Carbotech Brake Pads Installed, WOW and an interesting finding.

cossie1600

I run them daily on my old 350z, C6 and RX-8. They stop great, but they are so noisy that you probably won't be able to stand them for too long. They also dust a lot. if you care about wheel, I don't recommend it

spearfish25

The squeaking is minimal for me thus far. They are very dusty but Carbotech says the dust will not harm the wheel finish. It just looks like crap.

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2013 Cadillac V-Wagon, RIP Z

RCZ

Yup, their pad material is not as abrasive as some others like the Cobalt's (which are also pretty good) so it won't destroy your wheel..I wouldn't let it cake over though so wash them often.

cossie1600

r888 are garbage in my opinion. i had it on a rx8 and c6. my 350 with ra1 shows higher cornering speed than the other two cars on r8888

RCZ

R888 may not be the grippiest thing in the world, but they certainly last longer than most racing tires. Also...I don't know that having slightly lower corner speeds means they are garbage... they just have slightly lower corner speeds because they are meant to last longer.

cossie1600

i had used 3 sets of those tires on two different cars. i honestly dont feel them lasting longer or provide more grip than even my shaved ra1s. i absolutely cant stand those tires, and i am not the only one as the ra1 s are coming back. i have some datalogs and results that can backup my claim too. on a 3.5 miles course, my half worn r888 was only one sec faster than my d1 star spec, its sad. go with the r1s

RCZ

Hmm yeah, but I have other folks who swear by the R888s who I know track their cars a lot too. Its all good, and I will take your opinion into account.

sig11

I'm really glad to read this, spearfish. I'm going to put my pads on today after I borrow a torque wrench from my brother in law. I was a little worried about cold performance despite what I had been reading... so a direct review like this is pretty awesome.

Ryan@IP

Glad to hear that the Carbotech love is spreading They know how to make a great pad for sure. I did not see what type of street tires you were using from your original post, but I can confirm that you very likely have too much pad for the street on the tires you are using. My experience has shown that XP8's work best with true street tires (like the RE11 or Dunlop Star Specs) and the compound should be increased as the tire grip is increasing as well. Especially once on track, you will find that your XP10's up front will work very well with R888's or NT01's. Even with street tires though, a car like the 370Z could still use the XP10's for the front on track.

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Ryan at Injected Performance
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spearfish25

Agree with all of the above.

I'm still running my Potenzas which have been nice tires but can't handle the Carbotechs. Controlled pressure on the brakes yields nice stopping performance but the tires lock up with any energetic brake pedal pressure. Then the ABS kicks on, the car can't figure out what's happening, and the ABS system just $hits the bed and 'ices'.

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2013 Cadillac V-Wagon, RIP Z

sig11

Hey, spearfish, where did you get the brake grease? Or did you apply any?

spearfish25

Autozone has the Permatex high temp packets. They're about $2 each and the purple color is the high-temp grease. It was recommended by the Carbotech guys. I used about 1 1/3 packets to cover all four pads.

__________________
2013 Cadillac V-Wagon, RIP Z

cossie1600

now if we can get them to sell the pads a little bit cheaper

sig11

I was really surprised by how quiet they are after we got 'em on. They do stop hard.

My front left wheel got a nice spray of air oil from the impact wrench and it looks like the gunmetal gray wheels. :P

cossie1600

Never used sub 100 treadwear tires with the XP10, but they never killed any Toyo RA1/R888 or street tires