jthomas

when it comes to brake pads, i want it all... LOW dust, easy on rotors, fairly good pad life, and no fade during HARD street use and track days. does such a pad exist??

jay
san francisco

LPEdave

I don't believe so. If there were, why would there be all these other pads? You've got to pick your priorities...

Dave

jthomas

well, from what little research i have done this morning, it seems to me that a high-performance ceramic pad may have just the properties that i want.

me thinks that good ceramic pads and a set of high quality, cryo treated rotors may be the ticket. anyone tried the ac delco durastops in an auto-x/roadrace environment? how about sbs?

thanks!

jay
san francisco

auto-Xer

I found Hawk HP+ to be a good pad. They squeek a little at light braking once warmed up though. Dusting isn't as bad as Performance Friction Z-Rated (Which were much worse than my stock pads. I dont know what was wrong w/ them). Its the stock pad on the Z06 I believe. When Im braking hard for a corner I find myself getting a little dizzy from the decelration.

--Kevin

Dr.Mudge

Hard street use? What does that mean? Get some steel lines and decent pads and you wont rear end anyone so long as you don't tailgate. There is no way that street driving is going to give you fade, unless you drag your brakes down a very very long hill.

I like the Hawks that Thunderracing carries, they work fine and dont have rotor wear issues at least for me, they dont dust too badly but others dissagree.

jthomas

what i mean by hard street use is braking as hard as i can from high speeds (like when i'm chasing a 911 or m3 or whatever down the interstate) to 60 mph with no fade. i'm used to the brakes on my previous sportbikes being able to bring me and my bike down from top speed to almost nothing with no fade, pad glazing, etc... my life, and the lives of others, may very well depend on it.

as for the hawks, i had a full set of hps pads on the car for about 300 miles last summer. they dusted like crazy and stained the clearcoat on my wheels. not to mention the fact that, due to some inconsistencies in front pad compound, the car would give a quick jerk to one side and then stop straight. hawk has graciously sent me another set of pads in exchange for the old ones. those will be appearing in the classifieds section next week.

oh, and i found that goodridge has a 6 line kit for those of us that have tc on our late model f-bods. it is $140 from tirerack.com. their website sez that it is a 5 line kit, but my phone call to goodridge confirmed that it is a proper 6 line kit for that particular application.

oh, and Dr.Mudge, i see that you are a member of the northern california racing club- something that i am very interested in. tell me a bit about the instruction that is available to a new member, if you would.

jay
san francisco

Xscream

Sounds like you just need to upgrade your brakes! Its hard to get a pad with all that. If you don't want it to dust, ceramic is the way to go but they don't have the stopping power as a Hawk or Padget Black. I change pads and rotors when I run the track or on the street. I actually will run the Raybeous (?) Quiet Stop Ceramic pad on the street and then switch to a hawk blue for the track.

Dr.Mudge

Basically, anyone that signs up has the option to get instruction if you request it. You can also ride along with someone else which will help give you an idea of the driving line, etc

LPEdave is actually one of the 3 founders, so if you PM him he can fill you in on any questions better than I can, or head over to the sight to get a basic overview of the goings on.

As for chasing cars, I can't say that I have never driven fast on the interstates because I have, but I sure hope your not doing it with other traffic around, the Fast and the Furious should stay in the theater, too many people die or wreck from idiocy.

Almost all pads will dust more if they are "better", ergo your going to have to wash your wheels very often if you drive the car more often. I didn't consider the Hawk dust to be that much more at all, if you dont wash them once a week or put high miles on the car, or use them heavier than I did then that could be different. On a track day sure they end up dirty, but thats not street driving.

jthomas

thanks for the heads up... would you care to comment on the quality of your experiences with the club?

to tell you the truth, i have never seen that movie, nor do i intend to. but yeah, i do drive pretty fast sometimes. only when i feel that it is safe to do so, however. years of motorcycle riding has taught me to respect my limits and drive within them, with environmental factors considered too, of course.

jay
san francisco

Dr.Mudge

Shoot, most people in the BA know that if you want track time on the cheap, this is the place to do it. We are now up to 4 run groups instead of 3, and frankly alot of people leave a little early because of getting tired (it does wear you out), so even as it is alot of people dont use the maximal track time available.

If you have a race seat and a harness, I'm sure that will reduce alot of the tiredness most of us feel simply from holding yourself in the seat.

NCRC sort of started out as just some BA guys hitting Thunderhill organized by Dave, and then later became a formal club with a couple other guys also doing some of the footwork. You get alot of track time, its a friendly environment, with all kinds of cars expected to be seen out there on the track, and of course FREE tutoring by experienced racers and enthusiasts alike. They also have pictorial CDs and DVDs of the track time available which is also pretty neat.

Without sounding like an advertisement there isn't much more I could say, I think its friggin great. I'll be at Sears January 25th, weather providing...

RdRacerZ28

I got some TRW Extreme Duty pads for my Camaro from TPIS......I was AMAZED at how well they worked at the track. Low dust during the week too. They were like $65.....might wanna try those. I think they were like for the front set.

sandmanljs

Its time for new brakes. Id like to get aftermarket(EBC and Hawk seem to be the easiest to find). Which of these two are going to give me the most stoping power and longest life? Stoping power is the number one prority. This is for a street application, no track use yet. Im still trying to find autoX in my area. Thanks.

LPEdave

Wow, thanks for the testimonial, Doc.

Jay, if you need any more info on NCRC feel free to mail me (dave@ncracing.org) or check the web site. We'd be glad to get you rolling...

Dave

pastrdcp

For the safety of your self and the safety of others, become a mature driver and only race on closed tracks not public roads. See my post on "learn to drive fast".