[Ryephile]

Reading through the "I've cooked the magic" thread, I just want to add this little nugget I wrote a while ago. Sometimes I read something I wrote a while later and go "woah, *I* wrote that? I'm going to steal that!"

Originally Posted by Ryephile

Raybestos' chart is worthless, throw it out and don't look at it again.

Like Sean said, use whatever pad works for you. X25's explanation might be too introspective for some, personally I get what he's saying and agree. 9 times out of 10 when you give someone a pad that has super high mu, they use it the same amount of *time* as a low-mu pad, not to achieve the same speed delta. This is classic over-braking, using them more than necessary.

Example: when I swapped from Power Stop Track Day to ST-43's, the datalogging was showing about 1/4g greater decel rate. As such, the ST-43's need less distance to achieve the same speed delta. Going from 141 down to 62 MPH needed much less distance since the pads support quicker deceleration. As such my braking point had to be much closer towards my turn-in point. The total heat dissipation (Work) is the same, just with more Force over less distance. RXtacy mentioned that deeper braking does mean higher speed at the brake point. This is true but it's not very significant most of the time, a MPH or two. It's in the noise for most drivers that aren't aware of their corner entry speed.

I see a lot of drivers that have it programmed they have to stop from point A to point B and have no idea what their corner entry speed is. That's bad. Give them a high-mu pad and they'll over-brake every time. They're focusing on a fixed distance, and now we've added more braking force. For the driver that can't or won't adapt their distance, you have to adjust the pad to their distance. This is where lower mu pad like the stock Ferodo's will mask a brake control problem. All this can be fixed with some car control practice. You have to focus on the corner entry speed first, forget the braking. Once you figure out the maximum corner entry speed, then you have to program that into your head. From there you have to back-calculate how much distance you need to brake with maximum force on the straight to achieve that speed at the turn-in point. Only then can you start connecting sections together.

All that is covered in Ross Bentley's book. The tough part is having the discipline to apply it to yourself.