4BW Track Weekend – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (with Video)

[M2Cto4BW]

Love the way it just pulls - that is a LONG straight - and how well it transitions left to right, especially for a saloon.

Did you play around with different settings? I'm assuming suspension and exhaust furthest right so to speak, but what about steering, brakes, throttle?

For instance with the M2C conventional wisdom was to actually use 'comfort' steering for sporty/track driving as sport/sport+ weren't anything more than artificially heavier. So far with the 4BW I am liking the middle for steering, but maybe really hammering it (still in break-in period) the furthest right is better.

Anyways excellent thread and I'd appreciate hearing how you found the different settings

 

[Ungwei]

I really enjoy seeing track footage of this car, thank you for posting it as well!

 

[Mbar]

So the track day itself wore off 0.4mm. If you avoided the scoring, you would get 5 track days out of a set of rotors before having to replace them.

That's solid data for helping calculate the True Cost To Track these cars. What's a set of rotors cost?

Makes sense. Please note- it was 2 full days at the track.

 

[Mbar]

Did you play around with different settings? I'm assuming suspension and exhaust furthest right so to speak, but what about steering, brakes, throttle?

I had the car on Track suspension / Sport steering / Sport brakes / Track Exhaust / PTM Spot
I did not feel the PTM getting in the way at all.
I did feel the PTM on one wet session when I had it on Wet mode - it was pulling power on track out acceleration.

 

[Kanetch]

For others with track day abuse on their 4BW, Rock Auto now has our factory brake pads and rotors available. At the best pricing I’ve seen anywhere. Roughly $600 for f&r pads and $1100 for all four rotors.

 

[Carguyshu]

They need to hurry up & do the same for the 5!

 

[Neebs]

For others with track day abuse on their 4BW, Rock Auto now has our factory brake pads and rotors available. At the best pricing I’ve seen anywhere. Roughly $600 for f&r pads and $1100 for all four rotors.

Glad you brought this thread back to life. I have been thinking about pad options for track. For the track experienced folks here:

How do the stock pads hold up on track? Are they somewhat track worthy?

Are there any third party pad options? Are the fronts same size / shape as SS 1LE? Rears same as SS? Looking at pics, BW pads seem to have cut out for sensors which 1LE doesn’t. Not sure if sensors are just for wear or something more given brake by wire.

Any recent intel around pads for some track work would be much appreciated!

 

[poor-sha]

Glad you brought this thread back to life. I have been thinking about pad options for track. For the track experienced folks here:

How do the stock pads hold up on track? Are they somewhat track worthy?

Are there any third party pad options? Are the fronts same size / shape as SS 1LE? Rears same as SS? Looking at pics, BW pads seem to have cut out for sensors which 1LE doesn’t. Not sure if sensors are just for wear or something more given brake by wire.

Any recent intel around pads for some track work would be much appreciated!

The sensors are just for pad life. You can gently pry them off the pad, wrap the end in electrical tape, and zip tie them up out of the way. You just need to check the pad thickness visually.

Essexparts.com has track pads for the 4BW and they appear to be the same shape as the SS 1LE. My friend's 4BW that I drove on track this week was running the Ferodo DS 3.12 pads, those or the DS 1.11 should work and it just depends on how much bite you want the pad to have (the 3.12 has more torque so less pedal effort).

Brake pad preference and feel is a lot like oil threads and color choices but I've run both of those on my C8, C7s, and the F80 M3.

 

[PrimeTime]

They need to hurry up & do the same for the 5!

ABSOLUTELY...

 

[Mbar]

As noted above: I confirmed with a tech from Girodisc that the front pads of the 4BW are the same as 6 gen 1LE or C7 Z06.
As for the rear pads, I think ( but cannot confirm) that they are the rears of 6 Gen ZL1

 

[Neebs]

The sensors are just for pad life. You can gently pry them off the pad, wrap the end in electrical tape, and zip tie them up out of the way. You just need to check the pad thickness visually.

Essexparts.com has track pads for the 4BW and they appear to be the same shape as the SS 1LE. My friend's 4BW that I drove on track this week was running the Ferodo DS 3.12 pads, those or the DS 1.11 should work and it just depends on how much bite you want the pad to have (the 3.12 has more torque so less pedal effort).

Brake pad preference and feel is a lot like oil threads and color choices but I've run both of those on my C8, C7s, and the F80 M3.

As noted above: I confirmed with a tech from Girodisc that the front pads of the 4BW are the same as 6 gen 1LE or C7 Z06.
As for the rear pads, I think ( but cannot confirm) that they are the rears of 6 Gen ZL1

Super helpful and a relief to know there are options. Ferodo pads are great - I currently have ds3.12 on my other car and have had good experience with ds2500 as well for street / light track hybrid. Will see how stock pads hold up and go from there.

 

[StuckeyGR]

I figured I would add my recent track experiences on to this thread. I’ve done two track days with my CT4VBW now, one at Grattan and one at Gingerman here in west Michigan. As I expected this thing is a blast on the track. The suspension, diff, PTM, etc all work together so naturally that it didn’t take long at all to get comfortable pushing the car. It is so stable under hard braking, rotates very nicely, and really puts the power down on corner exit. PDR is really cool and I’ve only scratched the surface of digging into it.
I had the full track alignment done and tire wear was OK, a little hard on the LF outside shoulder but I rotated the fronts halfway through each day to even it out. I would expect I’ll get at least two more track days out of the fronts and more than that out of the rears.
Brake wear was a bit disappointing. My front rotors look pretty much exactly like the OP’s with moderate grooves, and I also have a pretty good vibration now under braking. I didn’t notice the vibration on the track at all. With how beefy these brakes are, plus I have the track cooling parts installed, I have a hard time thinking the rotors warped so maybe it’s just pad deposits? I’ll try to get the front rotors turned this week and hopefully that will take care of it so I don’t have to drop ~1k on rotors after just two track days. Just eyeballing it I would say my pads are down to about 6mm so they’ve maybe got one day left in them at most. I was hoping for a bit better wear than that so I guess maybe I’ll need to look into one of the track pad options others have mentioned.
Anyway, this is an amazing car and I look forward to getting more track time with it in the future. It’s a big step up in capability from the other cars I’ve tracked (Sti, track prepped E36, Veloster N), and I guess I’ll need to accommodate to the higher consumable rates that come along with that .

 

[M2Cto4BW]

Good stuff @StuckeyGR
What are your plans alignment wise? You going to set them back to standard or leave it? Guessing your track season is coming to a close in a while anyways, based on your location?

 

[strohw]

I figured I would add my recent track experiences on to this thread. I’ve done two track days with my CT4VBW now, one at Grattan and one at Gingerman here in west Michigan. As I expected this thing is a blast on the track. The suspension, diff, PTM, etc all work together so naturally that it didn’t take long at all to get comfortable pushing the car. It is so stable under hard braking, rotates very nicely, and really puts the power down on corner exit. PDR is really cool and I’ve only scratched the surface of digging into it.
I had the full track alignment done and tire wear was OK, a little hard on the LF outside shoulder but I rotated the fronts halfway through each day to even it out. I would expect I’ll get at least two more track days out of the fronts and more than that out of the rears.
Brake wear was a bit disappointing. My front rotors look pretty much exactly like the OP’s with moderate grooves, and I also have a pretty good vibration now under braking. I didn’t notice the vibration on the track at all. With how beefy these brakes are, plus I have the track cooling parts installed, I have a hard time thinking the rotors warped so maybe it’s just pad deposits? I’ll try to get the front rotors turned this week and hopefully that will take care of it so I don’t have to drop ~1k on rotors after just two track days. Just eyeballing it I would say my pads are down to about 6mm so they’ve maybe got one day left in them at most. I was hoping for a bit better wear than that so I guess maybe I’ll need to look into one of the track pad options others have mentioned.
Anyway, this is an amazing car and I look forward to getting more track time with it in the future. It’s a big step up in capability from the other cars I’ve tracked (Sti, track prepped E36, Veloster N), and I guess I’ll need to accommodate to the higher consumable rates that come along with that .

I've done 2 at Grattan and 1 at Waterford and my LF is the same. In regards to the brakes, after 3 track days with two in group 4 and the last day in group 3 I have 8mm left. I'm not sure where I'll land next year for pad wear when I do 3 days in group 3. No grooving of the rotors as of yet though.

You probably just need to move into a better pad. There will probably be cheaper rotor options available next year as well.

 

[StuckeyGR]

Good stuff @StuckeyGR
What are your plans alignment wise? You going to set them back to standard or leave it? Guessing your track season is coming to a close in a while anyways, based on your location?

I’m planning to just stick with the track alignment. I’ve really enjoyed this car as a daily driver, and I figure if I use it as a fair weather daily plus get a the occasional track day in it will even out the inside/outside tire wear. I can do mostly backroads on my commute and I haven’t had any issues with the more aggressive alignment. But yes, my blackwing will be going into hibernation in a month or so until next spring .

 

[Mbar]

Two notes:
1. I daily drove with the track alignment for a few weeks after my track event. After going back to stock alignment I realized how much the daily driving is more comfortable. The suspension absorbs bumps way better and steering wandering is gone on a ‘bad’ road.
2. It looks like we need to use track pads to prevent accelerated rotor damage. Yes , everybody drives differently , on different tracks and different skill level. It seems that stock pads will keep you safe at the track, but they damage the rotors when they are outside their operating window.

 

[565565]

Makes you wonder what they do with the cars at spring mountain. Maybe they got some tricks for getting more use out of the rotors. Also does anyone know if the 5bws there are on steels or CCBs?

 

[LF4472]

Makes you wonder what they do with the cars at spring mountain. Maybe they got some tricks for getting more use out of the rotors. Also does anyone know if the 5bws there are on steels or CCBs?

FWIW, on C7 Z06 with CCB, they used the CCB rotors. IIRC, they used different pads for longevity reasons. They also swapped the Cup2 tires for Pilot Super Sports, also for longevity.

 

[M2Cto4BW]

Makes you wonder what they do with the cars at spring mountain. Maybe they got some tricks for getting more use out of the rotors. Also does anyone know if the 5bws there are on steels or CCBs?

Interesting Q. I know at the M Day I did, they'd swap out pads at lunch. While we're eating the instructors were hooning it around in the cars to bed them in.