need new brake pads for the FC...what are some good pads for street/track use?

 

Which brake pads are best depends on the hp, the suspension, the brakes and your experiance. Generally pads that are ok for the track will dust like crazy, eat rotors and be noisy on the street and civilized street pads will fade and get used up very quickly on the track. If it's your first time out dual purpose pads might be ok, as you won't be working them too hard.

I've used Hawk HP+'s on the track succesfully, but that's on an NA with street tires on a track that's easy on brakes and I was learning, so I wasn't too hard on the brakes. I've got more experiance now, I've started autocrossing and I'll be going to a track that's harder on brakes, so I decided to switch to full race pads and get dedicated rotors to go with them. I ordered some Porterfield R4's which are apparently a very good track pad. Some popular track pads are Hawk Blues and Blacks. They're hard on rotors, but rotors are cheap, and so are they.

If you're not really going to the track, then get street pads, race pads have no place on the street, they won't help you stop any faster.

 

well i have axxis ceramics.. they are prety dusty.... my rim is silver and looks gun medal by the end of the week, but they are the only ones i have had so i cant say they are good nor bad. lol nothing to compare them to! id hope there are less dusty brands out there... my understanding was ceramic pads were dust free.. guess not

 

by the way i hardly ever use my brakes i usually engine brake. I just use my brakes to come to a complete stop under 2nd gea... and they aren't draging either so... idk good question. what pads are good for the least amount of brake dust people. sux to have flashy rims that you can hardly see through the cake. anyone know??

 

True ceramic brakes (e.g. Porsche GT3) are different from what Axxis (and many others) sell as ceramic pads. What you got are organic pads with little bits of ceramic fibre in them, instead of asbestos fibres as in the bad old day. Similar to metalic pads (e.g. Repco MetalMasters), which had bits of copper and aluminum in the organic matrix.

 

EBC Greenstuff are apparently good street pads, low dust and low noise, but they won't last on the track, you'll burn through a set in 30 minutes there.

 

i descided to go with hawk HP+ for now...good price and got a lot of recommendations for them.

 

yep i was just abotu to say to get those. HP+ are awesome. a word of warning though. they squeek quite a bit. other than that the brakes are just fantastic, best brakes ever

 

Running the HP+'s on the street for a short while before and after the track days they were perfectly fine. I didn't have many noise issues at all. They squeaked a little bit for the very first bit of applying the brakes (light pressure), and then went silent. They only did it occasionally. The dust is bad though, lots of dust, and it's corrosive to the wheels, so keep them clean.

Make sure you bed them in properly, it's key to getting the best out of any pads, I think that's one reason why others report queaking, because they haven't all bedded them in properly (my theory anyway).

 

i wash my wheels a lot so it shouldnt be a problem...thanx for the advice

 

PM Carl Byck.. he knows the FC well and brake pad selection.

I ran HP+'s with a 100% stock engine FC (T2/GXL brakes/rotors) with coilovers, 235/17 Toyo RA-1's, toe eliminator bushings, new Energy suspension bushings (polyeurathane) all around, and adj rear camber link and they worked great. Only drawback is high dust. Their initial bite is awesome and I never got them to fade. I did get them to smoke after my 20 min session at Thunderhill pushing the car to about its limit chasing a modded '95 M3 with 14" AP brakes. He couldn't shake me (240hp+ against my 138hp) and he was on Hoosiers.

 

hahaha i bet he was pissed! i live in the mountains and i was driving home the other day and had this new vette on my *** n got sick of it...he couldnt keep up, never got passed 3rd gear after that for the next 6 miles...FCs handle wickid good! especially when people try to keep up on roads i've driven everyday since i was 17.