Brake Pad Reviews

Endgame

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

Scott - will you confirm?

edub370

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

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ChrisSlicks

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).

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

FL 4Motion

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...

SPOHN

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.

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spearfish25

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.

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ChrisSlicks

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

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Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

edconline

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?

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daisuke149

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.

wstar

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).

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wstar

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).

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Mike

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.

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wstar

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

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edconline

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.

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wstar

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.

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