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Powerstop Track day Pads

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Spent the day at Button Willow yesterday. It was in the 90's temp wise. So it was warm. I tested out a New to me brake pad. Powerstops Track day pad. I must say I was very impressed with this pad. With my braking style I eat pads up. Most of the time I go through a set of pads in a day. Hawks HP+ mostly. Bad dust, good cool bite but can fade when used real hard. Pagid pads are great but the price is bit steep as with most Race pads. Cold bite is passable but not great. Get some heat into them I they start to shine. Last for a bit too. They do however dust up pretty well. So what do you do when you want the best or closest to the best you can get for a afternoon of flogging your car.

Powerstop's Track day pad seem to fit that bill well. First thing is the price. It would scare most away for being cheap. They are. My front pads set me back A whole $87 dollars. That's right, I said it. $87 bucks. I have to order a set off the Dodge Viper for the front because of my pads shape. Brembo f40/f50 calipers that were used on the FR500c/Fr500s Race cars. If you want to try it for the Stock Brembos it will run you $128.00 for the fronts. #PST-1001. Still a good price for what you get, the rears are $71.09 # PST-1465.

What do you get for this price? Very good cold bite for the street. You don't have to wait for them to get warm. The bite is instant, direct and now. The modulation is excellent with good release characteristics. Drag is a non-issue. For track day use it gets even better. The harder I used them the better the bite. Heat of the day was never a Issue with these pads. If I rode the brakes or hard and deep, not a ounce of fade was present at any time. The Dust was less that the stock street pads. My wheels are not black with dust. Rotors look like they just broke in and never got that purple/blue color that they get when used real hard. Just a lite hint of blue. No gouging, no groves just nice smooth surface like a street pad on your Grandmother's Buick.

The pads lasted all day. Down to about 16mm on the front So it looks like they will last for a while too. Also not to bad.

What I like best so far? No noise. A chirpy sound once in a while, like a cricket, that's it.
That's my whole $.02 on the pads. Give them I try and let me know what you think.
 
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Nice write-up. Always good to have another option.
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area
I have been using the 1001 profile pads for several HPDE seasons and I agree they work quite well. They are the only track day pad I've used so I can't compare but their bite is excellent and I've experienced no brake fade at either Pocono (Option 3) braking from 135 to about 45 on the back straight. No fade on either track at NJMP.

Just a little squealing on the street at very slow speeds, like when rolling out to a full stop.

Dust is pretty significant compared to their street Z26 pad (also good bite) but just slightly more than my buddy with his Brembo pads.

But if you track it in the rain, the wet dust will cake up and bake on your wheels. Make sure your wheels are coated with something!

RockAuto has them for $106 for the front and $65 for the rear
 
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Thanks for the write-up. I use Hawks R compound Street/Race pads front and rear. They hold up to a lot of heat, bite hard, have a much higher coefficient of friction and still work when cold.

They are the dirtiest pads I've ever seen and they squeal like an old school bus after a track day. So bad my wife won't ride in the car until I swap in my street pads. Hard on rotors, too. More expensive than the StopTechs as well. I will give the StopTechs a try.
 
598
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Thanks for the write-up. I use Hawks R compound Street/Race pads front and rear. They hold up to a lot of heat, bite hard, have a much higher coefficient of friction and still work when cold.

They are the dirtiest pads I've ever seen and they squeal like an old school bus after a track day. So bad my wife won't ride in the car until I swap in my street pads. Hard on rotors, too. More expensive than the StopTechs as well. I will give the StopTechs a try.

Please don't get the Stop Tech pad, They are not the same pads.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
They are the dirtiest pads I've ever seen and they squeal like an old school bus after a track day. So bad my wife won't ride in the car until I swap in my street pads. Hard on rotors, too.
That last item was reason all by itself for me to make HP+ pads a one-time trial purchase for one axle. Liked the bite, didn't mind the dust too much, dealt with the noise better than my wife ever could (being a little hard of hearing probably has something to do with that). Ended up with pads that have bite on par with the HP+ and roughly HPS rotor wear rates.

More expensive than the StopTechs as well. I will give the StopTechs a try.
In StopTech you're going to outgrow their 'Sport' pads very quickly if you haven't already (as I suspect is the case; they do pretty clearly say "light track day use"). Apparently ST does make a variety of racing pads, but you should fully expect those to carry typical track pad pricing.


Norm
 
OK, brain fart! I typed Stop Tech when I should have typed Powerstop! Thanks for the catch Tri-bar!

And Yes, Norm, I am beyond Stop Tech Sport pads! I raced for 13 years and have a bit of a heavy foot when it comes to braking! I've used Hawks for many years. I know and trust them. I don't wear rotors out so much as create tiny cracks in them so the wear rate isn't an issue. I use the 355 mm fronts and 350 mm rears so I can by stock replacement rotors.... Good quality stock replacement rotors. That in itself is a challenge. One that Motorcraft has a decent lead on with Bosch coming as a contender!
 
369
146
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Waco, TX
I also used these pads and found great success with them. I too agree that the harder you use them better they become i did get some dust that was easily washed off when i got home. Overall performance was excellent from street to track and not having to change them right away is a huge plus. I used them at 3 different tracks and felt no fade or had any heat issues with rotors.

Great write up @Tri-bar glad you like them as well. FYI they do make them for GT350's which i hope to try once my stock pads are done.
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area
With respect to StopTech, their rotors are excellent and very reasonably priced. I use the slotted versions. They even have cryo treated ones for the 14" front. RockAuto has best prices for the regular slotted. TireRack seems to have best availability for the cryo treated ones.

Unfortunately, even the OEM rotors are made in China. I think the only rotors made in the US anymore are 2-piece rotors. Even with those, I suspect the raw forgings come from overseas and are finished here.

Others will use the Centric Premium (high-carbon) plain rotors. Centric is the parent company of StopTech and their Centric Premium blanks are used for the StopTech slotted or slotted & drilled versions.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
I don't wear rotors out so much as create tiny cracks in them so the wear rate isn't an issue.
IOW, heat-checking.
heat-checked rotor - web.jpg

Not sure which pads were involved in the above picture (XP8's???). I should have taken a picture of the rotors that I'd run the HP+ pads on. Easily 1/32" wear per face before the pads were half worn.


Norm
 
IOW, heat-checking.
View attachment 5159

Not sure which pads were involved in the above picture (XP8's???). I should have taken a picture of the rotors that I'd run the HP+ pads on. Easily 1/32" wear per face before the pads were half worn.


Norm


Yup, like that and worse. It is the "worse" that bothers me. I had a rotor crack straight through to the vent on my old race car. The heat-checking cracks were a bit worse than your picture and the 25 minute session - at an HDPE no less - cracked the rest of the way through. I thought, HPDE, not a race, these will be fine! Uuhhmm, not so fine!

I've cut Motorcraft rotors like that on a brake lathe to remove the checking that appeared after 2 track days and had the rotors do 2-3 more track days after.

A bit concerning to me that Tri-Bar's 2 piece rotors show checking after one session. As long as it gets no worse, that looks OK.
 

JDee

Ancient Racer
1,797
2,001
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
5 miles from Mosport
I tried a set of these Powerstop Track Day pads and I have mixed feelings about them.
They wear really well, after 3 track days, 2 of which were on hard braking tracks they are still around 8mm. They're dusty, but what isn't? They're no worse than the OEM Ford 6 piston pads in that respect.
However, not real happy with their performance on hard braking tracks. On a long hard braking zone they tend to really lose bite toward the end of the zone, feels like they are going away badly. They recover quickly, but it's quite disconcerting to feel the deceleration rate decline like that. They are really priced well at Rock Auto and for a fast track like Mosport they're fine, but at Tremblant, Shannonville or Calabogie I'm not liking them all that much.
 

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