Project S2000 – Part 10 – Track Testing Revised KW Clubsports and Earl’s Oil Cooler

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This is significantly better than pre-oil cooler temperatures of 133C/271F when the ambient temperature was 85F.  So even with the ambient temperature about 7F hotter, the oil temperature was about 28F cooler!  As a bonus, the coolant temperature stayed cooler also as the coolant system no longer had to cool the oil; the coolant temperature peaked at only 91C, or just barely above the thermostat setting.  The Koyo radiator is doing a great job!  Thanks to the ARK Design MFDII for the data of course.

The front brakes right after coming off the track.  They were running nice and cool.  No weird rotor grooving or wear while running the StopTech street pads on the track.

The front brakes stayed cool as well and the StopTech street pads held up just fine.  I only did three sessions as it was hot and I was short on sleep, but the pads only wore down 0.4mm in those three sessions and the little bit of street driving I did for a few days between measurements.  While the front brakes stayed cool, the rear brakes got hot.  Just to make sure the desert heat wasn’t getting to me, I had Kojima do the hand pyrometer trick to compare the temperatures of the front and rear brakes.  The difference was pretty stunning as the rear brakes were an order of magnitude hotter.  A rough guess is about double.  The heat probably explains why the rear pads wear much more quickly on S2000s.  I may have to devise rear brake cooling ducts.

An up close look at the front StopTech brakes after coming off the track.  There is really no wear to speak of on the rotor after about 14k miles, 11 track sessions over 3 track days, and about 60 auto-x runs.

The StopTech street pads went from 10.5mm thickness to 10.1mm thickness after the three sessions in the heat of the desert.  At my current power levels, there’s absolutely no reason for track pads with this brake setup as even the street pads will probably last at least 50 track sessions.

The stock rear brakes are another story.  They run much hotter than the StopTechs on the front and you can see the heat the rotor took after coming off the track.  Being a solid rear rotor instead of vented is not helping things.