ATL350Z

iTrader: (2)

I think I have managed to get quite a bit faster than the brakes on my car will allow. I had an incident this weekend because my brakes went away entirely.

Here is what the stock brakes on a 350Z look like after two days of track use. Notice the rainbow effect on the rotors and the ash on the pad. Keep in mind that I put brand new pads in on Thursday, and I managed to use more than half of them over the weekend.

pimp1911

Where did you do this at. Road Atlanta?

zillinois

iTrader: (6)

Had the same problem at a track day last month. I actualy had to downshift to slow down because the brakes went out so bad. Upgraded pads, fluid, lines and built an air duct system. Now, brakes work fine. During my last track day, my rotor temps never got over 800 degrees even with shortened cool down laps. I've got a Road America event coming up so we'll see just how far the factory brakes can be pushed.

ATL350Z

iTrader: (2)

Yes, this was at Road Atlanta. I switched my fluid to Super Blue, but didn't have time to change my brake pads to an aftermarket set. I had to put a brand new set of stockers on instead.

I burned more than half the life out of the stock pads, and almost had a major incident due to brake fade. I am really dissapointed with the braking on this car in stock trim.

jmark

iTrader: (1)

The Track version with the Brembos is more suited to the track.

Redfoot

iTrader: (25)

I don't see the problem. You still had pad material left.....



Now this is a problem.

ATL350Z

iTrader: (2)

No doubt your's look a lot worse than mine do. Your pads/rotors look really burned. Were those semi-race compound pads?

The problem is that even with material left, I had NO brakes at all. I had the pedal all the freaking way to the floor, but the car wasn't stopping and I was screaming towards a brand new M3! Quite disturbing.

julian

isn't brake fade awesome? everyone should get to experience it once in their (tracking) lives so they'll know how good good brakes are compared to where you started from.

speedform

Did you bed in the new pads first? Sometimes if it's done incorrectly the pads can release a buildup of gas between the pad and rotor causing a form of brake fade.

OC_350Z

The stock brakes are so bad. I guess they are fine for street but horrible on the track. I was getting serious brake fade only 2 laps into my last event.

Redfoot

iTrader: (25)

Those are the rear set, stock pads, pad material totally gone had much metal to metal contact. This was after my very first track event 2 days at Michigan International Speedway. & some dumbass never turned his VDC off. Had brake fade on the front straight braking from about 138 to turn onto the inner road course, missed that turn by a few hundred feet.

I'm guessing that you boiled your Super Blue.

Does look like you had uneven pad rotor/contact.

commasense

Obviously, if you're going to run the 350Z on track, you need the Track model, or upgraded brakes, like the Stoptech kit. Non-Brembo stock brakes are fine for ordinary street driving, but as the above posts prove, they weren't designed to handle heavy track use.

You probably boiled the brake fluid. I've had no problems with ATE Super Blue in my Brembos, but the stock brakes no doubt got a lot hotter.

Jumpman--Z

I think I've experienced it, but not at the track. I tried to do a braking burnout it my 240SX. On the way home, I hardly had any brakes. That's the same thing, right?

CaptinB

I just got in my Hawk HPS brakes for my Road Atlanta track day. It's a one-day deal, so I should be ok. That drive home to Mobile should be entertaining

CaptinB

azrael

two huge problems here...

1. The stock rotors can't handle the heat from a track day, and you boiled your fluid.

2. You ran stock pads.

mayhem

I personally would just swap to a dedicated track pad, at the track ONLY of course. And always bleed brake fluid before going to the track.

The stock pads will quickly leave their effective temperature range. When this happens you'll put even more pressure on the brake pedal to slow down. This just compounds the problem until you have no braking power left.

I wouldn't touch anything else unless you're still having heat problems after dedicated track pads and good BF.

Asterix

This looks like an excellent example of the rotor turning into a cone because of high temperature distortion. This is why the floating rotor design was developed. I'm no expert, but I've heard enough about that to suspect this is mainly what happened. The Track Brembos will certainly help because they're larger, but you'll still get the same coning problem unless they're floating. (I can't remember if they are or not already.)

Ducting sounds like a requirement if you're going to stick with the stock brakes.

Asterix

ADMAN

iTrader: (9)

Been there - done all of that too...

Jason Bourne

It's been said already but get some track pads. If you're fast, you may want to go to a BBK + cooling. Stock street pads are *NOT* designed for racetrack duty on any car.

My brakes are rock solid and can get into ABS at any speed on every lap. But then again, I'm running PF01 pads on a StopTech kit with big-a$$ 3" brake ducts bringing cooling air into the rotors. I swapped the brakes out on the second day I owned that car. Didn't really need to say how the car would deal with the racetrack with stock brakes....

But a lot of it is about pace and braking style. A number of my students at the track get away with driving their M3s, 911s and 350Zs with stock pads when I know I could completely cook them in a session if I was driving.