I'd like to get an opinion on these track pads. Are they glazed? Are they usable?
After my last track event at Road America, these are what my track pads looked like. I'll admit that I abused them with RA's heavy braking corners, coming in too hot too often. They continued to work well all weekend, with no real fade, but they were providing less overall friction as the weekend went on. I was braking a full marker farther back by the end of the weekend. But they still seemed to work as well as ever on the road trip home.
The fronts still have 10mm+ of pad (out of 12mm new), so plenty of thickness left. The rears are 11mm+. I'd really prefer to save my track budget for other things before shelling out another $500+ for a set of track pads for this season.
So, are these still usable? Could I file off the shiny layer, or something, to improve them? They aren't crumbling, the edges are generally good, and the cracking is light/shallow, so I don't think they're a total loss, are they?
This pad is about the shiniest.
This is the front and rear inside pads. All of the pads, front/rear, inside/outside, are about the same. You can also see the dark brake dust accumulation spots that were on the pads when I first pulled them out of the calipers.
These are what the front and rear discs looked like when I pulled the track pads off (and swapped the OEM back on). Not shiny new, but to my eyes they don't look horribly burnt. Plenty of thickness left.
I hesitate to mention the brand of these pads, as I know I really pushed them hard. If they have failed it is likely my bad technique/abuse, and no fault of the pad. So, please keep that in mind. They are Ferodo DS1.11's. This was the second weekend on these pads. The first weekend was at BIR, which has some big brake corners, but isn't quite as tough on brakes as RA. They looked great after the BIR event, with only 1mm of wear on the fronts, and virtually none on the rear.