Dan Baldwin Posted August 26, 2002 Share Posted August 26, 2002 Contact Larry at Carbotech in FL, http://www.carbotecheng.com/main.htm I'm using his Panther XP compound on my street/track Z. Good cold performance, great hot performance with a noticeably higher cf than the regular Panthers or the Porterfield R4s I used to use. I've got stock Z rotors and calipers up front, and 280ZX rotors and calipers in back, BTW. Front pads appear to be lasting two 2-day track events. Rears, who knows, maybe five events? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob_H Posted August 26, 2002 Share Posted August 26, 2002 2 events! Man, esp. for a lightweight car like the Z! That reminds me of the EBC greenstuff pads. They worked great, but were gone in no time flat on the track. That is almost borderline unacceptable for me. John, you know I run the Performance Friction pads. I run the 93 compound. They work fine on the street and when cold, great when hot, a very high CF, but have some issues. Obviously, they will still squeal. Second, they dust like crazy, and when subjected to water, it actually rusts, (the dust does). But if you were willing to swap the pads out for each track day, the 93's are great for the track, and you can run the Z compound on the street. However, I am not a fan of the Z compound, as they have a very low CF and require a fair amount of pedal pressure. I have heard great things about the Carbotech pads on the track, but that XP one Dan is talking about seems to have a very low life on the track. I would call Carbotech as Dan suggests and tell them your application and what you want. Something similar to the Hawk pad you were talking about. I am not a fan of Hawk pads b/c they are hell on rotors. Any new Carbon/Kevlar type pad is much eaiser on the rotor and offers great stopping and wear. Again, call them, and good luck with the rear swap! -Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
260DET Posted August 27, 2002 Share Posted August 27, 2002 Having tried Hawke blacks, I think that they are terrible. After fitting a set of fronts I drove around the block. They squealed like a banshee when cold and were no better when warmed up. And they started to rip hell out of the rotors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1 Posted August 27, 2002 Author Share Posted August 27, 2002 I'm getting ready to buy new pads for my car for use in open track HPDE events. Currently my car has the arizonaz front brakes with 12" vented rotors, wilwood superlight calipers, and hawk blue pads. The rear brakes are the stock drums, but I am installing the arizona z rear kit with 12" solid rotors and dynalite calipers. The rear kit came with the car when I bought it, the previous owner had not installed it. The pads with the rear kit are hawk cold stoppers, which I understand is a street pad. I'm considering using hawk blacks on both ends. The blues work great once they get some heat, but they squeal like a stuck banshee ALL the time. I've turned the rotors, sanded the pads, beveled the edges, put goop on them, and they still drive me nuts. Anyone got experience with the blacks, or other rccomendations? these will be track only, mostly at CMP, which I'm told is pretty hard on brakes. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianz Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 Hey everyone, anymore thoughts on pad choices?? I've got stock brakes on my 71 and run BSP class solo 2 and 1 or 2 open track events a year, but the car is still street driven A LOT.... I'm using carbotechs right now, but had a seal let loose on the front left, soaking the pads, so time for a new set..... Also, anybody seen the ads for brake true, on car rotor turning??? Basically a REALLY coarse grit sand paper sandwiched between new pads and the rotor. You apply the brakes and grind the rotor smooth and true. seems pretty shaky to me.... thanks in advance.... Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 Basically a REALLY coarse grit sand paper sandwiched between new pads and the rotor. Not quite sure how you could do that at home effectively, sounds like a great way to get the rotors seasoned for the pads to bed in on though. I have used Hawk HPS (blacks) on my Camaro and they are great, sorry to hear poor feedback on the Z car, I wonder why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1 Posted March 31, 2003 Author Share Posted March 31, 2003 Ianz, I wound up going with Performance Friction pads, 01's up front and 97's on the rear. I woulda went with Carbotech, but they didn't make anything for my Superlite/Dynalite combination. The PF's work great on the track, but dust heavily. After a track day, you can actually SEE the dust on the side of the car, not just the wheels. It doesn't seem to hurt the paint, but is making a mess of my nice Panasports. The PF's work great hot, but squeal pretty bad cold. For street use I've got Hawk HPS's. They work GREAT cold, but are too soft for a track pad IMO. No squeal and super stopping, with minor dust. They are not the same as the Hawk Black, which is a harder compound in between the HPS and the rock-hard Blue compound. I've never heard of the brake true deal. I would be very skeptical it would true up a rotor, but it might work good for breaking the glaze on a rotor when changing pads. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted March 31, 2003 Share Posted March 31, 2003 For street use I've got Hawk HPS's. They work GREAT cold, but are too soft for a track pad IMO. No squeal and super stopping, with minor dust. They are not the same as the Hawk Black, which is a harder compound in between the HPS and the rock-hard Blue compound. On my Camaro my HPS pads are black, and I'm certain they are not HPS+, is there something screwy with the colors here? From my experience the Hawks get a thumbs up as an improved street pad, but again I haven't tried them on the Z yet, dont have enough tire for more brakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synlubes Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 I use Carbotech Panther plus compound frt & rear and like them very much. I changed from Porterfield R4 compound. These are the only 2 makers & compounds I`ve used. But, with the same braking system I like the Carbotechs over the Porterfields. (for track events) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1 Posted April 1, 2003 Author Share Posted April 1, 2003 Mudge, before Hawk started making the compounds with the numbers, (HT10, HT15, etc.) they had HPS, HPS+, Black, and Blue compounds. The HPS is a full street pad, then increasing hardness & temp range to the Blue, which is a full race pad. All the pads pretty much looked the same, except the harder pads had a little more "silvery" look to them (higher metallic content?). The Hawk pads are pretty hard to identify if you don't know what compound they are. The backing plates are painted when new, but that burns off pretty quick. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 The compound and backing plate is black, but the box says HPS... hmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1 Posted April 1, 2003 Author Share Posted April 1, 2003 Mudge, my HPS pads have black backing plates with "Hawk Performance HPS" on the back of the plate. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 I would bet the ink is dead on mine, I was just confused with the black being refered to as HPS+ as if somehow mine should have been another color. I am only familiar with black and blue, blue being what alot of the race folks use with heavier cars. Anywho I do have the HPS according to the box, they dont say HPS+ (for sure...), and they seem fine to me as a good all around improved pad. The only pad that I've seen very bad reviews on more than once is the EBC greenstuff, although I thought I saw one person say that on a light car they did ok, yet I've seen 2700-3800 pound car guys say they last about 1k miles at best, which is HORRID. I dont pay alot of attention to brake dust other than track days, which is when it gets THICK, so I dont clean the wheels every week like someone else might, its not a show car so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianz Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 I just picked up the Carbotech pads, they will be in prior to the Motorsport autoX. The folks at Carbotech seem knowledgable and were very helpfull.. front pads were $99 and should handle a years worth of auto Xs and a couple open track events plus street driving so now I've got to fix my Rotors and calipers Thanks for the info everyone!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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