Re: Front Rotors and Pads

[Frank Deutschmann <fhd@interport.net>]

Steve Marinello sez:
> I have Repco Metal Masters on an '83 quattro coupe. As you'd expect, they
> are not the best until they heat up a little.  They were great at the
> quattro club's Second Creek Raceway outing in Denver (last June), at least
> until the rest of the brake system went "soft" while I was trying to keep
> up with a modified 300+ HP S4 from Dallas.  On the coupe, the dust was
> dramaticaly reduced from the OEM pads, initial cold weather braking
> suffered ever so slightly, and "sporting" performance was dramatically
> improved.  I've run Metal Masters on modified Fiats, Alfas and Triumphs
> with only good results, especially when you get "sporting".

Metal Masters are Ferrodo DS-11 compound, a compound designed originally for
heavy GTP cars (it also happens to be the most winning compound in GTP).  It
likes/needs to be hot for optimum performance.  DS-11 also tends to dump lots
of heat into the brake fluid (the pads run very hot), but that depends on the
brake manufacturers' choice of backing, and on caliper piston heat shields, etc.
DS-11 will work better if properly "bedded" when first used; DS-11 pads are
subject to "green fade" though glazed DS-11 pads will work fine on the street.
Because of the "gassy" nature of DS-11, it will also benefit from a fire break
milled into the rotor, or cross-drilled rotors.

I'm not surprised with the performance on Fiats et al; DS-11 is really only
useful on heavy and fast cars.

For racing use, DS-11 causes extreme rotor wear, though this is probably not
much of a consideration for street and occaisional track use.

-frank
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