The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → What brake pads are you guys using?
Probably been asked before, but I can handle a couple do a search noob posts. Hawk blue seemed to be popular at CMP. we were on HP+ and they sucked ass. Only lasted 3.5 hours. My team does not understand "save the brakes"
100% depends on the car.
We are on Porterfield endurance pads in the MR2. They have a very numb feel and need some heat in them to work, but we've got a track day, CMP race, and 11 hours of Nelson Ledges on them and they are still at least half pad left.
The HP+ is a street pad and does not work in the temperatures of an endurance race.
Probably been asked before, but I can handle a couple do a search noob posts. Hawk blue seemed to be popular at CMP. we were on HP+ and they sucked ass. Only lasted 3.5 hours. My team does not understand "save the brakes"
Driving style/ability matters alot.... I like the blues (I use HP+ on my street car), but others have used cheaper with good results.. Blues are a bit grabby and don't give much feel before lockup. There's also hawk "Black" which is one step down from blue, and one up from HP+... Blacks are the lowest "real" race pad I think of their line. They also have some new compounds HT60 or something I've been meaning to try.
carbotech XP10's all the way. one pair lasts the entire weekend...
but our car is barely weights 1700 lbs
What are you driving? We ran the stock brakes and pads in our underpowered civic for the first race. Went through them every 3 hours or so. Upgraded to Integra brakes and HP+'s. The HP+'s have lasted us two races now. Well... it's probably 1-1/2 races if you consider the amount of time we were actually on the track. There was virtually no wear after the first race. I haven't checked since the race, but I bet they're good to go for a third.
Our front bumper cover is gone now, so I think the brakes get some better cooling in addition to the better pads and larger rotors.
We're not experienced racecarguys, so we might be a little lighter on the brakes than others.
Yeah, I heard a bunch of people running HP+ with no issues. They were available for cheap, so I went for it. Well, they didn't work out so well for us. The car is light at 2150 without driver, but the calipers and rotors were wimpy, so that has a role in it. Never again will I show up with street pads. It only took me 5 races to learn my lesson. I'm totally willing to sacrifice bite (which HP+ had none anyway) for longevity.
EBC Yellowstuff pads have been great for us over the years. One set per race, until Buttonwillow, where the whole brake system melted down. Now we've got bigger stock GM rotors/calipers, worked great at T-Hill and almost no wear.
At NL we ran Wagner severe duty on the snoopy van (1 ton) on the front and red CQ shoes on the rear for 12 hours w/no signs of wear.
We have ran HP+ at the last 2 CMP events.
-South Fall- Used about 1/3 of the pads in 2 days. VERY happy
-Southern Discomfort- Used the remaining 2/3's by 4:45pm on Saturday 
Dunno what we will use in the Spring
Looks like I can't get any endurance pads for my calipers. I'm limited to:
Porterfield R4 (no R4E )
Hawk Blue
Carbotech XP10
Are you sure you can't get R4-E? Call Livermore Performance in California. They told me that they could make anything I needed and they were very good to work with. They asked me questions about my car, the track, the race, etc. so they could recommend the best linings for my needs. They also know Lemons as the guy I dealt with said either that someone working there or some of his buddies race Lemons. He sold me R4-E and they worked great.
http://www.livermoreperformance.com/brake_home.html
Raybestos ST43's......GREAT pads.....over 20 hours on track and they are still about 75% left....pricey...but worth it
Hawk Black, its very popular with the dirt track racers in the area, so the pads are cheap and easy to come by for our Camaro.
I highly recommend AT LEAST Hawk Blues. we have single piston calipers and the Blues worked well for a full day of racing CMP- Southern Discomfort. they felt a bit faded by the end of the day but when we changed them out it seems that the edges of the pad were bent back so we were probably only using 40% of the inside pad surfaces. there was still plenty of material left though and I'm convinced they would have went the whole race if we were running dual-piston calipers.
Now, we had swapped in HP+ pads for day 2, BAAAAD MOVE. complete caliper destruction with disc damage (pistons went through the pads)
this all being said, it's also all VERY dependent on the track you're planning to race. Wagner Severe Duty, Blues, Satisfied Pro makes a fleet pad that's supposed to be better than the wagners, Mid-level Carbotechs are all great. if the track you're running has at least 2 heavy braking zones like CMP, don't cheap out.
Serj, have you guys looked into doing an F-body caliper swap on the Buick? It's not terribly hard, and will give you the dual-piston calipers you need, and bigger rotors to boot...
Serj, have you guys looked into doing an F-body caliper swap on the Buick? It's not terribly hard, and will give you the dual-piston calipers you need, and bigger rotors to boot...
When i was originally doing prep on the buick i was checking around to see what kinda pad options i had and was shocked to learn i could get Hawk Blues. Now that the car's dealt with some REAL braking zones i did start looking into that. From what i can tell is the caliper currently on the car is the exact same as a 96 Camaro/Firebird. I read a few posts about cheap brake upgrades on a z28 forum and am currently planning on buying a pair of calipers off a later/ LS-engined F-body as those supposedly went to duals. I really don't want to throw on a bunch of brackets or adaptor plates. If I have to go that far, I'm going to drop the $200 for those C5 vette caliper adapter brackets and get some REAL meat to the rotor 
The good thing about brake linings is that they can be custom made for any car for about the same price as off the shelf linings. You just need to supply a backing plate and they mold and bond the lining you want onto your old backing plates. Even oddball cars can have race linings.
We got some $22/set pads from O'Reilly's, they have lasted four races. Worked decent enough. They locked up the tires just fine. Then again our tires were four year old ex ST-class autocross tires.
We got some $22/set pads from O'Reilly's, they have lasted four races. Worked decent enough. They locked up the tires just fine. Then again our tires were four year old ex ST-class autocross tires.
Here's our $22 pads. They lasted about an hour per set
Hmmm, we used Hawk HP+ in our Mustang and got two races out of them. No idea on the weight of our car and we have 87-93 V8 brakes which are know to be pretty terrible. Houston isn't that hard on brakes though I don't think.
running HP Blue 9012 in the front and some Mintex red box in the back. For some reason the passenger side rotor is SHOT but the drivers side ATE atom rotor is fine. I am guessing the caliper is dragging or the line needs replacing. We have about 900 miles on this set up and he pads are about 70%. The tire on the other hand are toast.
MSRH
Mustang
V-8
99 GT front brakes
Drum brakes rear
Two Lemons events
One NASA T&T event
One Blimp Base practice day
One set of brake pads from AutoZone (performance friction). Still have 60% pad left.
Second fastest lap at MSRH. Brakes are for turning. 
BOSH premium pads are $35 a set for our Saturn. We use 1/2 a set over a race weekend. Still have drums in back and haven't changed the shoes in 3 races. We also only use 1/2 set of tires per weekend (340 treadwear). Go light and everything is easier.
FYI we had problems with our Hawk blacks cracking from the heat and are switching to Porterfield R-4's for the Sears Pointless race. So far the car seems to brake even better and we're hoping to not have to change pads Saturday night like we have been.
BTW for anyone who's following us next weekend the Peugeot brakes much, much better (on stock brakes BTW) than you would expect so please be kind to our rear bumper!
We used Porterfield R4 in the last 2 races with no brake troubles. But for some retarded reason I decided to use Performance Friction this time. WRONG! 4 hours into the race we were metal on metal. Put some used POS used pads to finish the day. Got new rotors and the only pads we could find that weren't ceramic were Autozoo Duralast. Well they made it thru Sunday. They stopped OK but I was trying to be kind to them cause I knew they would suck big time if not.
Lesson learned? Go with what you know works!!!
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → What brake pads are you guys using?