PERFORMANCE

The pads performed admirably in both an autocross environment and on the street. On the street, the pads were quiet with no grinding noise when you slowly come to a stop. There is really no need to warm them up for street use as they begin to bite almost immediately. However, I can imagine, in colder climates that the brakes may need one or two slow stops to get it to operating temperatures. Pedal effort is just a little harder than stock to about the same.

At my last autocross, we had a great high traction surface with very fast course. Two turns required almost full pressure braking from about 70mph down to about 30 mph for a hard right and left turn. My first time through the turn, I broke relatively early and noticed that I had slowed down too much! I guess I was used to the stock brake pads. The next time through, I took it a bit more aggressively. I was able to brake much later and I know that my stock pads would not have allowed me to slow down enough for that turn.

I did notice a bit of pad fade when I autocrossed. Remember that I had autocross tires on and the surface was very clean with lots of traction. This combined with my stiff suspension setup allows me to have a much higher braking capacity than a normal street car. Even though I did follow the recommended break-in procedure, I guess that I could have used some more time to break them in. I only installed the pads about three weeks before the event.

THE VERDICT

Hits

• good performance for the price
• excellent pedal feel with the new fluid and lines
• good stopping power from high speeds inspires confidence
• admirably performance in an autocross will prove well in the street

Misses

• not aggressive enough brake pad formulation to last on a road course, even though the brake fluid will be able to handle it

The Decision

An excellent combination of brake fluids, lines, and pads resulting in a good improvement in brake feel and stopping power for the street.

Counterpoint
by Shawn Church

Shawn didn't like the brake pads in his system as much as I did in my system. We have different front rotors, brake fluid, brake lines, and tires. Here's Shawn's evaluation. Ed.

I purchased the Friction Tech front pads after trying some Grip pads on Brembo standard rotors. THe rotors exhibited some wear from the Grip pads, but were not turned. This may have caused a reduction in performance. Fluid had been flushed and replaced with Pyroil DOT4 (store brand) about 5000 miles earlier. After undergoing the proper break in procedure, I proceeded to see how they worked. My initial thought was that they took a couple of stops to work properly when first starting. This may be due to a glazed rotor from the previous pads. Once the car is on the road, the pads brake well, but they do not bite as well initially as the stock soft pads (drove an LS back to back with my car). Overall braking is definitely superior, but more pedal pressure is required. In normal street braking (under 60 mph) the pads work very well, but they do not seem very predictable (maybe linear is a better term). This is most apparent when trying to heel-toe into a corner with hard braking. IMO, this is just something to adapt to. Overall the pads are quiet and do not dust any more than stock, perhaps slightly less. Pad wear appears to be at least as good as stock so far. Fitment was excellent.

In higher performance venues, I find that the pads leave a little to be desired. They seem to bite much better at higher speeds (70-90), but they also begin to fade under severe braking. An initial 70-0 stop produces excellent result, but some fade is detectable on an immediate (i.e. less than 10 sec later run). With 30-60 seconds of cooling, fade is negligible. Fade is most noticeable when braking from 90+ to 20 mph for the first turn off at my local dragstrip. This requires hard braking and fade begins to show by 30-35 mph. Note that it requires nearly 50% more energy dissipation to brake from 90-30 than it does from 70-0. This is certainly pad fade as the pedal stays hard, it's just harder to brake. Eight drag runs in less than an hour also produced some noticeable squealing with anything more than light pedal pressure. This took about 25 miles to go away.

Overall, the system (DOT4, Brembo rotors, Friction Tech, BFG TA/ZR) performs better than stock with consistent 70-0 braking in the 165 +/- 5 ft range on a local road (CD measures about 180, my measurements are not as precise - pick a marker, hit the hooks as close to it as possible and then measure with a tape). The fade resistance is not as good as a drilled rotor system, but still acceptable.

Pluses

• Good performance at a reasonable price
• Normally quiet for metallic pads
• Low dusting

Minuses

• Still not fade proof
• Increased pedal pressure
• Not as linear/predictable as stock