Thanks Mark! Great to hear. I just checked your website and noticed you have the 83 compound on sale. For about half what the 08 is going for. Is there any merit to considering this? IIRC it's a pretty aggressive pad from a wear standpoint, yes? Might just be cost effective (and 'sanity effective') to go with the 08 anyway.

Looking forward to the 08 -- been a long time coming for the 'fo-fo.

IIRC 83 will cause you to hit you face on the steering wheel the first time you use them after they warm up. They are for the worst of the worst conditions such as Nascar short track.

Don't overthink it -- they are a wear item, and will have a short life if you track the car. Pick a compound and give it a try. You'll need a new set before you know it, and you can try something else at that point if there are elements of the first set you did not like.

Thanks guys. I've got about one more weekend's worth on the Hawk Blue's, so I'm looking forward to swapping. The Blues are OK, but I haven't been pleased with their feel characteristics they exhibit when they get near the end of their life. Don't inspire as much confidence as the '97's do.

I'd reread this again and then ask myself why I was waiting to replace. could just become your backup or just in case pads.

As pads wear, the remaining material works less well as a heat sink. A good rule of thumb for track driving has always been that the pad material should be more than the backing plate. As you get closer to that thickness, not only will the pads heat up more and work less, but they'll also wear faster. If say the backing plate thickness is twice the pad material, the 1st half will last much longer than the last half.

And x2 what TR says. We keep some used pads around for backup. Often re-sort thru the used pads and keep the 4 best ones as backup.

I also noticed that with the stock pads, as they became thinner than the backing plate, the edges of the pads started to crumble away. Not a comforting sight! I don't know how track pads compare in this respect.

I've had Hawk HT-10s crumble. Did not have that issue with Pagid Oranges. But the HT-10s only crumble when worn down a bit less then backing plate thickness (they start to overheat).

Please note that all track pads DO NOT behave in exactly the same way. About the only generalization you can make is that track pads will last longer and stop much better at track events then street pads.

heat cycles take a toll on the pad materal.

Thanks TR and Tony -- good advice. That's actually what I've more-or-less been doing over the last few years (building up a collection of almost-dead pads). I'm somewhat trying to limit this collection; So far I'm up to ~3 extra sets of race pads and ~5 sets of street pads! I'm sure that for some of you, that is chump change, but I'm currently trying to get rid of parts,not add... :D