Just came across Car & Driver article on 370Z brake fade. Ouch. What the... I yet to experience any brake fade on F-type, am I not driving it hard enough or is it just not a problem on our cars?

 

No experience of brake fade on my F Type, but I haven't taken it on a track.

At the risk of stating what car enthusiasts will know, brakes convert energy into heat from friction.
As temperature of brake pads increase the coefficient of friction changes, often it will decrease above a certain temperature leading to less braking force.

The weight of the car will have an effect on energy production via braking however a much more significant effect is from speed.

Put simply braking from higher speeds leads to hot brakes, if cooling is sufficient and there's enough time in between brake applications for temperature reduction then temperature can be kept below that were fade will occur.

So called track pads can operate at higher temperature before fade occurs but sometimes there is a trade off with poorer braking at lower brake temperature.

 

 

 

It helps that our brakes are MASSIVE (superperformance package)

Dave

 

Jaguar takes braking seriously. At one point the brakes fitted on my model, but one generation older (Alcon Pkg), were the largest on any production car.

 

And now even less likely to fade

 

Brake fade is based on the temperature of rotor and pads. Each pad compound is designed to work within a specific heat range. Low dust pads, usually Ceramic compound, are great for street use, they have a lower temperature range and will fade no matter what if driven aggressively. The OEM TRW pads are semi-metallic, they are dusty but they operate at a higher temperature range. JLR did a great job picking those pads as they are among the best for the mixed street and spirited driving. They are however, dusty. You cannot have both. For those whom drive mostly extremely aggressively or track the car, they should look into track pads, EBC Yellow stuff is my #1 choice. They will squeak with road use, they operate best at high temperatures, they will eat your rotors faster, they are dusty but when you need them, they stop you.
It's a very personal choice and one that you must make based on what you do mostly with the car. Unfortunately, unlike tires/wheels, you can't just swap your pads before a track day and swapping pads and rotors is a royal pain plus I am not that confident that the it would be OK anyway (bedding etc).

I track my car quite often and the TRW OEM have been terrific pads. The ONLY time I ever experienced minor fade was not on the track but chasing around in a lot of extremely high speed down to 60MPH... and I mean redline 6th gear to 60 to give you a good idea. Not speed you can reach on many tracks where 140-150mph is the best you will see anyway.