Courtshark

I've got Big Reds up front, stock rears, and I'm looking for a more aggressive pad for the track. I searched for what pads are considered best for the track, and came up with the lot of Pagid Orange and Pagid Black recos; I believe the Pagid Blacks are ceramic? Also lots of Hawk blues recos.

Anyway, I can get Akebono ceramics pretty cheap. Willing to spend $ for the right pad, though. Yea or nea on ceramics for the track?

Lizard928

I picked up some pads on speedtoys recommendation. Haven't tried them yet.
Raybestos, ST41 front ST43 rear.

Gary Knox

Courtshark,

I've found Performance Friction 97 to be excellent pads. A fellow DE'er is a Michigan State prof, and did a 'cost/benefit' study of various pads for his 911. His conclusion was that Performance Friction 97's gave the best total package.

I think OG racing had the best prices back the last time I bought these.

As a long time ago previous Rennlister always said - YMMV.

Gary-

Courtshark

Thanks guys. My car will see very limited street duty going forward, so I'm apt to just leave on whatever track pads I install. Does that alter the equation, Gary?

Gary Knox

I don't think it affects the equation. For the past 6 years, I've used the PF pads, and driven them to, from, as well as on the track. Rotor wear was also part of the equation my friend the prof @ Michigan State used in his calculations.

Gary--

PS: I have a source for PF pads for stock car racing that are not exactly a perfect fit, but can be modified if you have a grinding wheel and a belt sander. Takes about 1 hour to modify a set of four, as I recall.
~$60 per set of four, vs ~$250 per set of four pads for the perfect fit type.

KenRudd

For data points, I have run a spectrum of pads from Mintex, through Hawk Ceramic and Hawk Pro and now I am currently running PFC 01s. I wanted PFC08's , but for a variety of reasons they were not available when I needed them. The PFC01's are hands down much better than any other combination I have tried. The Hawk pros were okay, and much better that the street pads, but they squealed worse than anything I had ever heard. The guy at the gate to VIR would recoil in horror, and he hears track padded cars go by all day long. However, the 01's are like the hand of God grabbing you at the end of the back or front straight at VIR, trying to pull your ribcage through your harness, and even after flogging them mercilessly at CMP session after session, they were still like dropping a boat anchor when hitting the binders. Wear on both pads and rotors as been very good, and they are reasonably quiet. Similar setup: Big Reds Front, S4 rears

KenRudd

I am running Hawk Ceramics on the street. I already have them, they are quiet and likely much less expensive per mile.

jstadter

I'll throw in a recommendation for Hawk Blues, but only for track use. They're not bad as far as rotor wear, but their brake dust can be pretty tough to clean if you leave the wheels sit too long before washing them. I pull them out and put my street pads back in right after an event.

MGW-Fla

My son had the Hawk Ceramics on his Roush Mustang at his 1st DE, buzzed through em & ruined a rotor! Think maybe one of the pads cracked even. Course he drives his car hard & Mustangs are heavy & notorius for being hard on brakes. He's used the Hawk HP Plus since with good results & this car is also daily driven. He also changed out his entire brake system to a Wilwood set up with 6 pistons on the front, 14"& 13" rotors to ensure his brake woes go away.

I've used the Hawk HPS pads & have had great results, & my shark isn't driven much the past two years other than DE's & a few times a month. Plan to do the Wilwood conversion with the Cayenne rotors in the front & will most likely switch to the Hawk HPP pads too.

Had the Hawk Ceramics on the wife's '91 & they were great for a street pad, the lack of brake dust on the wheels sure kept me from having to clean them as often to keep the wife happy!

Courtshark

Ok, sounds like ceramic for the track is a bad idea. I don't care about brake dust on race wheels, even if they are Carrera IIIs! I've been considering getting them painted actually. But that's another story. Right now I'm considering the PFCs or Hawk Blues. Gary, are the PFCs the same as "performance friction?"

Thanks again for all of the responses.

KLVA

The Performance Friction pads are an OG Racing product line....

They state that if you do not like them , they will swap out a set of comp Hawk or Pagid pads.....using the 83 compound, like most competitve pads...

Price is comparable

Just bought a set yesterday for the stock rears on the 88 track car @ OG

Free shipping on orders over a hundred bucks....just saying....