Dust seals or not for road use?

[chrisj]

I'm looking to change the front brakes and wondered what peoples opinions are about the pros and cons of using non dust sealed calipers on a road car.

Some advice says for a road car you should NEVER use a caliper without dust seals, others say that they've never had a problem.

The car is predominantly a road car, but will be used for track days and, all going to plan, sprints and hillclimbs from time to time.
It's not my everyday car, so if I could use non dust sealed calipers, and just service them / cleam them on a more regular basis that would be fine.

For the record I'm looking at Wilwood Superlites.

[chrisj]

It wasn't that I was deliberately trying to avoid dust seals, it's more a case of the available choice.
Wilwood Superlites have, as far as I know, a better choice of pad material at present, and they can take thick discs.
But they aren't dust sealed.
There is a radial mount dust sealed Superlite that's appeared reecntly, but it's a chunk of money more and it runs thinner pads, so the pad material choice may be limited.
There is the option of the Midilites, but they take thinner discs, and pad material choice may a problem.

Cheers.

[chrisj]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.
Real world answers were what I was looking for, not the knee jerk 'road car = dust seals'.
The car is a second car (yes Wildoliver, they're for the Marcos) to be used for fun, trackdays, and with any luck some sprinting/hillclimbing, therefore regular servicing isn't really an issue for me, I do it anyway (at least I will when the car is back together...).

I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

Chris.