Spyder, I believe he’s being captain obvious in that you tracked 22 laps with warnings of brakes overheating.....

Phil,

I’m sorry what happened to your brakes and the costs you’ll incur, but for anyone who has driven various cars on track, this was an event just waiting to happen. You received very poor advice from your dealership btw!

A heavy car like the SL65 relying on its ESC to remain stable on track is going to extract a very heavy toll on its brakes; it simply is not a reasonable choice to be trying for quick laps on any road course unless you’ve prepared the car. By this I mean: change the brake fluid to an ultra high quality DOT 4; (you lost the pedal on track by ‘boiling’ your brake fluid); attempting to find some more road course oriented brake pads instead of the street pads that the SL65 comes with, and I hate to say it, drive the car at 5/10, not 7-8/10. If you want to be that committed find a car that can take road course ‘abuse’ in stride at an HPDE for 20-25 minutes; (and in my experience the GT R can easily do so), or buy a dedicated track car after you’ve gotten tons of experience.

A ‘slow’ street car that can’t generate the high speeds of the SL and a car that weighs perhaps 3,000 lbs versus north of 4,000 lbs can maybe tolerate the abuse without any major issues, but those cars these days are few and far between because the vast majority of cars can generate decent speed and most also weigh far more than cars did 10-20 years ago. The BMW 3 series cars are a great example.

I hope that MB offers you some assistance with this.

Bish

So the GT R is supposed to come with OEM DOT 4 brake fluid. I’m not sure if all MB’s with CCMs come with DOT 4; I doubt it as I bet it’s car specific, not brake system specific. Regardless I’m sure the F1 GT R has ultra high performance brake fluid installed. Also, the GT R’s OEM brake pads work very well in my experience as a great compromise street/track pad; however I wouldn’t be surprised if the F1 Safety car doesn’t come with the Pagid RSC1s which are more track oriented.

Castrol state that SRF needs to be exchanged, (flushed) every 18 months. Unless you’re tracking the car, in which case a quick bleed prior to each road course weekend is never a bad idea, you can leave it in for the 18 months and replace when you hit that amount of time. If the brake fluid replacement has been very well done, meaning no air bubbles in the system especially within the caliper, you should never experience a ‘soft’ pedal from SRF with a street driven car.

Bish

No. DOT 5.1 is silicone based iirc and is not recommended in our cars as it can damage the braking system.

Bish

Difficult to ‘cook’ SRF, even in an E63S wagon. The more times brake fluid is flushed, the more chances of getting air in the system. This is why I only exchange the SRF in my car once a year at a specialized shop, and then just do small bleeds as necessary. Getting small bubblies out of the calipers can be a huge PITA.