The answer brake pads

I need to replace the pads and rotors on my 94 miata. Going to go with blank rotors but cant decide on pads. The car is a DD/track toy.

Currently has hawk pads on it that the PO installed.

What do you like or not like about the current pads and what version are they? I have run Hawk HPS, HP+, and Blues on various cars from light to heavy and street to race and mixed purpose. I really like the bite and progressive ease of modulation as it follows stock feel close enough to my liking. They don't fade if I use the right pad compound choice for the car and use and I can tolerate the dust and occasional noise of the HP+ if it is on a dual purpose vehicle. The blues are too much for dual purpose even though I did drive to and from the 3 day race weekends for awhile but the rotor wear was substantial when not up to temp and cold blues don't stop much.

My suggestion would be Hawk HPS if you run more street than track and/or the braking isn't hard at the tracks you run at. HP+ would probably be the best balance at harder braking tracks but the new Hawk HP Street/Race compound may be even better I just haven't tried it yet. It has a broader temp range than either HPS or HP+.

I like the bite and feel of the pads it has now. Best way to describe what i want is more bite. The grab but it takes a bit to much pressure for my liking.

ferodo 2500s are my pad of choice

that being said portfield R4S is a nice pads and performance friction has some nice compounds as well. Thankfully we're at a time and place where there are great options for performance pads.

In reply to Fitzauto:

wanting increased bite, better fluid and SS lines will make an even greater difference then pads.

I think you'll have to figure out which pads are installed before we can give you a recommendation.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

Asked the PO and its hawk hp upbfront and hp+ rear.

I'll second the Porterfields. They are great for street and autocross, and require very little effort and temperature to work well.

Carbotechs on both Miata brake setups I ran, loved them. Don't listen to the whiners that complain about bedding them in.

All you have to do is repeated 70-10 stops until they stink and pedal gets a touch soft. Let them cool completely. Done.

However, I'm hoping to get the BRZ out next month and I'm going to try the Winmax W5 pads on it.

bravenrace wrote: I'll second the Porterfields. They are great for street and autocross, and require very little effort and temperature to work well.

Plus 2. Had HPS, loved them. Had EBC Reds, hated them. Now have the R4S on all 4 corners and they are a great pad for the money. A little dusty up front, but that was to be expected for a more perfprmance oriented pad.

In reply to Bobzilla:

And rotor friendly.

I switched to Carbotech on my race car this year, having used Performance Friction PFC-01 the past few years and couldn't be more favorably impressed. Loads of torque with strong but controllable initial bite and a very smooth release. Pad wear is the lowest I've ever experienced and rotor wear is essentially non-existent. Dust doesn't really matter on a race car, but it's less than any other pads I've used.

And Carbotech is very helpful. I called and spoke to a tech person about my application. They wanted to know everything, then said they'd call back after doing some research. An hour later they'd looked in their old data and on the basis of my weight, speed, tire and rotor sizes, recommended their XP8 compound on the basis it was used very successfully by John Fergus in his Sports 2000 program.

They're not cheap to buy initially, but it's looking like I'll get close to 2 seasons out of a set. So they're cheap to own.

I'm absolutely going to install Carbotech in my e36 M3 and Miata as well. 100%.

I (and most of the Miata drivers around here) have found that HPS front pads and HP+ rears give excellent grab and bite and the mismatch compensates for the front bias that Miatas are known for. In a couple of track days I've had zero problems with them and had no fade even after some serious abuse.

FM makes a brake booster brace (say that 5 times fast) that improves pedal feel quite a lot by stabilizing the brake booster which shifts a bit due to firewall flexing.

I'm due for a fluid flush but in no rush, it seems pretty strong still so I'm happy. A Miata with decent pads should brake hard enough to make your eyes bug out, if it isn't you may have some other problem (weak booster?)

Another thing to contemplate is that ABS equipped cars don't have that great a pedal feel either.

Hawks are the easy button to be honest.

Hawk also has their new Street/Race pads, which are basically DTC-30's re-branded and they've gotten some pretty good reviews.

Looks like ill do the hawks and get the brake booster brace.