What brake pads

[TonyC]

Gary, I presume you mean the DTC compounds. Would need to be DTC60.
Also, do you mean HPs not HTs in your first sentence?

if we can do a deal with PF, I\'ll happily run those pads. In fact, if anyone has a prototype 6pot front brake system and disk to fit under a 17" wheel I\'ll be more than happy to try it out over the coming season

[kev-yorks]

Can we just make it clear guys for anyone who is not racing doing track days a lot of the above pads are not suitable for daily drives. I would hate for someone to put a set on and suffer a accident due to the brakes not being up to temp. Theres lots of rx7 drivers out there that don\'t drive there cars hard enough for race track day pads and this would not be a good combination with some of the above mentioned compounds. Just because they are used for racing doesn\'t mean there the best for all round use.
Regards Kevin

[MikeLMR]

Don\'t forget that cold race pads on the front and "stop from cold" road pads on the back will bring the back end around rather quickly before those front pads warm up ... just the job for that emergency stop on the motorway to and from a trackday :3Confused

[clive]

Hi People,

I think you may have realised with the comments from Kevin and Mike that behind the scenes we have been a little concerned that this thread will possibly make people make the wrong pad compound choices for their "road" cars which could possibly lead to damaged Disc\'s, wheels or even cars and people if they are using a race pad that needs heat generated into them to make them become efficient, even at very low speeds !

The comments I will now make personally are based on experience that I and the customers my company have supplied surrounding uprated brake pads on FD\'s, and I say FD\'s because for instance you would not use the same pad compound on say a 3,000 LB NASCAR stock car and a super light Formula Ford.

Starting with Ferodo, both the 2500 and 3000 compounds are very much "Race Compounds" with the 2500 being usable on the road but only after you get some heat into them and so not much good for a nip down to the supermarket as they have very little initial cold bite.

The 3000 is a very aggressive race pad totally unsuitable for road cars as this is a compound really designed for Le Mans type cars.

The entry level Hawk HP+ does work well from cold but as I have said else where it is very "grab n stop" and personally found that the material offers very little feed back to the driver and will fade on track badly if pushed hard.

One thing I have found though is that whilst these HP+ pads are O/K on FD\'s, on RX-8\'s with standard Disc\'s we metal fileings come off and destroyed his chrome wheels !

However with the Hawks we found that the combination of HT10 "race pad" on the front and HP+ on the back to give the car some better rear end bite thus improving the brake balance between front and rear worked very well but I will stress that this is for the serious Trackday guy who is also using his FD on the road.

It may be worth knowing that I spoke at length to the American Hawk rep at last years AutoSport Show and he was absolutely amazed that we were finding HT10 O/K for use on the road so please guys don\'t even think about running any Hawks such as HT 14 or HT15 on the road as these compounds are designed for Indycars and NASCAR\'s not road cars or even race cars doing short races.

I am sure Dan will know this but a year ago when I spoke to Performance Friction at the same Auto Sport Show and the American rep there told me they did not make a pad shape for the FD/FC but if they now do it would be interesting to know if they have tested these compounds on road / track and the results on FD\'s.

I have purposely not mention Mintex as this is covered above and I have not even bothered to mention EBC as I have seen these make FD\'s Disc\'s go blue and crack, the problem with EBC is that whilst the Bikers love EBC for cars they seem to have a quality control issue and you can end up with supposadly the same compound being either Concrete or as soft as cardboard  depending what day they were made!.

I hope the above helps clear up all this talk of brake compounds and that our members will ensure they take advise before throwing a Race compound on your car.

[banned advertiser]

No one should ever buy Hawk HT+ for track use
HPS preety much as stock mazda pads, HT+ slight upgrade to a stock pad, fast street pads or light track use would be Blue\'s or Black\'s, HT10 are good track pads but for real serious work there are HT14\'s and 15\'s but Tony, will let you try the new pad, better then the HT14 & 15 being used by most of the GT porkers racing.
Endless are exelent but dear, Performance friction in stock very soon, will continue my talks with Dan on Monday.
Ferodos are very popular with customers 2500 or 3000 compounds.
All found here plus other makes.
http://www.rotaryart.uk.com/acatalog/Suspension_brakes.html

Thats why I gave a brief discription of compounds, I think guys on here are smart enough to understand whats said above.
The only comment I would make is we usually get asked for brake compounds before guys buy and if anyone was to order DS3000 we would probably ask why they wanted them unless we knew there car. It quite clearly saiys above that HT14 & HT15 are for serious track cars.
I do have some customers Drew and Max running DS2500 on there cars and drew uses his for mainly road as well as the odd track day, perhaps they can comment on there experiance.
I have used the combo HP+ rears and HT10\'s front and used them as an every day car with track work and was very happy with them, but down side was very dusty front, some sqealing when cold but for me personally was a trade off, not having to swap pads from road use to track use. Hawk have commented on the amount of HT10\'s we get through compared to HP+, we have also supplied the Blacks and Blue compounds which are lighter than the HT10\'s which are becoming more popular.

[TonyC]

I hope it is always obvious I\'m coming from a very much track orientated prespective. So if anyone ever reads my comments on brakes, suspension or whatever they will always be geared toward race/serious trackdays.

To offer some prsepctive on the HT10 compound, I would HAVE to do the following at each race. When we left the paddock on the green flag (or assembly/warm up) lap to reach the grid I would cover at least 50% of the lap with one foot on the brakes and one on the throttle so the brakes were warmed by being dragged. I\'d also have to accelerate hard ona staight and then nail it hard on the brakes several times, just to ensure there was sufficent brake temp for the first corner after the start.
If you use these for trackdays then you will need to warm them up properly.
I stil beleive that normal HPs will be too soft for any serious trackday drive (the exception is the \'ring where brakes are not used anywhere near as much as you expect so have plenty of time to cool down).

[Papercup]

These days we now have lots and lots of very happy customers with FC\'s, FD\'s and FE\'s on our new Mintex Xtream pads as they give good cold stopping are clean for your wheels compared to most and are also good for track days with no fade from one of our customers after 100 laps around Brands, and at £120 for a front and rear set delivered represent excellent value, and we have them in stock

I\'d just like to add that after the HT10s (front) and HP+ (rear) that were on my car died (almost immediately after i got it, Snetterton killed them) i spoke to MRP above and he told me about these new Mintex jobs.
 
I bought a set of four and fitted them two weeks back. Very fast to scrub in, and i am very happy with them. Two road jaunts (but in a hurry...) and they are doing the job very well. Good solid brakes, do what you need. No track use yet. No issues from cold that i have found.
 
Thumps up from me.

[banned advertiser]

Please let us know how they hold up at snetterton for a true comparission, as customers have asked if can get them, so may well be on my site soon, and at one time when black diamond first came out some vendors were selling these for track, but proved wrong, so would be real interested.

[Papercup]

Please let us know how they hold up at snetterton for a true comparission, as customers have asked if can get them, so may well be on my site soon, and at one time when black diamond first came out some vendors were selling these for track, but proved wrong, so would be real interested.

I will report back as soon as i have tried them on a track....

[Dan Norton]

Clive:- I wasnt aware that you spoke to PFC last years autosport show, but we do now have a listing for the FD3, only 97 compound at the moment with 01 coming towards the end of the year.
But the good news is, we WILL see the new Z Rate fast road/track compound towards the 3rd quarter of the year.

Have a look at this on Scoobynet, a guy who put our Z Rated pads and direct drive replacement discs on his Impreza (this is the set-up i want available for the FD)
http://bbs.scoobynet.com/wheels-tyres-brakes-13/587574-performance-friction-brakes-up-job.html

Also to note, a lot of different applications do use the same compounds, our 01 compound is used in Nascar as well as F3 and WRC cars, ok the Nascar guys use the 01 in greasey conditions (a bit more controlability)as they normally run our 03 and sometimes 05 compound which offer really high initial bite... but they are used so
one particular compound is not necessarily restricted to one make of series in that sense.
There are so many factors to consider when choosing the correct compound for your needs that absolutly everything needs to be considered, not just vehicle weight.

[mutleysfriend]

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I was wondering if Dan could tell us if 01 compound is available yet. If it is can a stockist be recommended. I have done a search on the internet but with no luck.
Thanks,
mf.

[Papercup]

I will report back as soon as i have tried them on a track....

Sorry its been so long but i couldn\'t remember where i had promised to report back; it turns out it is this thread and i should thank \'mutleysfriend\' for boinging it back up.
 
So....those Mintex Extreme Pads. Any good on track? No, is the answer, i am afraid.
 
Let me make it clear that for road pads they are excellent; scrubbed in straight away, no noise, no issues from cold, work really well. If you only drive your FD on the road then its still a big thumbs up. I am in a bit of a hurry when it comes to corners and roundabouts and they did exactly what they should, and worked very well.
 
On the track; awful. They last a lap or two then its pot luck whether the brakes will work and they got so hot they cracked my front discs. Bedford was no fun at all and by the third lap i had the pedal on the floor with very little braking. I actually stopped tracking the car after that track day as not only was it frustrating, i thought there was a very good chance of stacking it due to the random nature of the brakes once hot. When i took them off there was loads of meat on them still, and one disc was a complete right-off; had to be removed straight away as it had cracked to its outside edge. The other was a mess as well but only on its swept area. All the signs of excess heat and pads that are too hard.
 
Christ only knows how this guy with an RX-8 did 100 laps of Brands. To be fair, i do have 400 horses and a track-focused car. So i am getting to corners a fair bit quicker than him and therefore braking more. But still, i don\'t get it.
 
So, thumbs down for the \'serious about tracks\' user.
 
Andy