Hawk HP Plus Vs. Hawk HPS
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Team Owner
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From: Riverside County Southern California
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St. Jude Donor '09 thru '20
Great information posted 
Clearly the HPS are the best pads for street use. I've not used Carbotech pads yet, they are a bit more expensive than Hawks but, never say never.
I have posted this few times. The quality of ride its all in the shock set. If I want a crisp ride I set it up at 12 clicks on compression, for street/highway drives I take it down to 8 or 9 clicks on compression.
12 clicks makes the ride extremely harsh, so harsh that the aftermarket headliner installed comes off.
Coilovers are a great suspension upgrade and the Vette handles great.
Clearly the HPS are the best pads for street use. I've not used Carbotech pads yet, they are a bit more expensive than Hawks but, never say never.12 clicks makes the ride extremely harsh, so harsh that the aftermarket headliner installed comes off.
Coilovers are a great suspension upgrade and the Vette handles great.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2003
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From: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
St. Jude '03 thru '24
Honestly, its hard to imagine this performance unless the vehicle spends 95% of its mileage on the highway. Much less contribute the high numbers to a bed-in procedure. The average front brake life is around 40-50k. My wife gets about 45K on her 2004 Accord.
Team Owner
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From: Park City Utah
Well....like I said, "I hesitated to post..."
But again, the truck was one example of long brake life I get from my vehicles. Shall we scrutinize that vehicles use, since you speculated and brought it up? It gets "DD" all winter, to and from work. Summer it's either sitting, or on a road trip, 350 miles each way, to Lake Powell...towing my comp ski boat. Contributing to long brake life is the break-in, (IMO) the fact that it's a 5 speed, and that is does get "a lot" of highway miles. Detracting from brake life is that almost all the highway miles are towing a boat, that it does see DD use, and that I live in the Mountains. Who really knows. Like I qualified my post in the first place; no science, only experience. But I also, coincidentally(?) have similar "luck" with my other vehicles brake pad life, as well.
Bear in mind that I didn't say; "break in your pads right and they'll last 100k". But I doo believe that if you are using the entire surface area of the pad equally/evenly, it's going to last longer than if your doing most of your braking on "points" of the pad.
One thing is for sure; I have HP+ pads on my car that don't squeak at all, and that's not a first for me. What do you attribute that to?
But again, the truck was one example of long brake life I get from my vehicles. Shall we scrutinize that vehicles use, since you speculated and brought it up? It gets "DD" all winter, to and from work. Summer it's either sitting, or on a road trip, 350 miles each way, to Lake Powell...towing my comp ski boat. Contributing to long brake life is the break-in, (IMO) the fact that it's a 5 speed, and that is does get "a lot" of highway miles. Detracting from brake life is that almost all the highway miles are towing a boat, that it does see DD use, and that I live in the Mountains. Who really knows. Like I qualified my post in the first place; no science, only experience. But I also, coincidentally(?) have similar "luck" with my other vehicles brake pad life, as well.
Bear in mind that I didn't say; "break in your pads right and they'll last 100k". But I doo believe that if you are using the entire surface area of the pad equally/evenly, it's going to last longer than if your doing most of your braking on "points" of the pad.
One thing is for sure; I have HP+ pads on my car that don't squeak at all, and that's not a first for me. What do you attribute that to?
Last edited by Tom400CFI; Dec 29, 2010 at 11:51 PM.
Race Director
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From: Color my life with the chaos of trouble.
My issue was that they were just plain noisy all of the time compared to some others.
Team Owner
Joined: Aug 2004
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From: Park City Utah
If they didn't squeak, then what kind of noise did they make for you? Only noise that *I* have ever noticed from brakes -other than squeaking- was some "whirring" from the cross drilled rotors on my C6.
Race Director
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From: Color my life with the chaos of trouble.
It's hard to describe "loud" brakes. It is almost a grinding sound (but not in the sense that something is wrong). More friction = more sound.
Team Owner
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From: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
St. Jude '03 thru '24
Team Owner
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From: Park City Utah
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Racer
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 286
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From: Madison WI
I have used HP pads and they don't squeak at all. I wouldn't say that HP+ didn't squeak at all because they did a little. During light braking it was a little annoying to have your "vette" pull up to a stop light and squeak. It sounds like you are too cheap to replace your brakes. Unless you are tracking/road course your car you don't need the HP+ in my opinion. All they do is dust more and are not easy to clean up. I was able to run a road course using HP+ but I did have brake cooling ducts up front. Without the cooling ducts the pads overheated in one lap.
In this months Grassroots Motorsport they tested HP and HP+ and the Hawk DTC60's and autocross times at their course were all around the same. There was no advantage even over stock pads on a Miata regarding times, fade, etc. Only advantage they found was less pedal pressure needed with more aggressive pads. Road courses are a completely different animal though when it comes to pads. I like the Carbotech XP 12 and 14's but they aren't cheap and no race pads are.
In this months Grassroots Motorsport they tested HP and HP+ and the Hawk DTC60's and autocross times at their course were all around the same. There was no advantage even over stock pads on a Miata regarding times, fade, etc. Only advantage they found was less pedal pressure needed with more aggressive pads. Road courses are a completely different animal though when it comes to pads. I like the Carbotech XP 12 and 14's but they aren't cheap and no race pads are.
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2001
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From: NEwhere Ohio
Miata's may be too light of a car to put a lot of heat into the brakes.
I agree a road course is a different animal. Thats where I found out that EBC Greenstuff pads couldnt handle a single 80 to 10 mph stop for the pits.
I agree a road course is a different animal. Thats where I found out that EBC Greenstuff pads couldnt handle a single 80 to 10 mph stop for the pits.
I have used HP pads and they don't squeak at all. I wouldn't say that HP+ didn't squeak at all because they did a little. During light braking it was a little annoying to have your "vette" pull up to a stop light and squeak. It sounds like you are too cheap to replace your brakes. Unless you are tracking/road course your car you don't need the HP+ in my opinion. All they do is dust more and are not easy to clean up. I was able to run a road course using HP+ but I did have brake cooling ducts up front. Without the cooling ducts the pads overheated in one lap.
In this months Grassroots Motorsport they tested HP and HP+ and the Hawk DTC60's and autocross times at their course were all around the same. There was no advantage even over stock pads on a Miata regarding times, fade, etc. Only advantage they found was less pedal pressure needed with more aggressive pads. Road courses are a completely different animal though when it comes to pads. I like the Carbotech XP 12 and 14's but they aren't cheap and no race pads are.
In this months Grassroots Motorsport they tested HP and HP+ and the Hawk DTC60's and autocross times at their course were all around the same. There was no advantage even over stock pads on a Miata regarding times, fade, etc. Only advantage they found was less pedal pressure needed with more aggressive pads. Road courses are a completely different animal though when it comes to pads. I like the Carbotech XP 12 and 14's but they aren't cheap and no race pads are.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 773
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From: Minneapolis MN
Are the EBC yellow or red stuff pads any good for aggressive driving/stopping?I have cheap front pads on my vette(long story),& when slowing down from 100mph to 60mph I can smell the front pads burning.It stinks bad & had friends that were following me in their car when playing around comment on how bad it smells
