Stoptech BBK review from my Thunderhill track day

[skyline23]

I Installed (myself,something I am proud of since I typically don't have time to work on the car myself) a set of front and rear Stoptech BBK on my car last weekend, and took it out to Thunderhill yesterday for a track day. I have to say I was very pleased with their performance. It wasn't that stopping distances were much shorter or anything (I am on AD08 street tires,so those are the limiting factor), but what was so great was that from the first to the last lap of every session, brakes felt super consistent,pressure was very easy to modulate,and I could still lock up the tires at the end of the longest straight after 20 minutes of hard driving if I really wanted to,something that the Oem brakes simply could not do..

Partly due to the brakes giving me more confidence and approaching each turn a little differently, and partly due to me getting more balls in turn 6/7/8, i was able to cut my laptimes down from a best of 2:07 down to 2:04 (running bypass both times)..

Once question I did have was that the brake fluid level went down about 1mm in the master cylinder over the course of the day..is this from normal wear of the brake pads throughout the day causing the caliper pistons to move out slightly further, or should I be concerned of a leak somewhere? I haven't seen any brake fluid drops anywhere and I inspected the connections, but want to make sure this is something I shouldn't be concerned with..

 

[Hrant]

Good to read you were happy with the Stoptech brake system. It's the best bang for the buck for the NSX.

1mm is a tad bit above normal but not if you had 5 sessions of 20 min each and you hit the brakes hard. What pads were you using?

 

[skyline23]

Good to read you were happy with the Stoptech brake system. It's the best bang for the buck for the NSX.

1mm is a tad bit above normal but not if you had 5 sessions of 20 min each and you hit the brakes hard. What pads were you using?

thanks!..I missed my first session so had 3 20 minute sessions and one 25 minute session, and was definitely hard on the brakes..I am using the stock Stoptech brake pads that came with the kit, so definitely not a full race compound. It was recommended I try these first before going to anything more aggressive since these are supposed to be a decent street/track set.From my one week of use I have no complaints of them on the street and they seemed to work fine on the track, but maybe it would be a different story if/when I go to Nt01s or similar tires.

 

[Hrant]

What brand of pads did they supply? In prior years it was Axxis brand which was definitely a street pad.

 

[skyline23]

What brand of pads did they supply? In prior years it was Axxis brand which was definitely a street pad.

they were actually their own,or at least rebranded versions,in which case I am not sure what the original manufacturer was:

http://www.stoptech.com/products/brake-pads

they were the Stoptech Street Performance ones.

 

[docjohn]

how old is your master cylinder?

 

[Ponyboy]

IIRC, the Stoptech Street Performance pads are just rebranded Axxis Ultimates which were originally sent out many moons ago. Re: the 1mm drop in fluid, I don't think it's outside the variance of pad material removal after a track day but it seems to be a bit much. Is "about" meaning a tad less than 1mm? How much of the pad material has been removed?

Glad you liked the new braking setup. You'll have even more performance out of dedicated track pads - especially initial bite.

 

[skyline23]

IIRC, the Stoptech Street Performance pads are just rebranded Axxis Ultimates which were originally sent out many moons ago. Re: the 1mm drop in fluid, I don't think it's outside the variance of pad material removal after a track day but it seems to be a bit much. Is "about" meaning a tad less than 1mm? How much of the pad material has been removed?

Glad you liked the new braking setup. You'll have even more performance out of dedicated track pads - especially initial bite.

"about" means a tad more then 1mm, probably closer to 1.5mm....I haven't inspected the brake pads themselves yet, will try to do that this weekend...

 

[Scin]

Ditch the pads that came with the Stop Tech's, they aren't very good for the track.

The Stoptech kit itself is pretty awesome though. I think it will actually save you money on pads/rotors over the stock setup in the long run.

 

[cantdrive55]

Ive ran 5 track days on the pads that came with my stoptechs and I have no complaints. I still have tons of pad left they dont squeal that much. I have star specs and they are the limiting factor. You even say your tires are as well. You might as well run them until they are done.

 

[Sonic*]

Well done on the install, did you have NA1 or NA2 brakes previous to the stoptech? Any pics?