Argonaut

Gassed up with driver, rolling into staging what do think the S197 weighs? I should put it on scales but I'm thinking somewhere in the 3600 lb range.

That is a whole lot of car to stop from high speeds and I was wondering what you all are using for pads. NOTE: lets not turn this into a caliper debate, I don't care what caliper or rotor you are running (that subject has been beaten to death), I'm interested in the brand and formula for the pads you use.

My experience:

Pad 1 - HT-10/HP+
Last year on the Mustang I started out with Hawk HT-10 in the Front and HP+ in the rear. For the first few events, the night before, I bedded the pads in on a lonely stretch of highway. At the tracks the pads performed perfectly. They came up to temp very quick. There was no fade during repeated brakes from triple digit speeds (also due to other factors). Never developed any sort of shimmy or weird pad deposits on the rotors. They grab quickly and apply lots of torque without having to jam on the pedal. I didn't have any issues with them "eating" the rotors, rather the cheapy chinese rotors crack long before you will ever wear them down with pads. They do dust something horrible. As I went thru last season I got a little lazy with swapping street pads for track pads and eventually just left this combo in all the time (note the car is not a daily driver). I didn't find this to be a problem at all. Lots of conventional wisdom suggest don't do this because the stopping power cold is too low and it increases risk of accident. Honestly, I thought they stop just fine cold, although I can't say I made any measurements. The only drawbacks on the street were dust and noise...lots of it. Over the course of last summer, the rear HP+ wore out and I replaced with HT-10 (so at this point I was HT10 front and rear). This combo proved to be equally good, can't say I really noticed much of a difference. In the end, I got 13 track days out of those front pads (keep in mind these were my first 13 track days ever and newbies use less brake than advanced). I thought that was pretty darn good.

Pad 2 - Carbotech XP10/XP8
This year I switch cars and brake pads. I had heard a lot of good things about the Carbotechs so thought I'd try them. This is on a 3200 lb car and the pads are a little bigger (~same rotor size). Only two track days thus far but I like them equally well. Initial impressions are: same sort of consistent feel, high torque, good release, no fade. Still very dusty. The track I used them on was not all that high speed, one hard brake from ~125 and only 4 additional lesser brake zones, thus I can't draw too many conclusions about them yet but so far I like them. The one thing that has me a little concerned is the wear, they seem to have worn down quite a bit (I should have measured thickness before and after). But this is a different car, different brakes - the jury is still out. One thing I really like - on the street they are quiet!

As the summer progresses I'll try to report back. In the future I will try some other brands/compounds as well.

OK - so lets hear your experiences with pads - stock or otherwise - on tracks or AX or even hard core canyon carving.

Brad

dvs4.6

Good information. Written in laymans terms which i appreciate. I only have experience with the Hawk HPS. They do fine for light track use, do show fade with repeated use, but are awsome for those who DD their stangs. No squeak no dust. Again thanks for the information.

jahudso2

I also run HPS on my DD stang. They are plenty of pad for heavy mountain driving or auto-x.

Sleeper_08

I ran the Ferodo DS2500 on the front (GT500 brake kit) and Hawk HPS on the rear last year. After 6 track days and DD use the only complaint was squeal from the Ferodo's in DD use.

This year I switched to EBC Yellowstuff and after the first track day everything seems fine. Pad dusting is minimal, no uneven deposits on the rotors (but I am using front brake cooling), and the braking was smooth and linear. Under braking heavy enough to kick in the ABS and pulling close to 1 G everything felt fine. On the street they haven't squealed so far. Too early to tell what pad wear will be like.

houstonnw

I also use the Carbotech XP10/XP8 combo on the track based on a recommendation by the Carbotech guys. They slow the car down and don't fade - that's good enough for me. I chose Carbotech because I can switch to their street pads without changing rotors.

It's been so long since I have used street pads on the track that I can't really compare the feel. Maybe a little better initial bite, or maybe I have feet of stone and it doesn't matter.

Edit to add: I also have the Quantum Motorsports brake cooling ducts on the front. Not that I had any fade, even with my American Iron instructor driving the car, but hopefully to keep the pads a little cooler and reduce wear.

-Wayne

Philostang

I'm running Carbotech XP10 on front and rear with front brake cooling ducts (for insurance). I'll second all the above comments, and only have to add that I really appreciate how much more rotor friendly they are compared to the Hawk Blue pads I used to run.

BTW, Argonaut I have a new set of front XP10s that I just bedded (no track use yet), so I can measure them "fresh" for you. That might help us get a better sense of their wear (although from past experience I haven't been concerned with it). I'll get back to you tomorrow with a figure.

Best,
-j

Argonaut

Yea, I've heard some guys talk about how they use the Hawk Blues as a 'scrubber'. In other words, when they are switching from Brand X to Brand Y they want to scrub all the old pad deposits off before puttting the new pads, with different and probably incompatible compound, on the car so they use the Hawk Blues on the street for a week or so. They must be pretty abrasive.

That would be good, thanks. I'm heading to Summit Point for a two day on May 16th and 17th...I'll do the same, before and after measurements.

JiminVirginia

Great thread idea. Thanks for starting it.

I autocross, and the car is a daily driver. So I'm running HP+ fronts and HPS rears.

Though I did not make this choice for track use primarily, I will try it at Summit Point in June, and we'll see how it works.

Argonaut

Which June event at Summit - Hyperfest? Take the Stang instead of the Vette - don't want to get the Vette dirty?

Hootna

EBC Yellow Stuff get my two thumbs down. I am switching to Hawk HT-14s in the front and may run HP+ in the rear not sure yet. EBCs worked ok but not giving me enough initial bite to slow this pig of a car down. If you are going into a corner deep like to have the warm fuzzy that the car is going to slow down and slow down quick. Yellow Stuff wasnt cutting it... felt kind of spongey but progressive. I like a more abrupt deceleration and am sure the HT-14s will make a crap load of noise before they get up to operating temp.

Disclaimer... this is with my BAER calipers up front so not sure how the Yellow stuff would work with stock mustang brakes. Did hear that the guys running miata's and evo's liked them so no wonder I think they suck.