they weren't new anyway so that will have played a factor I'm sure) and hence was wondering if it was worth upgrading them when I change them.

Nice to meet you guys, was a good track day. Yeah that shar corner was hard on the brakes, especially standard disks/pads. I have got myself some ebc red stuff and just fitted a short shift, looking at suspension next.


Might be doing the 13/06 or 17/06, you got any more planned?

Good to meet you too. Yeah, looking to do Brands Hatch next though. Get that suspension sorted and you'll notice a massive difference!