Lets play choose that brake pad! (again)

Car in Question:

2019 Miata RF Club (Miata why can't I quit you?).  Came to me with some basic mods- Ohlins Road/Track suspension, exhaust, etc.  I'm going to continue to modify it with the goal of reducing weight, while keeping it tame/nice on the street.  It's already down about 20lb and I think I can remove around 70lb total, with 40lb of that being unsprung and 22 being rotating mass.  Part of the weight reduction plan is a Flyin Miata Big Brake Kit (all four wheels) that I found used, which takes the 7912 pad pattern on all four wheels.

Use Case:

I joined a motorsports club that gives me lots of track access, usually with a wide open track.  I have a fully prepped single-seat race car, I'm turning a bunch of laps and working with a coach to improve my race/driving skills.  But cars are more fun with friends, and I wanted another street car with at least two seats to basically just have fun with and be social.  Drive it to/from the track, do some relaxed laps, take buddies on ride alongs, let them drive a bit and do some coaching.  Maybe do a little autocross, do donuts and drift and hoon around the parking lot like a high school kid.  I'm going to keep the stock seats and seatbelts, run lighter but stock-sizes wheels with sporty street tires (Continental ECS or Michelin PS4S).  Don't want to be constantly swapping brake pads and wheels.  Brake pads need to be nice on the street but hold up to 10-12 laps at pace without overheating.  I tried the car on the track with what I think are stock pads, and they overheated in two laps.

So... what are my options here?  Something like a Stoptech Sport or Hawk HP+?

I'm trying to solve this same problem on a NC and ended up going for Porterfield R4S. Hawk HP+ was also on my list. Too many EBC horror stories for me to consider them.

Some years ago I ran the Stoptech "Street Performance" pads on my BMW E46 at Road America and they held up admirably over two days of three sessions each. That car had pretty big brakes though and I'm not sure what that pad compound translates to with their new/revised product stack.

I'm not sure the pad you're looking for actually exists, but the closest is probably the porterfield R4S which it looks like is available in the size you need for fairly cheap.

Count me in the Porterfield R4s camp; there are a number of guys I vintage race with that have cars that are still street driven and they're using R4S pads.

Recently bought Powerstop PST Track Day pads for a similar use on my 86, haven't driven on them yet but I hear they behave a lot like fast street pads but will survive track use on lighter/low-powered cars. The fact that the car needs to be driven in near-freezing conditions including fairly low-temperature track use was also a factor. Note that these are high-dust pads though.

I have EBC Yellows on my AE92 and didn't go with those for the 86 mainly because they're hard to control in autocross, but also because the rotor wear seems a bit excessive for mixed use, and colder temperatures than the swampass tropical heat the AE92 operates in would only worsen these issues. These pads never flinched at any amount of heat I could put into them, but I will probably go for a less aggressive replacement when those wear out.

Anyone have experience with the Wildwood BP-20x that FM sells with the brake kit?

Another vote for the Porterfield R4S here. I was going to suggest the PFC 01 compound too but it looks like they are about $40 more per set. Given the choice I'd run the Porterfields.

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

Anyone have experience with the Wildwood BP-20x that FM sells with the brake kit?

No experience but from their description here it sounds similar to EBC Yellowstuff:

https://www.wilwood.com/brakepads/BrakePadsApp?compound=BP-20

I do have experience with the Stoptech sport pads on the front of my Ralliart wagon. My main reason for them was that they were available, there's not a lot of performance pad choices for that car. Dust is moderate, and doesn't seem to be corrosive. 
 

They seem to be a good pad for my purposes which is 99% commuting, and 1% autocross. I don't know how they would hold up in track use, the longest run I've done has been only about one minute. They have been excellent for that. I initially chose them just to try and get some better modulation over the parts store ceramic pads that were on the car, and that change has been wonderful.

I'm not really a fan of the daul-use pads.  They're almost as bad as track pads on the street, and they're almost as bad as street pads on the track.  You may be happier with actual track pads on the street. My vote: Carbotech XP8 / G-Loc R8's work just fine when completely cold (they just make a terrible noise), and will also handle however much heat you want to put in them on the track.  The only real downsides on the street is noise and dust.  The noise goes away if you get them warm.  The dust is... copious.  I'd think dealing with that on the street is better than dealing with brake fade on the track.

That's why I said the thing he's looking for doesn't really exist but the R4S is probably the closest. They act like street pads on the street, and act almost like track pads on the track. On my cayman they survived 20 minute sessions being run pretty hard and never had any fade issues, but in looking at them afterwards they were clearly running right on the edge of their heat tolerance range. On the street they're perfectly fine, zero noise, only slightly copious amounts of dust, and work at any temperature. The normal R4 are functionally fine for street use as well, but everyone within a mile radius knows every time you touch the brake pedal and the dust is a bit worse. But phenominal on track. But I agree, really you have to pick whether you want a street pad that can tolerate track use or a track pad that can tolerate street use, there's no true dual use pad if you're driving anywhere near the limit on track.

Call Porterfield, talk to Wendy, ask for a recommendation.  

I think a Hawk HP+ or a Raybestos ST45 would do well for you.