So this is how the story goes… I wanted to replace my discs, not because they were completely gone (as they had plenty of meat on them) but one was slightly scored and they ‘looked’ a little rubbish on the none contact surfaces. This led me to start looking for a new disc and pad setup.
I’ve previous ran both GreenStuff and YellowStuff on my old car. The Yellow stuff being the far better pad however I was still able to induce some pretty terrifying brake fade on a trip to the Nurburgring. I was therefore looking for something with a decent amount of stopping power maybe to do the odd track day and to give me confidence when I was pushing the car hard.
Ill be the first to admit that the majority of changes I did to my last car made it uncomfortable to drive on the road. With uprated coilovers, drop links, anti roll bars, rear upper and lower bracing, a massive center brace cover most of the car, front upper and lower bracing and Yoko AD08 tyres it could be harsh/stiff at times and it was certainly more prepped for the track than the road. That said I was happy with the set up, it was by far the best handling car I had driven, I was confident with it and when I wanted to push the car hard I could. The brakes could have been better but with braided lines, good pads, discs and fluid, I felt id done a pretty good job with what I had and compared to stock the setup it was far superior.
I have a friend who runs Carbone Lorraine pads on his track car and has really rated them, he put me in contact with a rep. The RC5 pads had a bit of a bad reputation from the reviews ive seen, the RC6 pads are pretty aggressive and with my friends car running RC8’s I know how noisy and brutal they can be.
The RC5+ was derived to solve some of the previous complaints about the RC5 pad, mainly the horrible dust off them and secondly the noise. I accept these are an aggressive pad compared to stock. But I was always going to go for something better than stock. Better is obviously subjective.
The other reason why I got these pads was that I got them for a very good price and not much more than I would have paid for YellowStuff. Warranted I wasn’t aware they wouldn’t have the retaining clip but I believe that any noise im getting from the brakes now, which is not all the time, is possibly because of the contact (friction) between the surface of the pad material and the disc, rather than as ill fitting pad or the usual brake squeal. I certainly haven’t had any rattling or any play when the pads were being installed. There is no way I would have installed a loose pad with 1mm gap.
Another thing to consider is that I also seen pads behave very differently from car to car and from brake setup to brake setup. Pads that have no noise when sitting in a TVR calliper on one car and the same pads in the same TVR calliper on another TVR that are noisy as hell. Same pads, same calliper, different cars.
Looking at Carbon Lorraines spiel it reads as follows…
‘A highly versatile compound that has a wide range of applications, especially if lower brake dust and squeal are a priority. RC5+ are kinder on discs and still offer fantastic stopping power, and are perfect for use with treaded tyres on trackdays. This compound has the lowest co-efficiency in the range, and can be used with other CL Brake pads to find your perfect level of brake balance without the need of fitting a brake bias.’
‘The CL Brakes RC5+ has a moderate friction level (friction coefficient of μ=0.4) making it extremely versatile. Its perfect for cars running road spec tyres allowing high power braking without accidently locking the brakes. The CL Brakes RC5+ can be used in low grip situations such as mud, gravel, snow etc or when you have too much bias on an axle, for example to stop the rear brake discs locking under heavy braking.. CL Brakes RC5+ brake pads give low noise, low dust and disc wear and work well in low temperature conditions.’
I accept ive took a bit of a punt on them. They are probably more track bias. I might end up hating them but so far I can live with the noise that comes from them when they decide to let me know they are there. Whether or not the brake dust is like the devils sperm or they are going to chew through the discs or not as much as people (who haven’t ran the RC5+’s) say or that the squeal is going to get better or worse is still to be confirmed but id brought the pads by then and wanted to see if they could handle daily use. My only other option at that point was to sell the pads without trying them and buying something more stockish.
As I say a few hundred miles and they will be properly bed in and I can tell you more about my experience.
Edit* Oooohhh i see your at the Midland meet the weekend... maybe we can have a 'stop off' 60-0
