Taking my itr out for its first full course track day event in 2 weeks. It's all day.
Only upgrade is stainless steel brake lines. It's running oem-like pads and rotors with lots of life left in them.
Car came with brand new Hawk blue pads...

Should I learn how to drive on my first track day with the current pads, or swap over to the blues? Will I even notice much of a difference?

From the Hawk site, it looks like they aren't super aggressive...

 

Well it depends a lot on what track you are running on. If it is a tight with heavy braking zones then you may be well advised to use the blues. If it is open and flowing then there is no need.

If I was to guess I would say stock pads for your first track day. If you find the pedal is getting soft at some point during the day just don't dive into every brake zone as aggressively. Drive the corners just as hard but take is easy on the approach. The side benefit of this is it helps promote slow in and fast out which results in faster laps times anyway.

If you do run the blues make sure to clean your wheels right after the session and drive them as little as possible on the street. They are really hard on rotors when then are cold.

Dave

 

What are "oem-like pads"? Are they house-brand pads from the auto parts store? If so, they may not last very long on the track. If they are actually Honda brand stock pads for the ITR, those are actually pretty good for a stock pad, and you'll be fine. Whatever you do, you should always have an extra set of brake pads any time you go to the track.

Beware the Hawk Blues (9012 compound), as they are notorious for brake dust that can damage your car's paint if you don't wash the car right after you use them.

The ITR can go through front pads really fast, but rear pads last a long time. My ITR has over 7500 actual track miles, using street-track pads (e.g. stock, Hawk HP+, Cobalt GT Sport); I'm on my 17th set of front pads and my 5th set of rear pads.

 

They are OEM pads.

If these are the 9012 compound Im going to avoid using them, if they aren't im going to try them out, and bring the OEM pads with me.

It's not a full time track dedicated car, and it still has original paint...which I still care about.

Thanks for the help.

 

I decided to change out my pads for my first track day coming up as well (end of the month).

It's probably overkill at the moment, but i wanted to make sure i had enough stopping power and fade resistance as possible.

I went with the Project Mu MAX500 front and rear pads. I had a spare set of ITR rotors lying around so i got those cut and put them on to bed in the pads. Once done, i plan on swapping them back out after the track day back to my 'street pads and rotors'.

went with Motul RBF600 fluid as well over my stock Honda DOT3 stuff.
all this is on an EG with 5-lug and Spoon calipers. should be fun times

 

When I first started doing HPDEs I overbraked for turns, which means I taxed the brakes way more than I do now. So, I'd go with a set up that will not fade/give you a long pedal during the day.

Inconsistent braking (fade/long pedal) will sap your confidence.

(at some point, early in my "career" I started to go faster with a long brake pedal, as I discovered that I didn't need to brake as much as I had originally thought I did and I carried more speed through the turns.)

 

I would just stick with you stock pads; If its your first time out there, you probably wont be going all that fast. My last track day (I had just made it back from over seas), I didnt have time to change my tires or pads, but I still went lapping. I didnt have any real major problems, that is until my tires got super greasy.

 

I'd go for Hawk HP+ up front if you can. I feel like the stock pads barely last doing a few emergency stops on the street, let alone on the track. The last thing you want is to worry about your brakes being crappy out there - it's cheap to swap them out now and have brakes that last the whole day.

If you don't mind the idea of swapping out to the Blues midway through the day, then run the stockers up front. Remember the Blues might be a little funny as they bed at first.

 

Tweak back from the dead, and with a good suggestion to boot

 

stick with the stock , unless you want to change out the rotors.
Like other posts say.. the blues are brutal cold

 

if anything upgrade your fluid to motul rbf600. i killed my brake fluid lol. this was autox after 40 runs in a day.

i must say its scary when all of a sudden ur coming in hot into a corner and you mash the brakes and aren't slowing down ( i ate some cones ) the car had to sit for awhile after that. the porterfield pads held up just fine but the fluid boiled. my friend didn't think we would run the car so much i guess. GLHF!

 

Some kind of high-temp brake fluid would be good, but Motul might be a little overkill, based only on price.

 

Motul's not expensive. At around $15 for a pint bottle, thirty bucks is cheap insurance against boiling.

 

I'm getting Motul and Castrol SRF confused I think...

P.S. Friggin' Ford stuff is now $12/bottle, and you need two to do a full flush. WTF did that get so expensive?

 

The track you are visiting will have a lot to do with the lifespan of stock pads. Some tracks will eat them alive while others they could run all day at.

 

Yup. SRF is the one that costs $70-80 per flush, and the dry boiling point - the one that matters for track fluid, which is usually changed fairly frequently - isn't any better than Motul's. SRF has a much better wet boiling point, but that's primarily relevant if you leave your fluid in the car for a long time, which (hopefully) most of us don't.

 

slight update...i think i didnt allow enough bedding time for the brake pads before auto-x them all day. so i think they are glazed now (initial bite is there but there is fading when i apply more pressure=scary!) i am going to take off all the pads and then sand them down and the rotors also.

moral of the story, try to bed the pads in properly maybe a week before you actually use them (NOT the night before) because apparently the regular speed up slow down repeat bedding isnt always 100%