Best Track/street pads?

[Dar01]

Hey guys, what I am looking for is the best pad for the track (DE), but also good for the street. Low dust would be great. I have searched and read a lot, but there are a lot of opinions. I really don't want to change the pads just for the track unless I really have to.....also, my current pads produce a lot of dust.....I am assuming they are just "stock" type pads.

Thanks for your input!

[944boy]

I am on a roll with pad recommendations today!

Depending on your preferences and how you drive you can go with a full race pad, but you will get lots of dust and quick wear on rotors and pads. I would suggest that if you only drive the car to and from events and its a dedicated track car (I have run them on the street, but I'm crazy). I have melted street pads at DE's so I would suggest the intermediate compounds. Hawk HP+ or Porterfield R4-s. I have the Porterfields on my boxster, great street pad, have not tracked it. We used a set of R4-S on the 944 spec in between sets of r-4's. The braking was noticibly less aggressive but they held up, mind you this was a TT and driven back to back by 2 very aggressive people. I have not run the Hawk HP+'s but I had the HPS on my 944 and they were wonderful street pads but I destroyed them at Watkins Glen.

Also all these choices are cheaper than Pagid's Good pads, but expensive, no use or experience.

[Mike_Yi]

Changing pads is so easy that there really isn't any reason to keep them on for street driving. The downsides of keeping them on are dust, rotor wear, cost of pads, and inneffectiveness until properly heated up.

I use Hawk Blues for DEs, and they are more than good enough.

[ChrisZang]

here are my two cents:
I looooooved the BHP XPS pads, they were the ideal "crossover" between street and track pad. I could get the car (my daily driver) ready the weekend before the track day and neither had to deal with squeaky breaks during my commute nor with fading brakes on the track.
Unfortunately BHP went out of business but I believe Pelican Parts has a few left....
So I guess I'll either try Pagid Blue or Pagid Yellow when my BHP pads are worn down.

[Lil bastard]

Street for street. Track for track.

Two completely different sets of conditions. Guess I'm unclear why someone would want to make one set do both.

As mentioned, they are super easy to swap, and you get a chance to make sure your wheel bolts are properly torqued.

Saw a Miata lose a wheel at an auto-x once, took out the front fender and the pass-side door. It was determined the lugs were improperly torqued and they let loose. Big OUCH for that driver.

[insite]

Originally Posted by Lil bastard

Street for street. Track for track.

i COMPLETELY agree. a hybrid street/track pad is a false economy. i switched to running dedicated sets of pads: Hawk HPS for street and Hawk HT-10 for track. it was more expensive up front, but i haven't bought ANY pads for THREE YEARS. i used to replace all of my pads about every six months or so because they'd get destroyed on the track (even 'hybrid' pads).

other up sides: street pads are much easer on rotors than the hybrids, and full race pads work MUCH, MUCH better on the track than hybrids.

if you plan on doing more than one DE per year, get dedicated sets of each pad type and swap the race pads in prior to your DE. it will be cheaper in the long run and you will LOVE the way they perform.

[ChrisZang]

Originally Posted by insite

if you plan on doing more than one DE per year, get dedicated sets of each pad type and swap the race pads in prior to your DE. it will be cheaper in the long run and you will LOVE the way they perform.

Yep, that's exactly what I am doing. BHP-XPS for the track and Hawk HPS for the street (which seem to last forever). I just prefer to get everything ready at home the weekend before (not on the track), so I don't forget to torque the wheel nuts in all the excitement
I just prefer to use track pads which don't drive me crazy with their noise one the way to/from the track, that's all I am saying...