Brake pad question

[AdeV]

I realise this is a bit like asking which flavour of horse is better - Findus or Iceland; but I'm trying to pick an ideal brake pad....

I will be taking an old but somewhat modified barge to track days, where i'd like to be able to put a set of laps in without suffering immediate brake fade. Obviously, I will be adding ducting, which will help, but I'm a bit stuck for pads. You see, the car is an LS400, and it seems that motorsport pads are unobtainium....

I can get: Mintex & Ferodo, but only in "road" compounds, no race stuff.
EBC "Red Stuff", but I've heard mixed messages about EBC's compounds (everything from "Great!" to "Utterly useless!") - and they're at least £75/set.
Black Diamond "track day" pads

Or, I can have proper racing pads made up, for the princely sum of £185/set....

So.... if it were you.... what compound would you use? Target weighht for the vehicle is 1200kg or less, target power around 320bhp initially, with more anticipated later.

[HustleRussell]

Would it be possible to engineer a better braking system using a disc/caliper which has more readily available compounds? I can't imagine getting satisfactory results with any road car pad, and at £185 for custom pads you may as well engineer a proper solution in the long run.
Look at models which have the same stud pattern and wheel offset and work backwards from there. Caliper mountings can often be modified.

[Electric Beaver]

How about some Brembo sport HP2000? Designed for fast road but can be used for track use too.

They are not listed for that car as they are slightly shallower than the standard but will work fine.

[stevieturbo]

You could just buy a proper pad that is a larger size, and cut it down to fit the caliper. Although most big competition pads are fairly expensive too

[AdeV]

Cheers chaps; it seems odd that the LS400 caliper (the newer one, at least), hasn't found favour in motorsport applications; it's very light, 4-pot takes decent sized pads...

Steve - yeah, I'd wondered about that, I'd hoped to find something that would, at least, "more or less" fit, and could be fettled; but nothing really comes close to the pad shape & size.

I'm thinking of going with EBC's "red stuff" this time, and if that turns out to be cr*p I'll give Black Diamond a go. And if all else fails, well, there's always AP racing....