I've been riding on HP+ for about a thousand miles now. And I absolutely hate it.

The brake dust is unbelieveable.

I'm completely fed up with it.

I do not track the car at all, so the HP+ are completely unnecessary.

I'm switching back to either stock or HPS (which supposedly has almost no brake dust, anyone car to comment?)

Mazda wants $200 for stock brake pads.

Damn crack heads.

I guess i'll sell the HP+ pads if anyone wants them. 50 bucks, my car is a 93

 

Yep, they do that.

True.

Never used HPS personally, but everyone says they stay clean.

who quoted that

 

get the sumitomo type RZ brake pads from MazdaComp.
They are like 50 or 70 bucks, forgot which ones.

Reza

 

I had the HPS. Great street pad. *very* low dust, no squeaking, cheap from the tire rack, better than stock.

 

My experience is that Hawk HPS dust MUCH less than the HP+, but they do still give you a light coating of black dust on the wheels pretty quickly.

I would be inclined to try some EBC Greens as I have heard they dust less than HPS and may have a higher coefficient of friction. The stock or RZ pads from Mazda are also excellent street pads.

I loved the way the HP+ felt and didn't have any squealing issues, but the dust was way too much for my tastes in a street pad. They also faded on the track after a few laps, but never faded as bad as other street pads I have tried to use on the track. They would go away to about 50% but then they didn't seem to get much worse. I've faded HPS on the street before, but it was extreme street driving that faded them, and they were just fine most of the time.

I haven't heard of many people using them on RX-7s, but Axxis MetalMasters seem to be a favorite street pad for other car enthusiast groups. There is an Axxis Ultimate (I think that's the name) that sounds even higher-performance, but I am not sure if they are street pads or if they are available for the stock calipers. The Porterfield R4S is another option to consider. Project Mu or Endless pads might be worth a look, too.

-Max

 

http://www.brakeco.com/ sells EBC, Axxis and other pads, BTW. I've gotten some brake lines and a bunch of Brembo rotors from them over the years and always enjoyed good prices and service.

-Max

 

I still love you anyways

 

hahaha i think he meant race track not 1/4 mile strip

 

I have had my HP+s on the car for about 4K miles. Dust? More than you can ever believe. 2 days from a cleaning and guess what? . . . Time to clean again. I drive hard for 18 miles of twisties to work almost every morning and about 6 miles on the way home. Do I love these pads?. . . Yup!

No squeal, no fade, no warmup problems, just dust! I can live with that problem. Just another excuse to keep my baby cleaned and semi-detailed.

Just my opinion though

 

I agree with jeff48; I am willing to scrub the wheels.

 

I've just got a 1st gen, but I agree with these guys... I have a roll of towels I use to dust off the wheels pretty much everytime I get home. If you don't let it sit, it's easy to just wipe off...

 

I'm not. My wheels have a mirror finish to them and you can see a single grain of sand if it got on the lip. So I am not happy with my wheels completely black right.

 

I love you too.

 

Teddy,

I used to have the HP+ on my Black FC and the dust was a pain, especially with the 89+ turbo rims. Since selling the car, I've gone to Porterfield R4S pads. The dust is minimal in comparison, which makes keeping the rims I bought from you a lot easier. I did run the HP+ with the OZ rims, and I can notice a definate HP+ dust discoloration on the rims..... No amount of Dawn or wheel cleaner can restore the color. The R4S pads are expensive though and they don't seem to be worth the price though since they fade on Latigo Canyon runs. I'm going to test the pads out one more time on Latigo, this time I'm not going to be left foot braking and I'll see what the result is.....

I've heard good things about the HPS as far as street driving goes. Good luck with the brake pad search. If your pads fit on my car, I would buy them.

 

TTT:

I just went from the HP+ to the HPS pads a few thousand miles ago.

HP+: dusted way too much, dust hard to get off, squeeled under light braking, gripped DAMN hard though

HPS: dust much less, dust easier to get off, no squeeling, more progressiveness to braking but I kind of miss that sharp bite of the HP+

All in all, I think the HPS is MUCH better for normal street driving.

 

I was running the Metal Master pads, and they were ok, but I would fade them very quickly with aggressive street drivign - I have since changed to Carbotech P+ pads and I like them a lot more. Dust is minimal (but its there) and the warm up time is nil. Excellent street pad IMHO. Next time I think I will try the Porterfield R4S pads, we seem to have great response from the S2000 crowd with them.

 

I've got HP+ on my R1 and HPS on my 94 PEP.

The HP+ do dust like crazy but I love the pads. When I need some more I'll probably experiment with some other types like Portfield to see if I can get some equal performance without the dust.

The HPS are great pads too, similar performance in all conditions vs. HP+ except they don't resist higher heat as well. HPS are cheaper than stock pads from Mazda comp too!

 

Just thought I would post an update:

I went back to HP+ pads recently, after pretty much MELTING a set of HPS pads at the track. I'll never go back to HPS now. The squealing is tolerable with this set and I'll deal with the dust.

The HP+ grip so much harder than the HPS do, I love being able to engage ABS at high speeds.

 

On the stock FD wheels (not polished) will there be any permanent discoloration from HP+ dust if you clean the wheels after every day's worth of driving?

 

Of course not! You don't have to clean your wheels every day, that's insane!

 

I am a wild and crazy guy!!


Besides, doesn't a wheel cleaning add like 10 horsepower per week? So that's 70 extra horsepower per week if I do it every day...

 

I've used Axxis Metalmasters on my turbo Miata and they are excellent without much dust. But they frequently squeal when hot which is annoying.


One of my turbo Miata friends (who tracks a lot) recently had this to say about Carbotech Panther+ pads:

Panther Plus pads from Carbotech. These are the best pads by far of any I've tried. Not available for all applications, but they do have them for the Wilwoods. Also, from what I understand they will make them custom for you if you provide the backing plates.

They're especially good at high temps. Once bedded they have never faded on me. For track use, they need to be bedded on a track, unless you're game to get them up to 100+ mph several times on the street. No joke - I've bedded them thoroughly on the street and they'll still fade the first session on the track. After that, never again.

 

Been planning to try one of the Carbotech products but they cost twice as much as HP+...

 

ahh!! if u had a gen2 i would trade you mine. I got some rotex pads that dont dust at all, but i always track my car and i hate them cuz they suck out on the track!

 

My first set of upgraded pads was a set of the Porterfield "old" R4 compound pads. They squealed like banshees, dusted the wheels after a couple stops, and turned them black after an hour or two of normal driving. Basically, they sucked for anything but track use. It took me awhile to figure out that everything that Trev Dagley recommended was either as extreme as it could be or solely intended for track use.

I then bought a set of HPS pads based on someone else's recommendation, and now I wouldn't use anything else, unless the EBC Greens are even better. They dust very little, and what dust does get on the wheels and side of the car washes off very easily. They don't squeal, and they stop just fine. They are NOT intended to be used as a track pad, Rynberg.

If you need track pads, get an extra set of pads specifically for the track and use a street pads for the street. There are pads that people claim make good "dual-purpose" pads, but I doubt it. The conditions are too different for any one pad to be equally good at both.