Hawk HPS question

A quick question - just installed a set of HPS pads all around on my C4 corvette, and bedded them in per the Tire Rack recommendations. Took the car to its first track day since the change (we use a great kart track in Grand junction, but it's more like an enduro autocross as far as brake stress is concerned - top speed around 75 for a fast car - not mine - repeated hard braking from around 55 mph to 30 mph every 20 seconds or so, for about 7 minutes per run session, so figure 20 consecutive stops, and the low speeds mean not much cooling air or time). About 25 minutes cool-down between sessions yesterday. Anyhow, they work well, better than stock, but they put out a very strong "hot brake" smell from about lap two, and were smoking when the session was over. This got better as the day progressed, and the smoking stopped, but the smell was still there. Like I said, the car brakes better than it did before, I can just occasionally feel the ABS trigger on the Toyo R1Rs, whereas when I had the old, crusty regular tires on, the ABS would trigger all the time, and the car stops with more authority than with the stock pads, but I wasn't expecting the smell. Is this just normal with these pads - wasn't expecting this with a name brand higher-performance-than-stock pad.

Car is 99% street driven, so I didn't want to go with a really heavy-duty race pad, which influenced my choice. Any comments on the smell, or light-duty track pads in general?

odd, I've run HPS on all my cars for about a decade and never had any "hot brake" smells from them, either in autocross, rallycross, or on fully-loaded cars coming down long/windy/steep mountain passes.

HPS isn't really a "light duty track pad" though. It's a performance street pad that will work good for autocross, basically. The HP+ is Hawk's light-duty track pad (and they have other more aggressive pads for heavier track use).

In reply to Jim Pettengill: Have them on my truck and they do the same thing after a few "aggresive" stops. Had them on over a year and don't baby them. No noticeable wear and they still stop great. Also have drilled and slotted rotors. Would never go back to stock pads

I'd bet that it's not anything more than you're actually bedding them more/better than you did when you followed the TR recommendations

with normal street driving they'll probably/possibly "un-bed" themselves ...

I wouldn't worry too much about it

http://www.essexparts.com/learning-center/cat/brake-rotors/post/Bed-in

http://www.essexparts.com/learning-center/swapping_pads

Not worried, just curious, since this was somewhat different than I expected. I agree that they are just bedding in better - no problems with their performance, just widening my experience base with comments from others.

I know they aren't really a track pad, if I were going to do any high-speed, longer session time track days, I'd go to another pad - considering our venue, and the fact that my nearest SCCA regular autocross venue is a 4-hour drive one-way, these should be sufficient, since I only get to do about 5 of these events a year, and the other 5000 miles per year are on the street.

thanks for the comments.

I run HPS on the street and they didn't smell at all, but I wasn't braking like you were.

I swap the fronts only for track days at the 2+ mile long Gingerman Raceway near my house. The Hawk HP+ for track days are really something, even on just the front. I don't swap rotors - just the pads.
They sure do make a brake dust mess!

In reply to wbjones:

This, you were just bedding them a bit more......my redline did that on my first time out with the new hps's

One thing I always did when installing new pads was to clean the rotor. removes any left over residue from the old pads. Makes bedding in more positive.

btw, is the HPS 'the' preferred pad for street use? S197 DD use. I have 1K on new Ford rotors and pads on an '05 GT. I'd swap out the pads now while the rotors are still clean.

In reply to Jim Pettengill:

heavy-ish car moving fast. brakes convert kinetic energy ( = 1/2 * mass * velocity squared) into thermal energy ( = the sum of [mass of the heat sinks * specific heat of the heat sinks * temperature rise of the heat sinks]).

like others have said, you bedded them more effectively in use than you did by following the "one-size-fits-all" procedure. you will find that the smell is directly related to the operating temperature. so they might stink in usage like you described, but they will probably never stink in regular street driving.

i like hawk HPS.

In reply to fasted58:

Probably by most of us that aren't cheap. 3 of my 4 cars have HPS's, the ti is getting HP+ or Hawk Blues.