I purchased front and rear Hawk HPS pads early November (DBA 4000 Series Rotors+ATE fluid). I've done 2 track days and roughly 2500 miles and i'm already feeling brake fade and a mushy brake pedal with a normal squeak to boot.

Is this the normal life span of these pads? Any suggestions for a better track/street pad? I've heard good things about Carbotechs.

 

hey Gabe, IMO the HPS aren't enough for any real track duty. I believe it's suppose to be a "High Performance Street" pad. If you'd like to stick with Hawk my friend ran HP+ for a while with no major issues but has since stepped up to a dedicated set of track pads.

My gf is running Carbotech XP8's, though we haven't ran them on the track yet, they feel pretty nice on the street and don't create *too* much noise. My friend is now running XP10's on the track and they ARE noisy, do require some warming up before they work well, and create a good amount of dust. But they stop really well and there were no signs of fading during the last few track days. I'm running Hawk DTC70s and have zero issue with brake fade also, but they are noisy as hell

 

brakeman pads are the ****

 

if your looking for the best of both (meaning for street and track), its really going to come down to how hard/good you push it on the track. For most everyone, HPS are never going to be enough for track use (they will fade even under amateur conditions, they are very similar to the OEM pad with just a slightly better bite to them) and the fact you have killed them in 2500 miles, shows either you are A- a good driver, B- you are on the brakes for to long to hard, C- simply its the wrong pad for your driving conditions.

Hawk HP+ are a great all around pad for street and moderate track; they come at a annoynance factor, they squeal like crazy when cold (so it bugs some around town/daily driving). But they are the best of both worlds for street and moderate track

Axxis Ultimates, for street/track but these need to be sold as light track use, yes they work great on street and very decent on track but they are not deemed a track pad. I have never gotten complaints from anyone on these pads, other than the major brake dust they cause.

Stoptech SP pads, considered to be very similar to Axxis Ultimates but with a 400 degree MOT over the Axxis pads. I've used and ran these, they work great but again they are very much like the Axxis (without the massive amounts of dust).

Ferodo DS2500, great pads and the only one in the Ferodo series you can use on street and track. These pads have a very slow initial cold bite but once warmed up are comparable to the DS3000 (Track only pad)

Ferodo DS300, TRACK USE ONLY. Zero cold bite but once up to temp are UNBELIEVABLE as any pure track pad is. Has great pedal modulation BUT these can't be used on the street, literally they will shave your rotors away in days (this is from the highly metallic pad when cold, as it eats the rotor up). Again its not a street pad under any circumstances.

We stock and carry all the above pads, although I believe at the moment we are out of the front HP+ (but I can easily get them).

hope this info helps

-Noah

 

^Thanks Noah! I'll be sure and give you a call when I'm ready!