Looking at the Nigels Pagid specs the Grey's appear to be better than the Yellow's but the Yellow's are more expensive. Can anyone explain the differences

yellows last longer!

This may help a bit. http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1128051#Post1128051

Yup - Yellows are much more durable - the Aston team use them at LeMans

I get 12,000 - 15,000 out of a set of Yellows (and I'm known to be fairly hard on my brakes). More gentle drivers could get 20,000+

However, track use will seriously reduce their lifespan - not because the pads are bad - its because the cooling to the Coupe brakes is awful

What would you expect to get out of the Greys under the same conditions

About half of the mileage I'd get with the yellows

Great for a car doing <5,000 a year, but not really suitable for my 30,000+ miles - I'd be replacing pads every two months

Nigel have you found that by the time the yellows need replacing the discs do to (I got 11k out of the disc and pad)?
Mine did and I wondered if this was down to the harder wearing pad eating into the disc.

I have greys.fab pad...i havent gone through mine yet as ive only done 4k..When hot that are even better

No - I usually manage two sets of pads to one pair of discs

However, this may be because I tend to run very high quality heat-treated discs - cheaper discs could wear quicker

There were the old DBA disc that are now not made.

interesting....

I've been using DBA4000 for the last half-dozen or so sets of discs - I've nearly always managed to make them last for two sets of pads (although I do run them until the grooves are gone from the inner face)

You should check that your pads are free in the caliper - I found that if you simply make sure that they just fit the caliper, they will bind when they get hot - I grind my pads so there there's at least 0.5mm of free play - maybe even 1mm - this means they can clunk a little when they are cold, but it also means they don't bind in the caliper (and thus drag on the disc) when I've got some heat into them

Great advice Nigel, i've been doing that for a long time too and it definately works.

I have used both greys and yellows. The greys have the highest heat rating but wear the discs down very quickly when used at their full potential. Interestingly although they have a higher heat rating they actually have a better friction rating from cold which is very good for sprints etc. The yellows are awesome and not only do Aston use them but one of the GT2 porsche teams last year ran the whole 24hrs on one set of yellows!!!!!

I'm going to be moving to 20 minutes race formats next year so i will try both the greys and the yellows and see what suits best.

I'm now looking for a better quality disc at the moment and i will be runnin ducting on my car to help. The vents in the wings in my car reduced brake temps by at least 10 degress which is very useful.

I do try to find time to take the pads out every 2 months to clean the runners but I guess they might have been a bit sticky.

Saying that the wear on the pads was constant and the discs were evenly worn, inside face more so but still the same on both discs.


Interesting that you say the greys will wear the discs quicker Sparco, Ill keep a better on on the inside face and time/millage now.