MicVelo

With wheels, tires, and suspension "SET" (welllll, until I decide to experiment with something else), I turned my attention to the last thing needed in prep for that track assault I've been trying to do: BRAKE PADS.

Side Note: My plan earlier this year was to try and get to the track for a few HPDEs in prep for re-licensing in '16. But alas.... not one event this year. But it's all good, every weekend spent doing wedding planning...

Anyhow, just a quick comparo between my two cars/two setups/two types of pads

Note: This isn't really a fair comparison though as the braking characteristics of the cars are very different (and little wonder as well.... it's comparing STD vs. Brembo) but....

WARNING: THIS IS PURELY UNSCIENTIFIC, BUTT DYNO TESTING)

'03 Enthusiast with Carbotechs/Stoptech Rotors: In street/highway (include hill runs) use, the Bobcats are simply, well, great. After bed-in and about 800 miles of "subdued use", experiencing great initial bite and VERY easy modulation, in all temperature conditions, cold to hot. Particularly adept in trail braking. Smooth roll on/off. (So good that it makes heel/toe driver errors almost invisible... laff!) Much better than the Hawk HPS they replaced.

'08 Niz with P-Mu/OEM Rotors: the car's OEM pads had decent bite, but the P-Mus FAR exceed them in feel and modulation. In the limited testing I did, it SEEMS that the P-Mus out-stop the OEM pads but admittedly, did NOT push them THAT hard, only running maybe 7/10ths uphill and low-to-moderate "cruising" on the downhill trip. (Didn't want to find out from gravity that I screwed something up installing them.... )

If anything negative can be said about these, the cold performance (first stop only) is not quite as good as the Carbotechs BUT, that could just be due to my running on OEM rotors (just cut 'em as they were well within run-out tolerance), a decent bed-in and absolutely NO mileage other than the 5-7 miles of bedding mileage and about 20 miles cool down before doing any real, ahem, "testing".

Either way, happy with performance of either on the street/in the hills thus far, and I have little doubt that they'll hold up fine to HPDE use, the Brembo/Nismo probably fairing better due to better heat dissipation.

Pricewise, a negligible $30 separates the two brands - F&R sets: $275 Carbotech, $305 P-Mus - so bottom line is if your use is primarily street and a light smattering of non-compete track days (HPDE), you can't lose with the Bobcats and put that $30 saved into your gas tank.

Going to pick up another set of pads (type undecided as of now) for the Niz to box-spare for track events if I get a chance at the last HPDE at MLSIR right after Christmas!!

Cheers,

Mic

clubhopper

iTrader: (6)

Nice review. I'm running Bobcats for street and XP20 for track. Any plans on going to a dedicated track pad in the future?

MicVelo

Thanks, Clubhopper. Yes, that's what I was alluding to when saying I'll keep a set of pads in the tool box at/for the track. But it depends on which car I use for the HPDE "practice" rounds.

If I do use one of them - which looks likely because sadly, progress on my project car is slow going - I'll most likely use a set of Carbotech XP12/16s on the Nismo/Brembo setup because I like the Bobcats so much.