Looking for some good brake pads for the front. I do a lot of auto crossing, drag racing, and some crazy driving inbetween. I'm reading old threads, hearing bout Axis, Axxis, Endless, and whatever else. What are my options? What's best? Prices? etc

thanks

-wtb

 

Carbotech Panther pads are great.. http://www.carbotecheng.com

Talk to Andie Lin, he will set you up.. well worth the price...

 

I just bought Hawks Plus for the fronts and AEM for the rear. Trying to get my car ready for track day. I went with the Hawk Plus eventhough they are not track pads because I don't think I'd be visiting the track more than 3 times this season. But I do autox a lot too. I'll have to see how these peform. A few of my friends that autox a lot have Porterfield R4S on their ITR. They perform quite good.

 

is it true that if you get aftermarket front pads, that you have to get aftermarket rears as well? otherwise they wont be balanced or something?

 

ok, i talked to larry at carbotech. he recommended the ultimate pads and also the porterfield R4s's. ($82 vs $120) are the porterfields worth the extra $40? anyone with either of these?

thanks

 

Carbotech recommended the Ultimates to me for hard street driving and Auto-X. If you feel it's worth the money, go for the Porterfields. The Ultimates are, personally, more than enough for what I need. You can get both front and rear for a little over $100.


[Modified by ALF, 9:33 PM 5/20/2002]

 

there is NO need for high performance rear pads, most the full race prelude and myself use stock honda pads, or simular cheap replacements in the back... the rear does next to nothing when braking on a FWD car..

Go with the ultamites, you will like them, if your fast enough to burn them up, time for something more aggressive (like Hawk HP+)

 

[QUOTE]there is NO need for high performance rear pads, most the full race prelude and myself use stock honda pads, or simular cheap replacements in the back... the rear does next to nothing when braking on a FWD car..
QUOTE]
Not to be a devil's advocate but if that is your point of view, could you tell me why this site says otherwise? http://www.turnfast.com/tech_brakes/...lancing2.lasso
I too am looking to upgrade my brakes..


[Modified by Quick_lude, 6:27 AM 5/21/2002]

 

ah yes, that article, I have yet to read it all, but it really is biased twards RWD, AWD cars, where is is actually weight on the back tires... brake bias is much more important on those cars..

on FWD cars, well, racecars with sticky *** tires, the rears really do SO little in braking.. you can actually see fast FWD cars "dancing" the rear tires underbraking, almost doing front wheel-stands underbraking... for the street, you will not notice the difference of high performance rear pads and factory ones, you just won't... another thing, when you put agressive rear pads on (along with front pads of course), and brake hard, your weight transfers really fast and the rear tires lighten up a lot, and are prone to lockup, so then your ABS triggers on, and your actually stopping slower...

Just what I have found out in my own experiance really.. Makes sence to me..

 

The front pads for the prelude (503, same as itr) are $92 alone, of course with a 10% discount. I wish i could get the whole set for less than $100! Anyways, thanks for the replies, I guess im leaning towards the Carbotechs cause they are a little cheaper.

 

i have Hawk HP+ in the front ... very very dusty!!! ... tonnes of brake dust, but improved braking for sure!!! ... i have yet to go to the track, but i heard they can take way more heat than the stock ones ... it's made of Ferro-Carbon ... supposed to give more braking power, and less fading in extreme temperature/conditions ... anyone else have personal experience with these pads??

GW

 

Wouldn't it be the other way around? You upgrade the front pads, which increases their stopping ability. So now the fronts are more prone to lockup than the rears, & they reach their limit, while the rears still have some stopping ability left. End result, longer braking distances (albeit not by much, given front-driver weight distribution). I seem to remember SCC discovered this when they went to oversized front rotors on one of their project cars.

To me, upgrading all 4 corners with the same type of pad makes the most sense. That way you're preserving the stock braking bias. And if you do want to change the braking bias, a proportioning valve is a lot easier than varying pad compounds.

 

Todatyper028:
alright mr. 25 post ***, did the search prior to the thread. do you see anything bout best break pads for a prelude? or anything answering my questions? i dont think so.




[Modified by wutangben, 3:33 PM 5/22/2002]

 

Daemione, your very right in your thinking, you are prone to front lockup (sometimes)... Very Very much of your brake pad compound matters on what type of tires you run, I often forget that most people here are still running street tires (been using R-compounds for years)..

On R-compounds, the front tires are MUCH harder to lock-up, for several reasons.. The tires are more sticky (duh), you get more weight transfer on the front tires: the back lightens up (more than street tires) and will lock up easy.. Although the front has a more aggressive pad, it also has more traction on the tires, and won't lock up as easily..

Like I said, rear's really don't do much on FWD cars...

 

toda you fool, if you have been on this site for over a week you would have known that the search here is complete and utter ****.

 

As from my above post, my friend's ITR with the Porterfield R4S stops on a dime. Then again, the ITR has the same front caliper as the 5th gen prelude but a lot lighter. I think you would be happy with R4S. I still haven't gotten around to putting my Hawk plus on yet.

 

R4S is a great street/autox pad, but won't cut it for track driving (for a beginner, yes, but thats it)... Went through a set in a weekend to the backing plates at summit point..

 

I use the R4S and I love it. I just completed an event at TWS (very high speed track), and they did very well. Didn't dust as much as stock S2000 pads either.

 

That's very interesting - I never thought about the fact that with an improved coefficient of friction, even more weight will be going forward under braking . . . Always nice to realize something new.

Although I still say that a proportioning valve is a better method of playing with brake bias than with pad compounds. And how about fade? Even though a high friction pad may not be necessary in the rear, I think fade resistance from overheating the pads would still be a factor.

As far as pad selection, I just upgraded my stock ones to Axxis MM's all around. As of now, I'm a little underwhelmed. I can't tell any difference from stock as far as bite goes. But to be fair, I've only put 3 or 400 miles on them, & have barely broken them in. So I'm reserving final judgement until I have a chance to push them a little bit.


[Modified by Daemione, 9:52 AM 5/23/2002]

 

With MM pads, you really WON'T feel a difference.. They arn't that agressive, but the ultamates are..

now, about fade on rear brakes, it just doesn't happen.. The fronts are over 3x the temperature that the rear gets up too..I only get my rear rotors up to 250degress MAX... Also, with ABS, it very hard to tell which end is locking up, so a proportioning valve is hard to use in this situation..

 

Nissin - Perfered brand by honda - why use anything else - well unless your auto-Xing. BTW, Nissin makes spoon products... Plus as I review I love em' to death!