ISO autox brake pads

[CrankyOldMan]

I've always just run whatever was on the car for street use. I'm also not terribly competitive so I haven't refined my setup very well. That said, I did a track day weekend in my 1.8 swapped HB this weekend and put Hawk HPSs on my Corolla/SE front brakes. The difference between the generic street pads and the performance pads was incredible! There's lots of opinions on what brand/compound is best for any given application, so it may come down to trial and error on your end.

The bigger issue is that the stock 1.5 motor doesn't really have enough power to do point-and-shoot driving--you should be focused on momentum. Braking hard will (generally) give you slower times than carrying speed through corners. Getting the stickiest tires for your class will also help in that regard but costs more.

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by CrankyOldMan

The bigger issue is that the stock 1.5 motor doesn't really have enough power to do point-and-shoot driving--you should be focused on momentum. Braking hard will (generally) give you slower times than carrying speed through corners. Getting the stickiest tires for your class will also help in that regard but costs more.

I agree with the yaris being a momentum car (although it probably nkt as important in short autox courses) but I disagree that braking hard will give you slower lap times (at least on a track) the fastest way around a course typically is with less time spent braking and more time at higher speeds. Braking very late and only scrubbing off the speed you need would be the fastest in most cases.

OEM pads and even performance pads cannot take the heat nor have the friction coefficient to scrub off enough speed in such a short amount of time on sticky tires. Braking from further away than you need to and not braking to threshold, is slower and reduces the time the pads have to cool off.

That said, I cannot comment on autox courses as I have no experience with that, only track driving. I would recommend you do what Cranky said and essentially go to the next least expensive "performance" pad. Something like a carbotech AX6. If you glaze those over and experience pedal fade, then go up to the xp8's an so on.

I have first hand experience with how different people can use all sorts of different compounds due to varying factors. What works with others in a yaris may not even come close to what works for you. The only way to know if to give them a try for yourself