I'm having a hard time with the pads, as I can find very little good data on any of the three manufactures. Performance Friction has not responded to my e-mail (that will probably rule them out), the guy from Hawk was an idiot that could do nothing more than repeat the very limited information they have on their website, and Porterfield was very nice, but still limited information.
Jim Chow PM'd me back about his porterfields and said they were great, but when he lived in LA in colder weather they were not so good on that first stop. Being I have lived long enough to have experience the old Metal Masters in another car in 30f weather (basically no brakes for the first 100 feet), I am very sensitive to that issue. I wish Pagid made some pads for the LC, then I would just be done with it.
My mechanic suggested the porterfields saying in his experience the Hawks were to agressive on rotors, even their street pads. He uses their race pads on his track car so he has no axe to grind with them. When I told him about the problem, he responded that he had gone down it in is e30 325i, punching it out of the corners and hard braking for the next corner with no problems and was suprised that I had the overheating problem.
The overheating really caught me off guard as I was in second and was doing moderate engine braking. I was on and off them them all the way down, so they weren't being drug constantly and didn't feel any signs of fading until the bottom when I needed to stop. As I posted earlier, I went down it again the next day in 1st and just let the engine rev to 3500rpm (I wasn't concerned about anything because as you said, I am putting less torque into the tranny engine braking than under heavy throttle) and just played it like we used to with old cars that had drums. That time, I only had to tap the brakes a few times with no fade.
A honda S2000 woudn't cut it for me. I don't like convertables and they don't have enough punch on the top end (I got into a race with one on the freeway in an 89 911 cab and kept walking away from it from 80-120mph, we went back and forth about 4 times, he wasn't happy). I have driven a WRX and thought it was a pig. Turn in wasn't good, suspension was to soft, and it wasn't all that fast. My mechanic agreed, and then a few months later he told me he instructed a guy with an STI (my mechanic is a NASA instructor) and it was an entirely different car and well worth checking out. The problem is that the STI is to much of a boy racer and would go over about like a lead brick with the wife. Part of the love of 911's for me is the challange of driving them, they are a lot of work to drive fast, but very rewarding when done right. The only other cars that are on my list would be an e36 M3 or e46 330i. That said, we just had a client that gave us an S500 benz in trade for writing off his bill and I am considering buying it from one of the partners ($20,000 or so for a 2001 with 100k).
Cary
