I'm changing out my rotors & pads this weekend and am wondering what kind of pads I should get. I have a brembo rotors with zinc coating on them and am worried if I get metallic or semi-metallic pads that it'll scratch the hell out of my rotors. I've also heard bad things about ceramic pads. I don't race my car in the autocross, but do get on it quite often and race it in the 1/4 mile about once every other month. Right now it's a daily driver and just want to be able to stop in a reasonable distance. Any input would be appreciated.

 

I've used my ceramics at the 1/4 track w/ zero issues. They're good on the street as well, unless you're going to be doing pedal standing braking all over town.
They yield just about NO brake dust either. I highly recommend them bro! Best thin I did!
Ron

 

It is nice how ceramic pads don't dust at all, but my opinion on their performance is much different. I find that any ceramic pad has horrible charactaristics when cold. Whatever the outside temp is, could be 30 to 70 degrees and you'll find you have to step on the brake pedal much harder than you'd like to. After 5-6 stops then they're warm and perform like any other pad. You might think, "well what's wrong with that?" Well it gets old after a while. In my opinion a brake pad for street driving should provide consistant stopping power regardless of its temperature.

Here is my personal suggestion. I decided to go with the Z06 pad and stock GM rotors. Why? 1) because they're GM parts, intended for our cars 2) Z06 pads perform better with less fade on the race track (I plan on maybe 2 events a year) 3) They're quiet, and never squeak 4) GM rotors and pads aren't that expensive and the rotors aren't drilled or slotted - any SCCA or COM or Autocross guy will tell you to stay away from the weaknesses of drilled/slotted rotors. 5) Not really a reason I bought them but if anyone's going to complain about brake dust on the wheels then CLEAN THEM. If you don't like cleaning your car you don't deserve a Vette. The Z06 pads do dust more than the regular C5 pads but I find their charactaristics as a pad well worth it.

 

Sounds like stock pads will be perfect. They are great on the street and can stand up to 30 minute high performance road course lapping without fading in my experience. (I'm not particularly good at it, but I can really stand on a brake deep, just before the turn.) Just use some really great brake fluid like Castrol SRF and this system should serve you well.

VERYSOON

 

except that I just don't bother to clean my car.

 

I just installed these rotors on my 2000 hardtop and changed the pads to EBC Greenstuffs at that time. I have been very pleased with the stopping power of these pads and they don't seem to dust as much as the ZO-6 pads. No problems with initial bite and so far I've encountered no fadding after hard use at the end of the 1/4 mile. Even after a couple of back to back runs with no waiting in between. (A local club has gotten the use of our local track a few times and multiple runs were the norm.)

I wanted to try something besides the Hawk HPS's I'm running in a couple of my other cars. Some of the performance folks don't think as highly of them (HPS), but I wasn't prepared to go to a set of full race pads. The EBC Greenstuffs seem like a good compromise so far. Some of the vendors like Tire Rack sell them...

GUSTO

 

thanks Gusto...I'll look into it.

 

I use ceramics from NAPA and I like the performance and the NO DUSTING feature they have. I would recommend and a great deal too! In these days of high prices makes me feel a little better to not sacrifice stopping power and still be affordable.