Brake Fade at a DE

[944boy]

So yesterday my girlfriend and I went to a PCA DE at Pacific Raceways. She took the Boxster and I took the 944. I got some video that I will have posted on YouTube later today. Anyways, my 944 suffered some "loose bolt syndrome" a long with a broken tie-rod end. So I took the Boxster out for the next session and on the second lap went down an escape road because I found myself without enough brakes.

I originally was not very happy with the feel of the brakes on the Boxster compared to the 944. So last fall/winter I left the rotors as is, but put Porterfield R4s pads and full flush and bleed with Motul RBF 600. The 944 has the same fluid, stainless lines and R4 pads. The result after bedding was a good pedal feel and good braking. With thousands of street miles I have been quite happy with the way they have been performing. But at the track, the brakes were already warm/hot and one sharp stab from 140mph to 80 and I could smell that organic pad smell. The next corner was down hill and very tight. I mashed the pedal but had very little stopping power.

I took the car out after letting them cool then again later in the day, and if I was kind to the brakes they were ok... Danielle was not nearly as hard on them and never really had a problem.

My question to those on the board that track their cars is this; with a stock setup, who here has experienced a high level of fade? I want to make sure that it really was just me asking too much and not something wrong with the system. I have another DE in June at Fontana (Autoclub speedway?) and if I'm going to drive the box, I need different pads. I am leaning towards Hawk HT-10's and new rotors (mine have no cracks, but may be getting a little thin).

I have found a number of suggestions on what pads are good and so forth, but I also don't know how many people have overheated the stock setup. Also if larger brake ducts would help or not enough to worry about it.

One last thing, The 987 turned 70K on the way to the track and enjoyed (nearly) every minute of it. Burned 0 oil. And the Sumitomos stuck FAR better than I would have ever expected. Very progressive break away and good traction in the corners. They just earned that much more in my book for doing as well as they did.