Couple of brake pad questions
 

I'm doing the brembo swap on my car. Already have the calipers and rebuild kits for them. Ordered the stoptech stainless steel lines as well as the aero rotors front and rear. I'm looking at the Carbotech pads. Is that normal the amount of sparks and stuff that come off of them while braking? Just going by YouTube videos. Also the squeal is something I wondered about too. Mainly looking at either the 1521 or ax6's. Don't really track the car, but depending on which highway I take going home there can be a 1200' drop in elevation in a few miles with lots of tight corners/switchbacks. Really a fun drive especially with it being just repaved.

While I'm not a Carbotech user, it's hard to comment on "sparks and stuff that come off" while using Brembo brakes. In normal use, monoblock brakes DO squeal, but sparks and glowing rotors, no. BTW- I wouldn't suggest using racing compound pads on a street driven Z. The temperatures needed to make them function correctly AND possibly excessive rotor wear are not qualities needed on a street car.

You'd be better off learning how to brake properly (at the track) than using such a setup on the street.

Thanks for the advice so far. I definitely wasn't planning on race pads.

I have Gloc GS1s(1521s) and Carbotech AX6 pads. So far the GS1 have been excellent street pads. If I am not mistaken MicVelo runs 1521 with all his mountain driving. Tiny grunting/squeak at a full stop.

The AX6s definitely have better heat range and more stopping power but have huge trade offs in noise and brake dust. To me the AX6s were unusable on the street due to noise (screeching from 15-20 mph down to a stop) and the wheels needed to be cleaned about every week. Wonderful stopping power though I still wish the GS1s had a little more bite like the AX6s.

Carbotechs/Gloc are expensive and one of their nice features is that you can swap carbotech pads without changing rotors. If you don't plan on doing that they might not be worth it for you. Not sure what a good replacement would be though.

Was just about to respond to this and just noticed my name! Ears buzzing. Hahaha.

But yes, I have the Carbotech Bobcat 1521 and LOVE them. Very little warm up required (unlike race pads), very linear with great modulation, and dust is pretty much non-existent. OK, I don't drive the car that much - maybe a thousand miles in the last year - but when I do, I prefer Dos Eq... er, these pads.

Also cannot overemphasize/reinforce what dkmura said about race pads and cold running. Just cuz they work on a track, doesn't mean they're going to be good on street/hills. Nothing scarier than a cold stop brake and nothing happens for 100 feet.

But back to the 1521s... I've experienced no noise as rancor mentioned but these pads have less than a couple thousand miles on 'em so as they age, yeah, wouldn't surprise me.

By the way, going against what seems like the grain of popularity, I do NOT like Hawk HPS pads FOR MY USE. They act like cold pads at times, are noisy and dust like nothing I've seen (other than on my Benz - black wheels 100 miles after I clean 'em). Not saying they're bad because they do stop and have relatively good modulation but I prefer the 1521s. Again, that's for how I use them.

If I ever have to change these pads, I'm going to try EBC Red or Yellow.... lots of fans for these.

Now that I think about it the noise might be from my car being an auto and requiring a little more pressure to come to a stop. I am going to have to test with the car in neutral now. I have about 3K miles on the pads.

I am also not a fan of the HAWK HPS pads. This was back with two piece sliding calipers but they seem to have about three setting off, light, and hard. The pads also never wanted to release.

UPDATE: So outside of trying to drive off in neutral like an idiot the automatic is the issue. The brakes are completely silent coming to a stop.

I went ahead and ordered the 1521's. I think they'll suffice for my needs based off of what I've read on here and other places. Thanks so much for the replies. I think I'll do the swap over in a couple weekends. With all I've spent in the last month or so I kind of wish I'd just opted for a bbk from the get go. Lol