Quote:
Originally Posted by ML
Larry, Mike... Trip report or BAN!
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Yesterday, when you posted, we were on the roadtrip back.. through Syracuse to eat Dinosaur BBQ for lunch. Awesomeness on a bone.
Long post, filled with BBQ, Beers, Good Time, and Not-so-good Times.
The trip was fantastic. Monti on Friday, hot (90 deg), ate tires and brakes readily. I changed my pads to Hawk HP+, at the end of Friday.
Monticello is a 4.1 mile twisty track, in a gorgeous, high-end country club-like setting, nice landscaping, pretty and scenic course. 22 turns make it a challenge to remember for a bit, but the long straight to the extremely steep blind uphill, that has an autocross-like tight left-right was a very fun part.
Christo and I drove from Monti -> The Glen later that evening.
Had a few beers at Seneca Lodge, off to bed, and up at 6 to claim a spot to pit at. Unlike @ Monti, I was not instructing at the Glen, so I got more time on the track (6 sessions a day). The A/B run group was ridiculously fast. I found my brakes with the new pads were squishy, and would not allow me to brake anywhere near where I wanted to. On the back straight I normally brake at the 300 foot marker @150mph... going into the bus stop. I had such crappy stopping power, I was lucky to make it safely into the bus stop if braking from the 600+ foot mark (@ 145mph).
Because I had to use the brakes for longer periods of time, than a extremely strong and quick application, I build up amazing heat at the wheels, with plumes of smoke after 15-20 minutes. My fluid was fresh ATE Type 200 (same as the racing blue, minus the warranty reducing power of the blue color). No air issues either.
At the end of the day, I helped Mike (and_1) to change to his Hawk HP+ pads.. which looked quite different than the ones I installed. His didn't have backing plates, mine did.. Hmm. Interesting.
Regardless, both Sat and Sun were cool, party cloudy day @ about 60 deg. Great track day weather. 2nd day (Sunday), almost everybody was signed off solo, and again got lots of seat time. Seat time for me was more brake nuclear meltdown. It prevented me from heel-toeing, as I was literally standing on the brake pedal.
Anyway, I gave up my last session of the day, and "only" drove on 5 sessions. Counted my blessings for a safe trip, and packed up.
A couple hours later, went to caravan out of there for beer, and had horrible metal on metal grinding noises. I got out, noticed the pads were thin but not non-existent. Jacked it up, took a wheel off, and noticed that inside pad was only a scraped up metal plate. All pad material gone.
Damn good thing I did not do that last session.
Anyway, Mike had his stock pads, that I swapped into. Upon changing the front pads, I noticed that the famous ceramic pistons were missing.. as in they poweredized.. completely gone. TRhe metal inster was there, and they held fluid, so for the drive home I figured I'd just use those. Push a protruding piston in, to be able to fit the brakes back over the rotor, and another piston pops out, on the group, and fluid all over.. Hmm. So I know there are no seals left either.
Get it all put together, and have limited success stopping.. After another bleeding session (done Monday AM in the rain), 80% brake feels back.
So, driving was awesome, good weather, great camareaderie, beers, schnitzel, insane mechanical issues that I'm lucky did not wind me up against the armco, and fun caravan back with incredibly good BBQ.... Sums it up.
I'll post pics of my bent pads, with the pistons literally welded into the steel pad backing... Similar (but worse than the pics shown in the braking forum, by the dedicated racers...