Track Day: Front rotors grooved

Reppunkamui

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Hi all,

Had my first track day at Sandown Raceway (Australia) on the weekend and had a blast on a beautiful day (see photo). Best lap was 1:28.085 on this 3.1 km track with stock tyres, which I felt cemented the car as a good track car IMO, as I am an amateur...

Anyway, the track is known as being hard on your brakes... The car did pretty well regardless with barely noticeable brake fade (1 cooling lap every 4 laps, 20 minutes on track per hour). However, after letting the brakes cool overnight, and having a good look at the front rotors, the hard braking seemed to put some deep grooves in the rotors, texture is like an LP record. I still have plenty of pad left and brakes seem to work fine... no squealing or anything...

I am not sure if this is normal (don't remember this on any of my other cars), so I thought I would just ask some of the more experienced regulars out there? Not sure if I got the stock pads and rotors too hot. Unfortunately photos don't seem to come out well to show this...

Happy to hear any feedback.

P.S. Opening up the front bumper fake vent (hear headlight) to hopefully increase front brake cooling keeps going through my mind now...

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Darth

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Not normal and probably you feel small vibrations under braking. Depending how deep the groves are, your rotors might need a resurface. Aftermarket brake pads will solve your issue, and while you are at it upgrade your brake fluid.
 

Mark5825

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Seems like stock pads haven't been good for rotors on track. Rotors should last quite a while if pads and fluid are done asap.
 

Illsic_Design

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the weekend and had a blast on a beautiful day (see photo). Best lap was 1:28.085 on this 3.1 km track
BMW has never had any stock pads that were that good on the track, most people replace them right away if tracking. I would assume it's the same on the Supra.
 

Raehan

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Have tracked my 2020 several times, found the stock pads faded very quickly. Went to Hawk pads and all is good. Interestingly, the dust is no worse than stock pads. Haven’t seen any grooves and I do a lot of late braking/trail braking where I usually run.
 
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Reppunkamui

Reppunkamui

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Grooves are not deep (1mm max depth?), no vibrations when braking, squealing or metal on metal sounds. Brakes feels normal TBH. Brake fluid is still at a good level and looks new. Brake pedal does not feel long either... I don't think I need to do a brake fluid flush at this point.

I didn't have brake fade issues on a hard braking track (in summer) with stock brakes, but as mentioned, was doing cooling laps every 4 laps, and only driving 20 minutes per hour interval. So maybe I was taking it a bit easier on the brakes than others.

I had a mixed experience with Hawk pads (HPS) on my 135i, highly recommended, good initial bite but dusty and faded at high temps (using Stoptech ATM, which I prefer). Hawk DTC seems a bit noisy for daily driving , but seems like it might be a good pad for track.
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