Performance Brake Upgrades

Often times when upgrading your brakes, people dive into what's popular or easily available for their car, which can lead to disastrous results.  When it comes time to upgrade, think about what you will be using your car for.  Will it be for track events such as an HPDE (High Performance Driving Event) on a road course?  Drag strip action?  Car shows? Regular street driving with some backroad twisties added in?  All these factors are important when choosing what type of pads, rotors and calipers to install on your vehicle.  Below I will outline a general guide based on the intended use and hopefully it will help you make a more informed decision.  Feel free to e-mail me with any followup questions and I'll help as best I can.

Street/Spririted Driving:

For this I suggest using an unslotted, non-drilled rotor, these rotors will give you the best performance/price ratio for street and spirited driving.  A smooth rotor has the advantage that it can be resurfaced if need be and lends itself to a longer life due to that.  The other advantage is that they are usually the least expensive option when upgrading.  Not all rotors are created equal however, so be sure to find a quality non-slotted rotor in the aftermarket, the brand we usually suggest for our customers is Mountain rotors made in Japan that can be found for most Japanese cars.  Now I know many of you will downplay the smooth rotors as not as "performance" oriented.  Having done 100s of HPDEs and replaced a lot of rotors, for almost all but the most experienced drivers, your driver skill will outweigh the difference in braking ability from a smooth rotor to a slotted rotor.  For street/spirited driving, you'll want pads that are good from a cold to med temps, Ceramic Pads are good for this such as Hawk HPs or Hawk Ceramic pads, these will give you low dust, low noise and great street and spirited driving performance.

HPDE/Road Race Course/Racing/Street Performance:

This is where things can get a bit tricky, here you will want to use a slotted rotor as they help dissipate heat and keep your pads smooth by cleaning them with the slots.  Slotted rotors usually come in a few varieties of materials such as plain iron as well as upgraded or treated iron mixtures.  The slots will allow additional cooling and upgraded materials will help prevent cracking.  For pads, if this car will be used on the street a pad similar to Hawk HP+ are a great compromise between a pad that needs to be warmed up before use a street pad.  The Hawk HP+ pads will dust more than the HPs and will be noisier, however they provide superior stopping ability.  Hawk Blue or Black pads should only be used on a car that is a track only car as they need to be heated up and need to keep having heat added to them or they will rip your rotors down in a few miles.

Showcar/Bling/Etc:

If you are going for looks over actual performance, then you will want Slotted and Cross-drilled rotors on your car.  They'll get you extra points when every piece of bling counts.  These rotors will probably crack if used for any type of performance driving and are driven hard enough.  I know, I know, porsches come with them, but they are different than the aftermarket cross-drilled rotors you find being sold for under $500 a piece!  We have tested several "drilled" rotors over the years and all of them have failed within 2 track days, 90% of them failed in the first 2 sessions on track with them.  If you can't crack your drilled rotors, then you aren't driving hard enough!  As for pads, you'll want Ceramic pads exclusively as they will produce the least dust and be the quietest.

Here are my quick picks:

Street/Spririted Driving:
Hawk HPs, Hawk Ceramic, Akebono Pro-Act Ceramics
DBA Standard, Mountain Rotors

HPDE/Road Race Course/Racing/Street Performance:
Hawk HP+, Hawk Blue, Hawk Black
DBA 4000 Series, DBA 5000 Series

Showcar/Bling/Etc:
Hawk Ceramic, Akebono Pro-Act Ceramics
DBA Standard

Hopefully this helps!  Feel free to e-mail me any questions you have directly paisan@azpinstalls.com

-Mike

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