Porterfield Brake Pads

[ashley]

OK- prepared to look really stupid here, but I'm struggling to get my head round this one a bit...

Considering swapping from Carbotech to Porterfield pads, not because of stopping power, purely because of the amount of corrosive dust the Carbotechs create...I'm too lazy to clean my wheels everyday, and I don't want to ruin my alloys

So looking at the Porterfield options trying to choose a suitable candidate, and the only real comparison I can find is the following graph from Porterfield showing relative friction levels:



Now the dumb bit! I seem to remember that the higher to coefficient of friction, the higher the level of friction...so in other words- the higher the line on this graph- the higher the friction, and so the harder the maximum braking force the pads can create?

Obviously this ignores the additional heat created by higher friction- but trying to be simple: does higher friction mean better braking?

In which case why are their seemingly most popular pads (the R4-S) the lowest friction pads they sell?

Wouldn't the R41 be a better choice, although I can see their effectiveness only ramps up once they get hot!

So...how dumb am I being?

[craig]

Not able to answer your question ash, but you needn't clean your wheels every day with carbotechs fitted. I'm the same as you. I don't really do cleaning cars. I Can't be ar$ed either.

I left carbotech dust on my wheels for a month. I cleaned my wheels without washing the car

The carbotech dust simply washed straight off with no damage to the freshly refurbished Enkei wheels.

I can't imagine carbotech would sell pads that ruin wheels after leaving brake dust on for a day. They're very dusty though. Can't argue there!

Just my 2p.

[ashley]

Yeah- I hear you, but past experience with them has shown me how much damage the dust does over the longer term, even with lots of rimwax....not prepared to take the risk with my Te37s

Appreciate the input mate

[CalMac]

Could be as simple as what the pads are intended for - generally more people will be buying fast road pads than track pads. So I'd guess the R4-S is a road pad and the R41 is a track/race pad maybe?

[Race Idiot]

Man i've been thinking this exact same thing all week.

My advans need to be taken off the car I recon to get all the dust off them. There are some stubborn bits that are caked on from a few trackdays.

Also my xp8's seem to have lost most of their cold bite from lack of use or not being heated up enough or something i dunno. I mean from cold they werent the greatest, I think they might need a sand down and re-bedding in.

I was looking at the R4-S compound for the street and then just swapping the xp8's back on for trackdays tbh.

The R4 is the track compound btw.

I was also looking at carbone lorraine because they also do the right size for my WMS calipers and they do mr2 rears
http://www.kamracing.co.uk/manufacturer ... -pads.html

[ashley]

I was looking at the R4-S compound for the street and then just swapping the xp8's back on for trackdays tbh.

That's pretty much where I got to ('cept I've got XP10's)...just wanted to understand the Porterfield range

[Race Idiot]

Going by that diagram it looks like youd be better off with any other compound as they have a higher friction level from cold temps than the R4-s?

http://porterfield-brakes.com/images/po ... _43_53.pdf

The R4-1 is a compound for vintage racecars and the R4-E is an endurance trackpad.

I guess the track biased pads have a higher friction level than the R4-s because you probably wouldnt come close to needing that on the road. Also depending on what tyres youd be using the brakes may never be able to get to those temparatures on some normal summer tyres.

Thats my horrible uneducated guess, it would be nice to hear from somebody who actualy knows what they are talking about lol.

[C35Rob]

Can't comment on porterfield as I've never used them, but I can really recommend Carbone Lorraine's, I run them on my Laurel and they're the best pads I've ever used, cold bite is decent, warm they're excellent and I've never had them fade despite trying hard, they just get better.
They're a little noisy, not particularly dusty though

[Race Idiot]

Which compound did you get with the CL pads?

[C35Rob]

Which compound did you get with the CL pads?

RC5+, together with DBA 4000 series discs, braided lines and ATE super blue fluid

[JAAASH]

I'm using Porterfield R4-S pads and what Rob has written about his CL pads are exactly how I feel about the Porterfields.

best pads I've ever used, cold bite is decent, warm they're excellent and I've never had them fade despite trying hard, they just get better.
They're a little noisy, not particularly dusty though

I was put off the other 3 when I was choosing due to their intended uses. Vintage, endurance and race. I'll be road driving 95% of the time so the R4-S drop right into that category.

Best person(s) to speak to will be either Bob or Stephen Hatton as they've used (and still do currently) both R-4 and R4-S for their sprint and road cars.

[bobhatton]

As far as I know you can only get R-4 and R4-S for the MR2
I use the R-4 and Steve fitted my R4-S set I was going to use on my road car.

They both work well and not sure we can tell the differance between them.

[ashley]

I must be reading their website incorrectly, it looks like it lists the following for the MR2 Turbo:

R-4
R4-S
R4-E
R4-1

To be honest I'll probably just go with the R4-S based on the reviews, and then swap out for track days...but I was genuinely curious to try and understand the friction thing...tempted to try a set of the R4-1s just for the crack of it (if I had so much cash it didn't matter).

Bob- do you have the part numbers of the pads you've used on your rev3 brakes please? I'm not convinced that the Porterfield website has them correct

[JAAASH]

These are the part numbers I ordered for mine Ash,

Front pads – Porterfield R4-S. Product No. AP582
Rear pads – Porterfield R4-S. Product No. AP309

[kirk]

Not sure if Chris Wilson is well known on here but I've used his own pads on various cars in the past with great results. Available in fast road or race compounds and for a reasonable price to!

[masterbateson]

Ex squeeze me for jumping in here and going off on a slight tangent, but i didnt want to start anew thread for this quick question/affirmation.

Would i be right in saying that I wouldnt be able to do a straight swap to Rev3 callipers in place of my rev2 ones?

Passenger side has a snapped off bleed nipple and one of the pistons is well seized.
Saw a set of callipers but they were off a later car, and i think from a bit off digging, that the callipers are different and the disks are larger.

So basically i need to either fix mine or get a rev1 or 2 replacement calliper
Ta
Me

[madbasshunter]

Calipers changed from rev2 on so rev2 to 5 are the same

[Draven]

Calipers changed from rev2 on so rev2 to 5 are the same

As above.. Rev1 was the only one to have a different caliper all the rest were the same.

[Race Idiot]

Another stupid question but arent the rear pads the same throughout the revisions?

[Nic]

Another stupid question but arent the rear pads the same throughout the revisions?

Yes the rear pads are the same on all revisions.