hi, i have a '91 N/A with the 4 piston front brakes and i am due for new pads and rotors up front.

as we all know, mazda OE parts are ridiculously over priced, so i am going with third party rotors and pads.

from the shoping around i've done on the web, i can get either plain vented discs or drilled/slotted discs for a few bucks more. i'm also considering using the hawk hps pads instead of a conventional ceramic compound.

My question is: will spending the few extra bucks be worth it to improve the stopping performance and safety (you never know when a few feet less on the 60-0 would be more handy until it's too late) of my car, or is it just over kill that will wear out more quikly and provide nmo real benefit.

this car is my daily driver but i do drive it fairly hard and plan on trying autocross some time in the future.

thanks. and feel free to weigh in, especialy if you are familiar with performance brakes, as i am not.

 

I can comment on the HPS pads. They are very similar to stock but doesn't squel before they are warm like OEM. I like mine.

As far as solid vs drill rotors, I don't think you'll be worse off going drilled as long as you are buying a decent one. I would also suggest dimpled or slotted rotor instead of drilled for crack resistance.

HPS pads can be had a pegasus racing or tirerack. Much better deal that OEM.

 

Yep, I have had the HP+ and HPS pads. The HP+ grip HARD, but they also squeal a lot, dust a lot, and are harder on rotors. The HPS pads still bite well and are better in the other aspects.

djantlive's right, tirerack is a great source for the HPS pads, they are priced extremely well with tirerack's excellent customer service.

 

The Drilled /Slotted rotors will NOT give any braking distance improvements, Drilling ad slotting are mostly COSMETIC enhancments (now) In the past the cross drilled & VENTED rotors (devolped by Porsche) were designed to allow hot gases formed by the breakdown of the binders used in the Organic friction materials of the time (1970's) to vent out from under the pads. Modern Carbon/Kevlar, Ferro/Carbon, and Semi Metalic friction materials do NOT suffer from this outgassing problen and see little or no benefit from using drilled rotors. Slotted rotors do have the benifit of reducing contamination of the pads (glazing) by acting like little scrapers cleaning the pad surface (they also slightly increase pad wear rate) every time the slots pass over the pad.

 

I can comment on what not to get. I love the way the HP+ grips, and I love the way they stop, but they dust like you wouldn't believe. I also have a small groove in my left front rotor after only about four months. Luckily they've stopped squealing.

Next time around it's HPS for me. The HP+ would be good for a weekend car that has to drive on the street and wouldn't get pure race compounds up to temp. But as many miles as I drive in a year, they're a bit hard core even for my taste.

 

Bought the hps after everyone says the hp+ dust and chow on rotors. Hopefully the HPS are like metal matrix and the others that give a bit more initial bite.

I'm doing the HPS with stillen cross-drilled rotors (brembo + radius holes + cadmium). We'll see how they work.

One thing that hasn't been discussed is the fact that the leading edge of the pad is 15% of the braking power. I think that x-drilled rotors give more initial surfaces to get that bite. I've read that Porsche does x-drilled b/c ferrari does and its merely cosmetic - those guys are germans and they don't play that game.

 

My hawk hp+ pads are screaming like mad rite now on my car, but like everyone says, they've got some awesome gripping.

 

I'd go with HPS pads, and sloyyed rotors from KVR. They are very reasonably priced and a good quality rotor. They can be found at corksport.com
enjoy,
-a

 

If you are not tracking your car, then there is no performance benefit to getting slotted and/or cross-drilled rotors. If you know someone with the Mazdaspeed discount, OEM rotors can be had for very cheap. And if you're really concerned with stopping your car, you should be looking at higher performance tires. Brakes do not stop your car; your tires do.

HPS pads are okay. Again, if you do not plan on any competitive driving, then there's no need for you to get high performance pads. The HPS pads will be fine for street driving. But, for cold bite, there aren't too many affordable pads that compete with HP+'s.