Pauls Exige 410 Sport

[Toqcars]

1 hour ago, Paul_D said:

Hi Mitch,

Sorry, I'd missed this comment. 

I'm very happy with the pads still. They work fine from cold on the road, and (so far) do not make any horrible noises.

I also checked the pad and tyre wear last weekend following my first track day on them. The RS29's have definitely worn less than the standard pads did. 

A single track day is not enough to get a fully representative picture, but although it's early days I would say they are wearing around 20-30% less than the OEM pads.

Happy to hear that. Have you changed front or rear pads as well?

OEM brake pad is Ferodo Racing DS25. I just ordered Ferodo DS3.12. Should have better feedback, which I miss on the DS25. Especially initial bite/initial feedback.

[Paul_D]

@Toqcars

I did the front and rear pads. Didn't want to mess up the brake balance.

The OEM pads are very good for standard pads, but lack of bite is definitely a weakness. 

With the Pagids I was braking far too hard initially as the bite was so much better. 

[Toqcars]

Paul, but are front and rear pads identical parts? 

OEM pads are fine for the track as well, that is for sure. I was asking for your feedback because I was afraid that the better pads would be too much for an exige and would mess up the ABS or would made brakes just too responsive therefore unable to modulate. 

[Paul_D]

No, the front and rear pads are different. Although it's not immediately obvious from looking at the calipers. The top part of the pad is identical, but the shape at the bottom is different. Rear pads are not as tall.

It didn't mess up the ABS, but I was activating the ABS much more to start with. Once I adapted, I was still able to modulate the brakes fine. It's one of the reasons I went for them as I knew they were ok in this respect. On Pagids own page of characteristics, the RSL29 have maximum score for modulation: https://www.pagidracing.com/en/products/racing-brake-pads/product-family-rsl/rsl-29.html

 

[DangerousDave]

I'd want brakes that have good cold bite for the street. It's ironic I have to get aftermarket pads to do that now trying the ds11-1. If it was the track pad that required heating up.... that would make sense. But for a streetpad to have shitty bite on the street cold makes no sense as thats when you might really need the braking.

[GFWilliams]

Performance Friction PF08 have a pretty good bite from cold, enough that I’ve never had any issues. Even in snowy conditions they worked okay…

[Exx]

Yeah but they wear out discs and the heat who come from is starting to make my yellow calipers turning to orange !

[Toqcars]

22 hours ago, Exx said:

Yeah but they wear out discs and the heat who come from is starting to make my yellow calipers turning to orange !

How much faster do they wear our? 

[Exx]

Drilled OEM started to have crackles around the holes after the first track day with PFC pads. You can handle with them until they reach the exterior of the discs

[Toqcars]

On 20/03/2022 at 23:31, Exx said:

Drilled OEM started to have crackles around the holes after the first track day with PFC pads. You can handle with them until they reach the exterior of the discs

No cracks with the stock DS2500? I ordered Ferodo 3.12. Will report the outcome, but please note that I have J hook brake disc. 

[Exx]

Nop nothing with OEM pad after 10 trackdays

[Toqcars]

Wow, that's interesting. 10 trackdays is a lot

[Paul_D]

Minor update. 

Sorted out a couple of annoyances that I had.

The OEM wiper is too long. It's pointless. At least two inches is visible in mid-air when you look at it from inside the car. So I fitted a smaller one.

Before:

 

After:

 

Next was my carbon mirrors. I didn't like the stainless cap head screws used for the arm connecting plate. I kept looking at them through the window. So I ordered some black button head ones and fitted instead.

Then it was on to a tyre / brake check before my next trackday at Bedford Autodrome on 21/03/22.

The tyres still look in great shape. The Pagid RS29 pads definitely appear to have a better wear rate than the OEM pads, but it's a bit early to be too definitive by how much. Either way, the car was in good shape.

 

Finally, you can't turn up to a track day in a dirty car, can you? Decided to dust off the snow foam lance as well.

 

All ready to visit Bedford for the first time in 12 or 13 years, and that was the only time I'd been. I'm treating it as doing a new track!

[Toqcars]

I am also waiting for the wiper 👍

Your Cup2 looks really nice... looks like uniform wear over the whole surface. In my case, outer edge of the second ring (counting from the outside) has 2-3 mm higher wear than the inner edge. I noticed similar on all of the other cars... this is why we are changing left to right between the track days. 

PS: nice wheel bolt key to protect the wheels 👍

[Paul_D]

So Monday was Bedford. 

I stayed in a hotel nearby and woke up to a cold but clear sunny morning. In fact it was so cold that I couldn't push in the button to open the door. I had to go back to reception and ask for a jug of water!

I arrived at the circuit, and unlike others places they noise test as soon as you turn up before you've done anything. With my OEM exhaust I obviously failed! The add-on was fitted and at just over 4500rpm I got a reading of 96dB, well under the 101dB, so that was the first hurdle out of the way.

There was a big mixture of cars there, one of which unfortunately dumped a load of fluid everywhere during the sighting laps, resulting in a delay of nearly an hour before we got started. 

My single visit 12 or 13 years ago was a distant memory, so it was like learning the circuit from scratch. It's a long track to learn, but the huge amounts of run off mean you can probably get up to speed more quickly than at somewhere like Cadwell.

The first couple of sessions were fine, but as speed built up I did trip the drive by noise meter with a reading of 88.9dB. The rest of the day was spent short shifting or lifting off past those, but it didn't really spoil the day in any significant way. 

The Exige got quite a lot of attention, and I ended up giving a few passenger rides, each of which got good reactions.

I also met @tactical lizard and saw his lovely Military Grey 410.

I didn't take any photos, but here is a video from my best session which also includes some footage of @tactical lizardaround the 5 minute mark.

There was is still lots of time to find if I decide to go back, but I was getting there.

 

 

[tactical lizard]

Was good meeting you and seeing the car, its awesome, definitely going to get that subwoofer!

It was a great day out and was the first time for me at that track and also my friend with an Atom which unfortunately was the offending vehicle at the start of the day 🙈

I was hoping to keep up but was no where near 🤣. I think I need to do a few more trackdays there before i'm anywhere near your pace of driving.
It's some track, I managed to boil the brake fluid on the previous session and I think I only made it worse attempting to keep up with you! The drive home was interesting!

 

[Paul_D]

@tactical lizard I didn’t realise it was one of the Atoms that dumped fluid. I assumed it was one of the Renaults. LOL. 
 

Once you’ve boiled the fluid you’re screwed really. You’ll lose all confidence on the brakes. I really recommend just putting Castrol SRF in. In the grand scheme of things it’s not much more expensive than normal fluid, and you know you’ll never have to worry about it. 

[tactical lizard]

Ha you would have thought so, It was a new car to him and first time driving it, it actually was an ex bedford car. But yeah it had a small coolent leak, he got it fixed in the end at 2pm so his day was'nt a total loss.

I have 2 litres of castrols finest turning up today so I have a busy weekend planned changing fluid and pads out, got Oulton next week so hopefully I do a good job haha.

 

[Paul_D]

@tactical lizard I’m sure you’ll do a good job, and you’ll soon know if you haven’t! 
Have you got some sort of pressure bleeder to do the brakes? 

[tactical lizard]

Yep, got a pressure bleeder, a vacuum bleeder, and the AP racing instruction book.  I'm not sure if I will be able to tell when the new fluid comes through so plan on winding the pistons back and drawing through at least 300mm from each caliper. I would have thought that should be enough to flush the lines through.

[Paul_D]

@tactical lizard

Thats exactly what I do mate. Pistons fully back, syringe out as much old fluid from the reservoir as I can, and then do each caliper by volume. I bleed into a measuring jug. 

[Jcx]

Great Driving @Paul_D shame about the sunlight.  Not often said words 🙂

Loving the Tudor on your wrist!  Is it a BB or a Pelagos?

[Paul_D]

@Jcx Yeah, the sunlight was starting to be a problem. The camera makes it look a bit worse as it looks like I didn’t get the spot metering right. 
 

Good spot on the watch! It’s a Black Bay 58 Blue. I really like it. 

[stephenwhyte]

Great looking car @Paul_D - I take it you know your MOT is due on Sunday? A mate of mine up here in Scotland was down Newmarket way last week and spotted your car and mentioned it. Said it looked lovely on the road, in front👍

[Paul_D]

1 minute ago, stephenwhyte said:

Great looking car @Paul_D - I take it you know your MOT is due on Sunday? A mate of mine up here in Scotland was down Newmarket way last week and spotted your car and mentioned it.

Yeah, It was actually supposed to be at Stratton today having a service and MOT, but they’ve got issues and had to cancel. 
 

That must have been when I was on my way home from Bedford Autodrome that he spotted me.