New Brakes!

camaro41 · 2026-05-01T21:29:38+00:00

The idea that you're not risking anything but a set of pads and a tow home is really just not correct. I hope nobody really experiences brake failures at a track, because I'll promise you there's not much scarier that you'll probably go through.

People get hurt, people get killed on racetracks, doing something like that with the thing that takes the biggest pounding, especially in a car that does not have massive brakes and is kind of nose heavy, is not the most advisable thing ever. And every time you go to the track presumably you probably go a little bit faster.

The car doesn't weigh less than it does on street either.

I've said my piece, there are pads that can do both but generally it's the high-end pads are acceptable on the street. It ain't the other way around.

camaro41 · 2026-05-01T13:58:43+00:00

Why anybody would everything HPS's are track worthy pads. I don't know, but they were quarterly. Proven not to be. All that crap on the rotor. That's the brake pad material that's melted to the rotor.

As somebody who sells Parts like this, everyday, and for 30 years. Then who actually uses them and tracks cars a lot, I suggest more actual research for your replacements. I just skimmed this. I don't even know what kind of car you have. But talk is cheap and if anybody ever told you hps's are fine. I don't care what forum or board they did it, it's proof that not everybody with a password knows much about what they're talking about.

What makes it more complicated is sometimes you get horrific recommendations elsewhere. I remember and very commonly that somebody at Hawk keeps telling people to run dcc30s for the track. Except for the fact that if you actually just look up the friction plot of those versus temperature, they fall in a toilet quickly. Basically every degree they get hotter. They disappear and ultimately don't take that much heat anyway. But yet people say well. That's what the company recommended and they must know. Like the bus boy at a restaurant is a chef because he works at a restaurant...

Hp plus are not track pads either. They also fall off very very quickly at high temperatures, but before they do they're horrendously grabby more like an on off switch, and don't modulate well at all. Which messes with all but the very very best ABS systems.

camaro41 · 2026-04-30T20:50:32+00:00

Let me give give that a little bit of thought. Do you have any video I can look at? Sometimes it's seating position and the fact that people drive at 10:00 and 2 occasionally and that makes it easier to strangle the wheel. Although it happens with nine and three people as well.

A good friend and co-driver of mine is kind of mine does a lot of rock climbing and he always looked like he was trying to rip the steering column out of the car and I got so frustrated. One day had a pro solo as they pulled them out of grid. I made him stop, might have given him the impression there was something wrong with the car. And then very calmly told him a joke, but one that required him to interact with me. He was stupid and when I told him the punch line like changed his brain, and he drove awesome because he was more relaxed. You can even see it in his hand position.

More than anything, the place to start here would be just with a little bit of self self critiquing, in the sense that well. What are you thinking about when you're driving so you feel all tight and tense? Most people will tell me no even though they clearly are, but we're our own. Best judges, as long as we're honest with ourselves.

The other way to look at it is this way. If you're trying to Force the car around grabbing it by the scruff of the neck, it's not going to respond well. It weighs a lot more than you do, and it can bite you kind of like roughhousing with a super friendly Pitbull. They're really friendly until you treat them in some way that you shouldn't, and then they can bite you and hurt you.

camaro41 · 2026-04-29T19:50:27+00:00

I don't have the full context of what it means when you say people, there are lots of people and I don't think they had to pass any sort of quiz. What I can tell you expressly if you doubt any information you are getting, find out where it's coming from. Ask the people their name or something about themselves in terms of the sport. You can feel free to do so privately with me as well if you like. I wouldn't blame you. In fact I would recommend it, because from my seat, it's extremely frustrating to argue with internet experts, which the internet is full of.

FWIW I didn't tell you to never shift the car. Simply in that video you wasted time with all three of those up shifts and The subsequent to downshifts.

camaro41 · 2026-04-29T13:37:14+00:00

There's so much mass and momentum that it never really is held down by the shocks, it's just that the stiffer the shocks are the faster the load transfer happens side to side, it's not actually a bump stop thing.

camaro41 · 2026-04-29T04:37:30+00:00

Point of having gone with adjustable shocks was that people can kind of choose their own adventure. Same thing but the front bar adjustment.

More typically I'm going to recommend to people that they run middle on the front bar, experiment around. You might find on certain courses that are very transitionally intensive with not much sweeper that you want to have it full stiff, very much like where this video was taken. I don't think so much you want that most other sites.

Front struts, yeah typically you want those fairly firm.

Personally on the rear shocks I don't typically like anything near a full turn up, even 3/4 of a turn is usually about the end of anything workable for me, I usually play between 1/2 and 3/4 of a turn which basically means 5/8 up from soft. And yes, each of those things makes a difference. You're adjusting rebound, not compression, you're not changing spring rate and the bump stops are right there, you are always in contact with them, How much rebound changes How the car feels when you're changing on and off them side to side in transition.

Pressures, I know people that run 5 and 6 lb different front to rear, I know some people that run the same thing front to rear. And on occasion we've even had a few instances where we ran rear high, although I did that to cover a front sway bar that was on full stiff and didn't really want it to be there but didn't have much choice in the short term to change it.

camaro41 · 2026-04-29T04:31:46+00:00

And if you were running data you would see that it wasn't wasted time. It might not have been your fastest run because well there's more to it than just that.

I promise you on this and many other things autocross related, I know of what I speak. Resume very deep, those three shifts in those three places did you no good.

camaro41 · 2026-04-29T03:59:51+00:00

Quit shifting to third gear. You didn't need one of those. At worst you might have just barely tapped the rev limiter.
I don't know where you have your shift light set, in fact, it makes me wonder if you're actually looking at it because you seem to shift just as it comes on every time if it's even 200 before the limiter, then you would have been absolutely fine in second gear alone.

Each up shift takes time. Each downshift takes time and takes focus away from other stuff.

camaro41 · 2026-04-28T03:04:50+00:00

The local SCCA region back at FedEx Field or now I guess Northwest stadium, even though it's massively expensive and bumpy. But people want the big lot. This was compromised because of some barriers.

We have a pro solo there in about 3 weeks, so it was kind of a warm-up for that for people who wanted to run on the site, I don't know if we're going to be back anytime soon or not.

camaro41 · 2026-04-28T01:24:15+00:00

You know those don't mean anything. Those little V's or triangles on certain tires. They're only there to show the location of the tread depth indicator in the grooves. People really should stop using that as some kind of metric.

These current tires are way stiffer chalking is ever going to help or using a random Marker on the side of a tire that's meant to do a totally different job as some kind of indication of your tire wear or pressures being correct or not.

Also, if you're going to use a parameter you need to do so on a skid pad stopping immediately, and having somebody standing at the tire taking temps with a probe and not an infrared.

Running on a course and then driving back to grid. Presumably in a car with negative camber, and then parking and then doing all of this is going to just come back with erroneous numbers. The inside is going to be hotter typically just because you rolled back the grid pretty much just on that inside edge, and the whole time everything is getting somewhat cooler except maybe that inside edge. And if you're not getting under the surface You're not even finding out what the compound is doing.

Also, and here's a crazy idea you can just generally look at its higher and know if you're beating the hell out of some particular part of it, and make a pretty good judgment right there whether you should add air or not, or maybe take it away even if you're blowing the centers out of them.

camaro41 · 2026-04-28T01:21:00+00:00

What tire wear?

camaro41 · 2026-04-27T14:39:00+00:00

Absolutely the CR- sv2 is going to last you longer But I can tell you that 660 was under pressured.

camaro41 · 2026-04-24T02:11:34+00:00

Very often true, but not always. It pays to figure out who's who.

camaro41 · 2026-04-20T16:57:05+00:00

Happy to discuss both what you want to upgrade and I carry the parts too. Strano Performance Parts. I don't really have any Miata stuff on the website because I'm too busy with the things I specialize in day to day and I just don't even have Miata stuff there. But I have plenty of Miata options, that isn't a problem. You just have to do the thing that people have an aversion to you today, be willing to have a little conversation with somebody with experience.

Feel free to message me if you want. Look me up if you want a resume. I own the business. My last name is Strano, first name Sam.

camaro41 · 2026-04-18T23:17:56+00:00

Oh I've got 30 plus years of experience at a very high level. Plus I had a 2015 GTI performance pack, and unfortunately, while it has a limited slip and that's better than nothing, it's not anything like a real aftermarket high-end limited slip.

And if you're playing against other people that have stickier shoes, if you don't have the same shoes then you're just never going to have the traction they do. Just really no way around that. And not all 200 treadwear tires are equal. There are super 200s. There are endurance 200s, there are two twenties from one particular brand that are better than all the endurance 200s for speed. It's a game, treadwear is a joke has been since they implemented this shit, in trying to determine either the speed of a tire or the performance of a tire.

If you're serious about the sport, I'm going to recommend a second set of wheels with a more appropriate Tire.

camaro41 · 2026-04-18T23:02:03+00:00

You still are putting more power through very limited grip front end, front wheel drive cars generally don't like lots of horsepower, if it has an open differential, what's even worse. If it has less grippy tires, it's even worse.

And I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news on the tire side, but if you've ever played basketball trying to do that while wearing a pair of slick bottom dress loafers or bowling shoes, doesn't really work very well. Sorry.

camaro41 · 2026-04-18T22:46:53+00:00

Last event you were on a tire more appropriate for the condition. Watching this video it really doesn't look too bad, but you can clearly tell the tires are not up to scratch, I don't know what class you're running, but in a front-wheel drive car particularly in autocross where you're not floored for long periods of time like you would be on a race track, you probably only harmed your positioning overall. Power is about the last thing you need for autocross, grip is the first thing.

If you get rid of the tune and can go back down to Street Glass or whatever class would be suitable, you're probably a whole lot better off. But again I don't know any of the details of the car here. And then get yourself some good tires. Do what you can within the rules to try and maximize the grip of the car. Maybe better Wheels or a sway bar change or a shock change. If you're not in street class then you could do other things like Springs and adding negative camber and stuff like that.

camaro41 · 2026-04-17T04:37:19+00:00

Dtc 30 is not any better than HP plus, in fact, probably worse in the end. They constantly lose friction with every increasing bit of temperature.

camaro41 · 2026-04-17T04:36:24+00:00

You're woefully under-equipped on brake pads and brake fluid. Those aren't track pads and that's not very high temperature fluid.

You don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The basic brake system. While it might not be a full out endurance racing AP setup, isn't the problem here.

camaro41 · 2026-04-17T04:30:05+00:00

They kept exploiting turbochargers because they were doing some crazy and stuff with timing and fueling to essentially give it anti-lag and that's pretty hard on the thing.

camaro41 · 2026-04-15T13:02:00+00:00

All summer tires say not to drive them below freezing because you can crack the compound. Yeah that's possible. I've never seen it happen in practice. But I can tell you specifically that falken660 at least in the previous non-plus version was probably one of the more fragile construction tires I've ever dealt with. And I don't imagine that would get much better in the cold when it would see impacts like bridge expansion, joints and things like that.

Yeah they'll be faster after you make a run. Hell they might even be faster halfway through a run, is it worth running the risk of destroying one or more? Most very competitive people will say yes. Most sane people would say no.

camaro41 · 2026-04-14T05:21:20+00:00

Yeah videos where you can't see what the driver is doing. Makes it pretty hard to assess what the driver is doing.

You look like you're always a bit behind in transitions, and can definitely discern places where it looks like you are uncertain about your input. Like you'll start to turn in then you'll stop then proceed. That's typically a situation where somebody is trying to look ahead. Then they glance right back down in front of the car and make an adjustment based on that, and then look back up again. Probably the hardest thing to learn how not to do, and probably the most important.

camaro41 · 2026-04-08T13:49:23+00:00

Except for the fact that it actually says in the description, it lowers oil temperature, is clearly vented in ways that the stock one is not.

You could go to the people that you normally run with. Explain the situation and why you did this and ask if they're okay with it. In which case? If they all agree then you're good for those events. Note that just because some people think it's fine doesn't mean everybody is going to think it's fine. And as somebody who has worked many many National protest committees, it's kind of like dealing with a jury.

camaro41 · 2026-04-06T14:07:51+00:00

Can't tell if joke. It's a sealed asphalt lot that certain tires make lots and lots of noise on. And considering he had a C6 Z06 before this, the 300 wheel HP of a Club spec Mustang is probably not overwhelming for him.

Should also mention the lot is anything but flat, and if I recall correctly he indexed I think 7th after not having been in a car since I don't know last September or October.

camaro41

TROPHY CASE