Source for Porterfield/Raybestos ST-43?

Raybestos ST-43's are most commonly sourced by calling Portfield unless you have a super-common tracked car (our C5 Corvette ST-43's are available from many sources).

Only one person I have met in the Lemons community has had anything less that excellent luck with the ST43's but they are on the super pointy end of the stick with a multitude of of overall wins based largely on really fast, really clean drivers (LeMonaide if you know of their exploits).

We will never run anything else on the front of a competitive endurance car ever again (IoE is a different matter).  On the Dustbuster we get 5-6 races and test days out of them on the C5 brake upgrade...rotors lasted two more races before we got nervous about the volume of heat checking.  We run them in the (no longer close to stock) '47 Plymouth and are looking at similar wear.  We even got them for the rear of the Plymouth which uses calipers from late 1990's Explorer after we burned up a few sets of high end street pads.

Just call or email Porterfield brakes in Costa Mesa California.  ST-43 is a compound made by Raybestos that a company like Porterfield can use to make brake pads.  Porterfield also has their own compounds like the R4s.

They will custom make any pad for you.  They did not have my Volvo pads, I just sent the nice lady a picture of the backing and she know exactly what it was.  A week later I had pads on my doorstep.  They will seem expensive, but they last a long time.

Don't try and use their website, just call.

Yes.

Never a good idea to mix pad compound on the same rotor, especially the Raybestos compounds.

80% of your braking is done up front so with such a light car, is it really worth paying an extra $200 for rear fancy pads? On my 3200LB tbird I run ST43s up front but wagner severe duty fleet pads in back. If you insist on spending money, consider buying a spare set of rotors and pads for up front with that extra money and/or stainless steel braided lines.
-g

Call raysbestos, tell them your car and use, and they can recommend the best setup. Any of the manufacturers will do the same. They know their products and can guide you through them. Likely they'll say use the 43 though. Can confirm they're awesome.

FWIW, Raybestos owns Porterfield.  The ST-43 is a Raybestos compound but available as an off the shelf item from Porterfield.

https://www.porterfield-brakes.com/Prod … =Raybestos

Actually, you may be right.  Factory weight was about 3000#.  Figure the top and hardware, interior, door glass, etc. that's been stripped, and maybe we're actually more like 2700# after adding back in a cage at 100#?

Someday we'll find a scale and see what she weighs, but you're probably right.  And no, not thinking we're engineering so precisely that it would make a difference, though thanks for keeping us honest.

We run ST43s all the way around to maintain brake balance.