I recently got a set of Carbotech Panther Plus brake pads to try out on my mkiv Supra. In in the interests of full disclosure, I got them for free to try them out, but I would not have good things to say about them unless I thought they were good pads. I have previously used Porterfield R4E pads on the racetrack and used stock Toyo pads on the street. I've put some street and track miles on the Panther Plus pads, and was impressed with them for both types of use. On the street, they have a higher coefficient of friction than the stock pads (stop harder with the same amount of pedal pressure) and don't seem dust more than the stock pads (which are not the most dust free pads...)
I spent a day with them at Thunderhill Raceway, and they worked well there too. Andie from Carbotech warned me that even with the recommended break-in on the street, they would probably fade during the first session, and they did after a hard lap or two and getting good and smelly. After a cooldown lap and some time in the pits, I went back out and was able to push them at least as hard as the R4Es before they started to fade. The limit for both at Thunderhill on my car is about 4-5 hard laps, late braking and standing on the brakes at every corner. With less aggressive braking (but still driving fast), I didn't get any fade out of them at all. At a typical track event where you have to wait for slower traffic periodically, you'd probably rarely experience any fade with them even with hard braking. The event I used them at only had 28 cars total, and there were usually less than 10 cars on the track at any time, which allowed for virtually unlimited unobstructed laps. I run brake ducts on my car, which are ridiculously cheap and easy to setup on a mkiv (see the tech article on mkiv.com), which should be considered mandatory for any cars that see track use (are you listening Andi?
They seem to have a higher coefficient of friction than the Porterfields, and more initial "bite", which I liked.
They did seem to go away a little faster than the Porterfields when they did start to fade, but not to an excessive degree. They would still stop at 75-80% of the normal rate, but required a lot more pedal pressure. I also got more wear out of them (1/3-1/2 of the pad gone)in 100 track miles than I usually do with the Porterfields, but I was braking harder than normal to give them a good workout, so I can't draw any conclusions there.
Overall, I was very impressed with the pads. They work well work as a track pad if you switch pads out before track events. I've always been of the opinion that there is no such thing as a good dual-duty pad, but the Panther Plus pads are good for both types of use too if you're too lazy to swap out pads
Eric Typpo
I spent a day with them at Thunderhill Raceway, and they worked well there too. Andie from Carbotech warned me that even with the recommended break-in on the street, they would probably fade during the first session, and they did after a hard lap or two and getting good and smelly. After a cooldown lap and some time in the pits, I went back out and was able to push them at least as hard as the R4Es before they started to fade. The limit for both at Thunderhill on my car is about 4-5 hard laps, late braking and standing on the brakes at every corner. With less aggressive braking (but still driving fast), I didn't get any fade out of them at all. At a typical track event where you have to wait for slower traffic periodically, you'd probably rarely experience any fade with them even with hard braking. The event I used them at only had 28 cars total, and there were usually less than 10 cars on the track at any time, which allowed for virtually unlimited unobstructed laps. I run brake ducts on my car, which are ridiculously cheap and easy to setup on a mkiv (see the tech article on mkiv.com), which should be considered mandatory for any cars that see track use (are you listening Andi?
They seem to have a higher coefficient of friction than the Porterfields, and more initial "bite", which I liked.They did seem to go away a little faster than the Porterfields when they did start to fade, but not to an excessive degree. They would still stop at 75-80% of the normal rate, but required a lot more pedal pressure. I also got more wear out of them (1/3-1/2 of the pad gone)in 100 track miles than I usually do with the Porterfields, but I was braking harder than normal to give them a good workout, so I can't draw any conclusions there.
Overall, I was very impressed with the pads. They work well work as a track pad if you switch pads out before track events. I've always been of the opinion that there is no such thing as a good dual-duty pad, but the Panther Plus pads are good for both types of use too if you're too lazy to swap out pads
Eric Typpo
