Tires and Brakes
 

Hi all,

I know these topics may have been done to death before, especially tires, but I need some advice. I need new tires so I'm probably going with the PS2's recommended elsewhere in the forum. A couple of friends have recommended tirerack.com for tires and brakes so I'll probably be getting them there.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any threads on brake pads within the forum. I found quite a few brands on tirerack with varying degrees of performance and price. I know opinions are like @rseholes, everyone has one, so can those more knowledgeable members of the forum please give their opinion on what brake pads I should go with?

Just on the tires, I have Continentals at the moment and they are ********************. No wet weather grip, so if you're also in the market for tires, stay away from these.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

-Ozspearo

Tires, go with the PS2 if you have them and like them, they are simply an excellent tire, I have them on my car.

Having said that I think I will go with Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 next time, I have the all season F1 tires on my Benz and I like them a lot so I think F1 GS-D3 will be a step up over the PS2.

Pads, I think the stock pads are pretty good unless you track the car (in which case they wear out quickly). If you track I would go with PAGID. For street and track I like the PAGID sport pads – dark blue, less dust and last longer than stock. They can squeal a little bit, but they work well cold (important for the street).

You can go with either the Blue or Orange pads on the track but these pads will squeal on the street and need to warm up to work at their best. I have not tried these yet but if I do they will be for track only. PAGID Orange seems to be the pad of choice for P-cars at the track. Boxster pads are simple to replace so swapping them for track days in not a huge issue.

My PAGID pads (987) have no holes for wear sensors, tie wrap them out of the way and check you pads regularly if you go with them.

That's not true.

I had the OEM pagid pads on my 99',they had wear sensor wholes.

I am currently running OEM brake pads with about 10,000 mi and 6 track days on them. I have about 1/2 pad to go and have not noticed any fade problems. They are very quiet and very dusty but they are the best brakes I have ever owned. I will probably go OEM again.

+1 on the PS2 tires. Excellent on street and track rain or shine, rotten in snow or cold.

Ridgecrest CA? You've got Willow Springs raceway in your back yard. Nice. See you at the next PCA event there.

I'll second the Pagid pads...great track pads. I've also used (and still do for daily driving) Hawk pads (HPS I think,, i'll have to go look up the invoice), which, imho, are better than OEM for daily driving..better stopping or at least equal, hardly any dust, no noise, overall good pads. I had them on the track also, and they performed pretty well...not as well as the pagids but not bad. Mintex is a pretty good pad also. I've used and liked them, but they do seem to have more dust than the Hawks.

For tires, I've had Pirellis (ugh) Contis (double ugh) and, don't shoot me, BF Goodrich G Force Sport. (I had Bridgestone's on my 911 but not on the Box so can't comment on the sizes needed for one) The Goodrich got a great rating from tirerack, are holding up extremely well, have excellent wet and dry grip and are, or were, reasonably priced (I haven't checked recently so prices may have gone up) For daily driving they're not a bad choice. Just another option for you to consider and my $.02

Topless: YOu've gotten 6 track days on OEM pads and still have half left? WOW....are you braking hard enough? :) I put on new ones a year ago and they were not quite but almost shot after 4 days. And showed a little fade late in the day. Up to the point of fade they were pretty good however. New rotors and the pagids solved that problem. BUT.. after putting on the pagids, the OEM's were really second class..just for the track mind you.. for street driving OEM's are more than adequate, except for the dust.


Bob

Thanks for the replies so far. I don't track my box, it's purely road stuff, although some of my road driving could be considered track. :) My current pads are starting to 'squeal' with light pedal pressure, and have always put out a lot of dust. The dust doesn't bother me too much as I wash the car every 2 weeks or so.

I had looked at the Hawks so I might go down that path, or OEM, depending on price.

As for the PS2's, Ridgecrest is a very dry town so I haven't driven in too much rain yet. I have found that when I drive through an intersection with a small amount of water flowing through the gutter, even in 2nd gear with less than 2250rpm, my back end slides everywhere. So I mainly want dry performance, but something that wont let go at the sight of the smallest amount of water.

Topless, whilst I'm not keen to race the box, I'd definitely love to come down as a spectator sometime. Can you point me in the right direction for info on meets, etc?

Thanks all.

-Ozspearo

Sure thing.

Here is a link to the PCA zone 8 website with a calendar of most of the events in our area. There is also a list of local PCA clubs. Lots of benefits to membership for Porsche owners whether you wish to track your car or not. http://www.pca.org/zone8

I am a member of Grand Prix Region based in Long Beach. We have about 500 active members from all over So Cal. We have a tour to Morrow Bay in Jan. that might be interesting to you. You are welcome to join our region if you like. We are a pretty mixed bag of people from 18 to 80 and cars from new GT3's and 997TT's to fully restored 1954 356's and everything in between. Lots of Boxters. Here is our local website:
http://gpx.pca.org/

Willow Springs is just south on the 14 from you in Rosamond. There is a Road Racing, DE or time trials event there every weekend. A Porsche event about once a month from Sept. - May. Hope to see you out there Boxin'