I certainly would be interested in a 2-piece bolted rotor replacement for front and back. Don't think I could live with the clanging of a floating system. Are the weight savings of a 2-piece bolted rotor close to a 2-piece floating one?

Scott at RA mentioned to me that can do their Rotors with a fixed 2 piece design.

Scott - will you confirm?

This is being looked at. We don't consider the Akebono calipers up to the task of serious track duty, so full-floating rotors are not a good match to the OE units in our opinion. For a true track system, a caliper upgrade is required. Look for an even larger capacity system from AP Racing in the first quarter of 2011. I would expect that the J-hook option would be offered alongside slotted only. For other than full track use, cross-drilled/slotted also works great (if done properly!). Of course, there will be a large range of pad options for these calipers, including the Mintex F3R -- arguably the best all-out track pad available today.

Reviving a dead thread here. but i just read thru 6 pages of this only to get nowhere on pad choice decisions. from what i see, Hawk HPS is garbage for the track but the HP+ will kill rotors. looks the same for all manufacturers, if they suck at the track, the are good on the street and vice versa. there has got to be something i can take to an occasional autocross and not destroy my rotors OR get insane fade. someone clear this muddy mess up for me please

You can use the Carbotech Bobcats for auto-x just fine (just don't track on them). All the other pads I like for auto-x are track pads. Mainly it depends on how long and brake heavy your courses are.

For track duty there is no good compromise, go full race compound and then swap back to street pads (preferably use something that is compound compatible).

We (wife and I) run carbotech xp8's all around all the time, they're a bit grabby and squeaky on the street but not too bad imo, you adapt your braking style to the harder grabbing pad for street use, etc...

I've just gone back to stock pads for autox and street driving and switch out to Carbotech XP10/8 for the track days. The stock pads are fine for autox...you just have to push the pedal harder. They can lock the wheels just like any other pad, and it's hard to fade even the stock pads in a sub-1 min autox run.

Longer courses on hot days with more than 3 sequential runs will fade them however. But yes, at SCCA style events you are fine.

This is what I'm thinking of doing. Just running XP8's at all four corners for DD and track. Which I really don't do much DD. It's mostly a weekend warrior type of car. Hell I havn't drove it in two as of now.

I too read through this whole thread, and wasn't able to come to a conclusion. Part of that is because I am planning on running the Racing Brake 2-piece front rotors and powerslot rear rotors (maybe eventually get the RB rears as well). I was looking at XP8's all around for street/track however on the RB website it specifically mentions that Carbotechs may not be the right pads for their rotors, and they endorse Hawk and supposedly have worked with Hawk to make the rotors compatible with their pads. From what I have read in this thread, the HP-Plus pads may not be a bad choice as one would assume the RB rotors have been designed to take the 'abuse' the HP Plus generally does to rotors?

well as a new review. I used the carbo xp8's on the track this last sunday with z1 2-piece rotors and they were ridiculously amazing. not once did the brake feel change (once heated up)

They definitely bite ALOT harder than oem or the posi quiets (my normal pads for low dust) even when cold. They do squeek a bit under low pressure braking during normal driving but nothing bad. Definitely a good setup for those who want something good but not too extreme.

I haven't been to the track on my new XP8's yet, but so far my experience with them concurs with the above. Very grabby, and the noise level is tolerable on the street (and you can reduce it by re-bedding them a bit regularly).

Good reviews, I'm still just wary of using them with the RB rotors given the comment on their site.

Hmmm I see that the racing brake ET series pads are now available on their site for the 370Z. It says Nismo but I think the Nismo has the Sport Package brakes? so they should work. They only offer the ET300, ET500, and ET800 pads right now, really wish the ET700's were available, but I think I may give the ET500's a go.

I just ran at the track on the HP+ and I was happy with them this time around. But the track was not that brake intensive. I took them off Monday and they looked great. But I could see where they will eventually eat the rotors. But about to get some Carbotech XP8's. No worries then.

Yes, the Nismo brakes are the Sport Pkg brakes. A lot of aftermarket parts sites only list "Base", "Touring", and "Nismo" as model options, so I generally pick the Nismo when looking at brakes-related stuff, to make sure I don't end up looking at non-sport-pkg stuff.

I still prefer my XP-12s with R compounds, but I can second that Daisuke's XP8s worked great with street tires during the session that I drove it.

Yes I should have pointed out I'm on street tires w/ my new XP-8's as well :)

I just read through as well and here are my impressions:

The Hawk pads suck and will eat your rotors.

Stockers are fine, but have crap initial bite (agreed).

EBC pads are okay.

The Euro Z pads have better bite but more dust.

The Nismo pads are not worth the money.

The Project Mu pads are well liked.

I think I'm going to pick up a set of those... any more reviews regarding noise and dust.

Thinking about the Mu Street Sports ones.

The truth is if you ask 1,000 people, you'll get 1,000 different answers. Some people claim Hawks eat rotors, some people love the Hawks and don't see rotor problems. Some people love EBCs, some people say they have horrible quality and fall apart. etc, etc...

Some of this is explainable via insufficient data: e.g. EBC went through a management and manufacturing changeup a few years back, and it seems like most of the bad rep came from before the change and they're better now. Hawk makes several different street and light-track compatible pads that are vastly different from each other: probably the problems are on one type and not the other. Then there's user variations: some people are just a lot harder on brake pads than others, whether it's street or track driving.

It's a minefield, good luck making a rational decision :)

So I'm not in a Z anymore but I thought I'd share some thoughts and touch up on some things I said about the Hawk HPS pads earlier in this thread when I still had my Z.

I felt like they lacked in inital bite but still had good stopping power and heat properties for a street car. I drove them hard on The Dragon and they did fine. They didn't dust much and seemed to have a fairly long life and treated the rotors well. The main takeaway for me was that they are a good street pad but just lacked in initial bite.

Now, recently I just changed my brakes on the 5.0... it comes stock with a Ferodo street and light-track compound pad that performs great but dusts like a motherf*cker (can't keep my wheels clean for more than 2 days), eats the rotor, and wears too quickly for a street driven car. I wore the rear pads down to the backing plates at 21k... all street driving!

So I decided to try the HPS again since I liked everything about them on the Z but the initial bite, only this time I mated them to Stillen's slotted rotors. It definitely feels better than when I had them on the Z's blank rotors in terms of the initial pad bite. I'm definitely happy with them as a street setup. If/when I need higher temp properties I will just swap in the Carbotechs, but so far I am really happy with this HPS and Stillen combo on the street.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--...0/IMG_0007.JPG

Yes, yes, I know... the car is getting dropped soon. :rofl2:

It'll look good dropped AND with a set of Nismo rims. :roflpuke2:

We have the same bolt pattern. :stirthepot:

As far as I know it is just the HP+ pads that eat rotors, shouldn't be any problem with their street pads such as HPS.

That's what I have read.

Ah, okay -- thanks for clarifying on the Hawks guys :tup:

Any more reviews on the Mu street sports?

Just a progress update on this from using them over a bit of time on the street. The noise level is highly variable, it really depends on what you're doing with the car that day and the ambient conditions, etc. It's still "tolerable", and I might in the future leave them on for a few weeks between closely-spaced track trips, but in general I'm going to try switching to Bobcats between events (after my next upcoming one in a few weeks).

Awesome review. Should be picking up my XP8's tomorrow. I'm going to run them all the time. I wont mind the noise at all. I seem to be the opposite of everyone else when it comes to my car.

:tup:

I've read as deeply into this thread as I can stand. The confusion just keeps growing. Based on what I read I am getting Project Mu B-Force pads for street/light track. I ordered them from Upgrade Motoring. Great phone help and nice prices 148 front/138 rear. It will be a while before I will need more aggressive race pads. Well, maybe never. :icon23:

They should be arriving next week and I will get them mounted when they arrive. The B-force pads are one level above the base Project Mu street pads. I am hoping they will not drive me nuts on the street. Here is the spec sheet for the B-Force http://www.project-mu.com.au/en/products/pad_bspec.php

I can't find a Project Mu street sport listed anywhere. I called and no one heard of that model. The B-Force is the Project Mu high performance street/light track pad.

One of the sponsors here allegedly has them...

http://www.the370z.com/suspension-br...s-all-iir.html

I'll probably order from them when the time comes as the prices look to be a bit cheaper than others I've found thus far via google search.

EDIT: Oh, duh, they're one and the same :p

Let me know how you like them in terms of bite, noise, and dust :tup:

No one has tried AX6? I liked Panther Plus a lot on the NSX and I don't HPDE (though I may do VIR charity laps again someday), though the 370Z seems a bit overweight and HP for track use of them.

I run the RacingBrake ET series... Typically the 500s. Great bite even at cool temps, high braking torque, durable, minimal brake dust and very rotor friendly. Solid product, can't fail with these guys.

Finally have the Mu B-force pads on -- zero fade. Reduced stopping distance. No noise and decent bite. No evidence of greater dust either. Overall, much better than stock.

Still kind of breaking them in so will post more observations in due course, but so far really happy with them.

I'm on the CT Bobcats now for street use. Considerably less initial bite than the CT XP8, about on par with what my Hawk HPS or OEM pads felt like. They seem more fade-resistant than the Hawk HPS were. They still make a little light noise from time to time, but not nearly as much as the XP8's did. I'm still not sure if what little noise I do get is just because of leftover XP8 material on the rotors or not.

XP8's FTW.

How do you know the pads don't fade out?

x2....but, may be switching out to xp10's in the next 6 months or so, we'll see...

Are you going to be running slicks? 10's might be to much for street tires if you didnt know.

Xp12 ftw!