Recommended brake pads

[Army Fork]

So I'm curious what your guys experience are with brake companies like EBC, Hawk, Brembo etc., what's the best pad for the money? Which ones performed the best overall and which should I avoid like the plague?

[RLZ]

So I'm curious what your guys experience are with brake companies like EBC, Hawk, Brembo etc., what's the best pad for the money? Which ones performed the best overall and which should I avoid like the plague?

+1 here，anyone know what's good? Also front and rear rotors please!!

[chohdog]

There's 2 categories:

Racing pads for track events with R compound or Slick

Everything else


If the car is a street car, I have yet to meet a brake pad that didn't stop the car. Duralast/Autozone/Oreilly's auto parts stuff is fine. If you feel like spending money to justify a sticker, Project Mu and Endless seem to be the fanboy choice. Rotors are the same thing; anything works.

For track, that's a whole different discussion.

[rumsawatti]

Id also like to know what is preferred, ceramic or metallic?

[rollacpe]

I dont think it matters for street use, ceramic will cost you more and wear your rotors faster...

But like chohdog said, Track use is an entirely different discussion....

[RLZ]

I dont think it matters for street use, ceramic will cost you more and wear your rotors faster...

But like chohdog said, Track use is an entirely different discussion....

Id like some thing both street and track use! what's good?

[ga_goosh]

I favor semi metalic over ceramic. the braking force is better but the semi metalic pads will leave your wheels dirtier then ceramic. to me the performance differences are worth the extra wheel dirt. i usually go with bendix pads easy to get a hold of at a fair price. the semi metalic will make more noise then the ceramics.

ceramic pads wear faster then semi metalic but semi metalic is harder on your rotors then ceramic


I also found this:
http://forums.mtbr.com/brake-time/disc-brake-pad-compounds-608432.html

[Army Fork]

Funnily enough I think I read the same post awhile back, I race Downhill as another hobby.

I'm more interested in brands more than anything, I'm well-versed on compounds.

[chohdog]

I'm sure other people will chime in, but I like Hawk a lot.

RLZ: Hawk makes a pad called the HP+ which I've used in the rear of my car, and friends have used all around. For street tires and occasional track use, they're pretty good. Also as ga_goosh pointed out they're semi-metallic so they'll dust a lot (even though the advertisement says they won't). I've also heard a lot of good things about Porterfield.

Army Fork:
I was told an interesting opinion from a well versed AE86 guy a while back. His take was that Japanese brands tend to use more exotic materials in their pads to achieve braking performance but do so at a premium (which is part of the reason why Japanese pads are so expensive) but are generally pretty easy on rotors. USA brands are much cheaper, but to offer the same level of performance at that cost they use more metal, and generally dust more and are harsher on the rotors.

Stuff I've used:
TRD full race: absolutely no braking performance when cold, and amazing modulation and effectiveness when hot. Could not overheat these pads (Kumho Victoracer V700)
Project Mu B-force: tons of initial bite street pad, but cooked these at the track using Falken Azenis
Project Mu HC Titan Kai : no dusting, good street pad. Cooked these at the track using Kumo Victoracers (they literally completely turned white)
Porterfield/Raybestos race compound 43: Stupid crazy bite full dedicated racing pad. Ate the crap out of rotors at a ridiculous rate, dusted crazy, obscene initiate bite. This was for the first year of ownership. Then all of a sudden, they seemed to break in and became the best brake pad I've ever used. Could not overheat these. Used Kumho Victoracer, Toyo RA-1 and Toyo R888.
Hawk "Blue" : Pad I'm using now. Excellent modulation, no warm up needed. Pretty harsh on rotors. At last inspection they turned a little white on the edges due to heat but they're still working fine as of now. Using Toyo R888

Still in the box: Project Mu Racing 999: We'll see someday.

[Army Fork]

Hawk sounds like the brand, mines just a street car but once I have the suspension and LSD in I plan on hitting some mountain roads every now and gain so I'd like some extra brake power without dropping in the T3 Wilwood kit. That said that wilwood kit is pretty damn sexy, damn me and my educational aspirations interfering with my toys.