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Performance Brake Pad recomendations?


Geeto67

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Hey All,

 

So the replace rear brake pads light when off on my BMW this morning, and since I have to get in there anyway, might as well upgrade and do the fronts as well.

 

Anybody have a recommendation for performance pads? Car is my DD and most of that is going across the top of 270 at highway speed, but I was thinking now that I just poured buckets of money into the shocks I might want to try doing some other things with it as well.

 

I have used Hawk HF pads on the audi and while they stop fantastic and have really lasted a long time, they chewed up the rotors something fierce.

 

anybody use stoptech pads? they seem to be 1/2 the price of OEM bmw pads.

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I used the stoptech sport pads in our old 997.1 Turbo we had as an alternative to the OEM porsche pads, which were pretty good for street pads to begin with.

 

They were pretty comparable to the factory pad, stopped well, held a little bit of heat before they would fall off, dusted pretty bad but no worse than the OEM pads. For the price and comparable performance I'd probably do them again if i ever found an application where i needed / wanted them.

 

I tracked them once in that car...maybe not the best decision. They would go off pretty bad after a couple hot laps, then again that car would go almost 160mph on the back straight at Mid Ohio. I could back down the pace and keep them under control from a temp standpoint but what fun is going 7/10ths. I didn't really expect them to do very well at the track and they pretty much lived up to that so I can't fault the pad for when I tried to use it outside of it's element.

 

I still think my favorite street pad I've ever run in a performance car was Hawk HPS pads. They performed well enough and had a considerably lighter dust than the factory stuff. Ran them in my M3 for years.

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P.S. When it comes to pads or rotors you need to decide which is the least expensive option to change. Any long lasting pad that works worth a darn is going to kill rotors. You're either going to go through lots of pads or lots of rotors it's just a choice of which is less painful to you.
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Recently put a full replacement Stoptech kit on the Mini. They have been great. low dust. No complaints.

 

 

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Found the whole kit (rotors+pads) at Carparts.com for $345 to my door. It was north of $400 everywhere else I could find so it seemed like a decent price

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I haven't tried very many different aftermarket pads, but I had a set of power stop pads I put on the Vette when I got it and I could never keep the noise away. They worked decent for cheaper pads. Machined the rotors and installed some Hawk Performance Ceramics, they were worse fading in autocross. Threw the whole mess away and upgraded to bigger Wilwood brakes all around, and I have been using the Wilwood polymatrix street pads that came with it. No complaints on those, been quiet and fairly low dust, but it's pretty much apples to oranges.

 

On my Camaro I used a set of Hawk HPS pads on quality stock replacement rotors, low dust, good street pad. Had a very good experience with those, been on the car for 5-6 years. Found fade on the stock pads a few times, but short of some high speed stops street racing or at the drag strip (where I have plenty of room to stop) I don't abuse the brakes a ton on that car.

 

I think Hawks are worth a look especially on a mostly street car. I've also known Carbotech to do well, I haven't personally tried them but it's what I will buy for the Corvette when I need some to fit the Wilwood calipers. I will be curious to hear your opinion of the Stoptechs if you use them.

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I've had HPS on my GTI, and now have stoptech street performance on my dads GTI. Both good, very comparable pads.

 

Carbotech and sister brand Gloc have good street pads supposedly, 1521 in carbotech and GS-1 in Gloc. No experience with those, but i've used their race pads with decent results.

 

A buddy on here has a BMW too and went with the PoverStop track day pads and is happy with them for the cost.

 

For pleb driving, most any name brand upgraded pad will be fine.

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+1 on the Hawk HPS, that's what I ran in my old wagon and was very happy with them. Withstood a track day with no issues for me.

 

The Gloc GS-1 pads mentioned by Aaron are preferred by a lot of spec Miata racers.

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Based on my current experience, I would not suggest the Carbotech 1521 (and possibly Gloc equivalent) if you plan to do some heavy braking from speed; even on the street.

 

Dusting is really low. The initial bite isn't much and they glazed and now bite even worse and squeal. All from spirited street driving.

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Based on my current experience, I would not suggest the Carbotech 1521 (and possibly Gloc equivalent) if you plan to do some heavy braking from speed; even on the street.

 

Dusting is really low. The initial bite isn't much and they glazed and now bite even worse and squeal. All from spirited street driving.

 

Forgot about you saying that.

 

They were "big" in the GTI/R world 4-5 years ago, no experience with them.

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I'm a big fan of CarboTech. Their street pads are great and handle autocross/rallycross really well. But if you want something more aggressive for a weekend, their racing pads can be swapped in without needed to swap/resurface the rotors. Their compounds are "chemically compatible" with each other so once you bed in a set of rotors you can swap pads and not have to do a re-bedding process.

 

Proper USED brake rotor bed in procedures:

 

1. If rotors have been previously bedded with Carbotech brake pads, then bedding the rotors again is not necessary.

 

This makes them great for weekend warriors who want to swap between street and track pads, or serious track enthusiasts that want to play with compounds to tune their braking for different tracks/conditions.

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I have ran XP8, 10 12 and 20s all with great success in different situations on the track. Never for the street. Any hawk pad HP+ and above will have corrosive dust that causes rust and oxidation on wheels and paint if left on. Carbotech does not and just wipes off. Any agressive pad will leave dust.
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