DDP

jeremy-
I have the same Hawks as you speak of. I have had some brake fade on the street while braking hard during a hot day. Scared the **** outta me!

dmoffitt

welcome!! i'd suggest leaving the engine alone if it's running well, and spending some of that money on the suspension, brakes, harness/bar/seats, and a few track days you will learn that you can't even exceed what the car can do stock for a little while, and THEN it's time for go-fast-goodies! of course, if you take my (stupid) approach and mod first, track later (in my case, a upgrade-while-repairing project waaay outta hand) i'd suggest starting with a catless full 3" exhaust, and skip the chips/maf/map and just go standalone. i think my tec3 is amazing, and NZ951 had awesome results with the link system (something silly like +35 or 50 or whatever HP on an otherwise STOCK car). the factory ECU (DME+KLR) is a bit outdated to say the least, chipping a car with an AFM, or massaging the signal with a Digital MAF is kinda ugly after you get past the simple intake/exhaust/etc stage.

oh yeah, and a decent manual boost controller (i like the one from lindsey racing also availabe @ paragon products) can't hurt. the stock setup w/ a cycling valve is a bummer cuz it tapers off boost, plus as it ages it's unreliable imo. oh - and on that note, WASTEGATE! what good is boost if you can't hold it, or if you have too much and can't stop it (stock ones have occasionally been known to stick as they age, iirc a guy blew his car up on the dyno because of this, maybe 2 years-ish back).

but i still think, if it's running great, leave the under-hood stuff alone for now, and concentrate on making YOU faster

NZ951

Very good call about doing the standalone if you ever plans on doing any other mods. The computer was one of my first upgrades and the tuning has just grown with the mods, its a pretty expensive first step, but if you are in it for the long term, its better to be flexible at every point.

MichelleJD

Welcome

Jeremy Himsel

Which ones do you have? The HPS or the HP +? The HPS are junk in my opinion and the fade on the street was terrible. I've driven two cars with them (one of them was mine) and the fade at reasonable speeds was terrible. Both of these cars had x-drilled rotors (a big waste of money IMHO) and ATE fluids. Really scared the **** out of me.

The HP + on the other hand have never given me a problem, even on 100 degree, 2.25 mile track days. After 20 minutes of deep braking from 100+ MPH speeds, they were perfect. A friend of mine was on the track with me in his 89 turbo (bigger brakes) that had 1" more rubber on each corner. He would destroy me on the straights, but I would get him in the braking zones. I was able to stay on the throttle much longer, and begin braking 75' deeper. I've braked from the 160 to 60 range pretty hard and never experienced a problem. Most of the local guys that get in my car comment on how well my car stops. I don't know how well they would hold up in a session longer then 25 minutes. The only sacrafice I've noticed, other then the dust, is a slight loss of initial bite compared to a stock jurid pad. Maybe 15% less in the seat of the pants quantification.

If you have the HP+ and they're fading on the street, you may have another issue. Possible improper bedding, bad bleed, boiling fluid, poor cooling of the rotors, warping, (or could they be not getting hot enough on the street to give you a good bite but I've never had a cold braking issue). I generally exceed the Hawk bed-in recommendations by 25 to 30 %. It's just really odd that we have the exact opposite experience (provided you have the HP+).

NZ951

I have Hawk plus pads all round and they EAT my rotors big time. Lots of dust too which is annoying. But they help me stop good.

Dilberto

Welcome, Lee. It sounds like you are from RHD-land. Happy Motoring!

ibkevin

Congrats Lee,

Sounds like you have got yourself a sweet car!! These cars are so fun because there is so much to do with them, oh, the handling is pretty good too. First, is to keep your car maintained, review PO's receipts. Piston valve contact really eats into the fun budget! Change ALL your fluids - good time to swap to SS lines.

As you can see the diversity of knowledge and opinions available here is sometimes mind boggling. I just hope your mortgage/kids/SO are fully matured to "free up" your time. Dig your heels in and kiss the budget goodby because there is no turning back.

And....post pics!