I know this has been discussed elsewhere but I couldn't find it, and I also wanted a little long term experience with different brands of brake pads.

I've got a little over 13,000 miles on my Mustang Gt Brembo, and I'm probably going to need new brake pads by my next driving season. I was looking at brake pads on American Muscle, and comparing pads and decided that either the Power Stop Z26 pads, or the Hawk Performance HPS 5.0 best suit my driving needs. The question I have is the price difference. Do the Hawks last longer than the Power Stops or do they resist fade longer? In other words, from the voices of experience, What makes the Hawks worth the expense, and is there another comparable brand?

Oh yeah, some spirited street driving, and driving schools are involved.

 

How much squeaking are you ok with? The Hawks squeak like crazy, in my experience using them on my DD, and it just wasn't worth the bit of extra performance when they are hot, to me. How many driving schools are you really doing and how intense are they? You might truly be fine with the regular OEM pads and it may be more important to upgrade your fluid to DOT4 than worry about pads.

 

I have run both the Hawk HPS and Hawk HP 5.0's with good luck, but don't have any experience with the Power Stop pads. Both Hawk pads that I have run stop better than the stock pads with less dust. I really can't tell a difference in stopping power or fade resistance between the two. The life span of both has been good considering the car has seen some track time. They are not serious track pads but have held up well for a novice driver. Instructors have been surprised with how well the car braked with what are essentially higher end street pads. I have been told that once you move up to the HP Plus you start getting the track pad squeal.

 

Some hard-core track folks may think I'm crazy, but I run OEM Brembo/Ferodo pads both frond and rear. 99% of my driving is on the street. Only 3-4 track days per year, and the OEM pads work very well. As others have mentioned, in this (and other) threads, steel braided brake lines help, and DOT4 fluid is essential. The OEM pads give me the best combination of street/track/performance, without having to swap out pads for track days. Since I had a rear-brake overheating issue during track days several years ago, I also did the GT500 rear brake upgrade, which virtually eliminated brake overheating. (I have a long detailed thread on this on TMS) Kyle R seems to recommend the OEM option, above, as well.

 

If and when you start getting serious about lap times, using a proper high temp brake pad will be very important. Till then something like a street race pad might be enough.

I run Gloc (Carbotech) permanently in the rear in XP8 flavor, and swap out fronts between street ceramic compound for daily and XP12 for track days. Because of this i find it mandatory to have this little sticker on the car.

I have yet to experience fade with XP12s. They are a 2000F rated pad with braking power which can stop a train. With this pad I'm able to stay on the throttle till the 3 marker before hitting the brakes. Driving them on the street is ear piercing, and so I swap.

 

I didn't have any complaints with how the stock Ferodo pads stopped, but wasn't crazy about the amount of brake dust that they generated. I switched to Hawks for less dust, but they do seem to stop a little better also with the HPS or HP 5.0 pads I don't get any noise.

 

Thanks gentlemen, there is some good information, and please keep the responses coming.
anybody with experience with the Power stop pads?

 

No personal experience, but at that price point I wouldn't expect much. I use Akebono ceramics for daily duty. I expect they would be fine for Auto X, but I wouldn't trust them on track. A few people on here use street pads for the track. It can work, but it means you give up lap time by having to brake early as fade is real concern you need to budget braking distance for.

Others use Raybestos, Carbotech/Gloc, Ferodo and other track dedicated pads. The cost difference is HUGE. $230-350 a set. But you get what you pay for. Stopping power and fade resistance is much improved with dedicated track pads.

I've reached temps of 1600F during track days. If you pad is only rated to 1200F or so one of 3 things will happen. The friction coefficient will fall off the face of the earth as temp go up leading to fade (not good). They will start falling apart, with chunks of the pad missing (happened to my Raybestos ST43s), or you'll go through a set of pads in 1 day (Hawks are famous for this).

 

I can't really compare them to the others based on "bang for the buck" but I had good luck with Stop Tech Street Performance pads. The price is very reasonable, and I used them for track days at intermediate level with no major fading or any other problems that I noticed.

 

Hey Bert, glad to hear those work out for you pretty well.
Just out of curiosity since I never actually ran street pads on the track, which marker do you usually start braking at?