build diary

September 30, 2005: I installed new brake pads and rotors last night.
The good thing about Miata rotors is that they're only about $10 each! Starting with new rotors prevented any material transfer from the kevlar-metallic pads I'd used before. The pads are Carbotech Panther XP8s that I've mentioned before. The pads proved to be just a hair too fat on the front to fit the anti-squeal plates on one of the two pads, but that's no great problem. The rotors were given a splash of black paint to keep them from rusting. The front rotors I took off the carI headed out (now in the dark) to bed them in.

Now that was some childish fun! The first couple of stops felt normal. On the third, it was like the Seven had grown little claws and sunk them into the pavement! Holy cow, there was certainly something wrong with the previous setup. I realise now that the other pads were probably never bedded properly as they were installed very early in the car's build and I was paying too much attention to everything else once the car started moving. I'll scuff them up and put them on Janel's Miata instead. Breaking in the Carbotechs was very entertaining, though - there were sparks coming off the front wheels as the exhaust blew fireballs on overrun. Quite a show!

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