Just a quick review on the pads I'm now using for the daily drive which I found more than adequate..
Current Suspension / Brake Mods
Performance Friction 2-Piece Rotors up Front
RRE Poor Man Rotors on the Rear (aka RRE Stock Brake Rotors, not sure who makes em though)
Valvoline Synthetic Brake Fluid
Gruppe-S SS Brake Lines
I bought the following from Autozone
Autozone Duralast Gold CMAX (Ceramic) for the Front - DGC1001 for 59$
Autozone Duralast Gold for the Rear (Semi Metallic) for the Rear - DG961 - 35$
For the pics
WTH? Pretty pictures on the box?
Let's look inside and see what we got here..
a) Front Ceramic Brake Pads
b) New Caliper Spring Clip
c) Pahmplet stating why these brake pads are supposedly pimp.
The pahmplet states words / phrases like
"Maximum Ceramic Formulation" - formulated to handle high braking temperatures with less brake fade, to generate less dust and wear on both the pads and rotors, and to provide substantially quieter braking.
"Revolutionary Multi-Layer Rubber Shim Technology"
here's a closer look at the included spring clip compared to stock
and here's the new pads and clip installed on the stock caliper
Installation Notes:
Used Scotch Brite and scuffed the rotors just to make I've evacuated the old pad material as much as possible. The fronts fit perfectly without issues - I didn't have to reuse the stock brembo shims because these already come with supposedly "revolutionary multi-layer rubber shim technology - TM." Moreover, I used the new spring clip that comes in the package, although I'm quite sure there's no problem re-using the stock spring clip.
NOTE: the CMAX pads only have one tapered side, make sure when installing the pads that the tapered sides are pointing upwards as the wheel normal turns counter clock wise.
Now for the rears, they also fit properly without issues. I did not reuse the stock shims on the rear because they come pre-shimmed (SS shim). Just to make sure I don't get noise, I pulled off the included shim, sprayed the shims back w/ Permatex Disc Brake Quiet (blue - tacky spray on stuff that acts like a cushion to dampen vibrations) then re-clipped it (the blue tacky stuff will be sandwiched between the back of the pad, and the shim).
After the install, went out and did the standard brake bedding in procedure listed in stoptech's website (10 - 60->15 mph hard braking but not hard enough to engage the ABS).
First Impression, car stopped and the dvd's in the back seat almost killed me flying in the air like little shurikens. Word to the wise, don't have anything unstrapped in the back seat when performing hard braking - lol.
Next thing I did was to hop-on the 210 heading east, then CA-330N, then CA-18 (aka, Big Bear Lake). The drive up-hill was uneventful brake wise, the car stopped when I wanted it to stop. Was worried more about what was going to happen going downhill - lol.
Reached Big Bear lake, turned around and drove downhill - at first, I was going grandma slow because I did not want to become a permanent part of the San Bernardino Mountain Range. The car stopped when I wanted it to stop, and kept pushing on. Kept increasing my speed to test out downhill braking. After a while, I noticed that I was already in the foothills nearing the 30/210 freeway and I'm still alive - seems like the brakes do a perfectly reasonable job stopping the car, didn't notice any brake fade either.
For daily driving, I'm quite sure these pads are perfectly capable - thank gawd these pads are more than adequate for going downhill.
Pro(s)
Affordable, 59$ for the Front, 35$ for the Rear, and never have to buy street pads ever again.
No Noise - crossing my fingers it remains that way. I don't like my brakes squealing.
Comes w/ new spring clips on the front just in case you lose / break your old ones.
Stops the Car / didn't really feel anything different compared to the stock brembo pads.
Definitely not as dusty as the stock Brembo pads.
I'll be able to afford the Performance Friction 97's for the HPDE
Con(s)
They are AutoZone Duralast and they don't have some cool / futuristic sounding Japanese Product Name Like Project Mu - B-Force.
Rear CMAX Pads not available, the current Duralast Golds are Semi-Metallic, they might squeal and make noise for some people.
I'll update in a couple of months to see if I see increased rotor wear.
- and unlike some of the SoCal canyon roads, no dumbasses thinking they are reliving an Initial-D episode.
