hello! i have an 03 subaru wrx sedan. I have the powerslot big brake kit, has a bigger slotted rotor and has a caliper relocator so i can use my stock calipers. what kind of brake pads should i get, hawk, axxis or can i get stock pads? or is there another brand out there thats not a lot of money, yet doesnt have too much brake dust.

 

The type of pad is totally dependant on what you do with the car. Autocross? Street only? Track days, if so what driving level? Give us a little more info and we can try to steer you in the right direction.

 

Sorry about that! lol well I will not be doing any autocross, I may do a couple drags just to see what my quarter mile is when i get a retune this spring, other than that just street only.

 

I run the Porterfield R4S. So far so good. Since you aren't planning to really mash on your brakes, you probably don't need to spend too much money on the pads. My pads were $105 or something, but were specifically recommended for my use and application. I think someone recommended Hawk HPS pads or something for street application. Not sure. Good thing you asked because brake pads are chosen on application.

 

Isn't there a porterfield R4 package too that isn't as aggressive? Out here on the west coast, a lot of people like to use GST Motorsports. Give them a call, talk to Greg (decline any sexual favor offers, he won't be offended) and see what they've got.

I know quite a few people who have had great experience with them.

www.gstmotorsports.com

 

I've used both the Axxis Ultimate and the Hawk HPS pads on my street-driven WRX. The Ultimate dusts quite a bit and eat rotors faster compared with the Hawk HPS pads. The Axxis Ultimate is possibly the least expensive pad for street use with the Hawk HPS just a bit more. Both have better characteristics than the factory Subaru pads for the WRX. Although neither pad compound is recommended for track (road course) use, the Ultimate worked well on a track day on my minimally-modified WRX, exhibiting no noticeable fade when combined with aftermarket rotors, Motul RBF650 brake fluid, and steel-braided front brake lines. For use at the drags, either pad will do the job since you'll only have a single hard application at the end of the drag strip with plenty of cool down time on the return road back to the staging lanes.

The other thing I noticed is that the Axxis Ultimate part number for the rear OEM caliper doesn't fit precisely into the spring-loaded locating clips in the caliper body compared with the factory or Hawk HPS pads - they're too tight of a fit. My car has the early 2002 rear calipers which were changed later in the model year to what 2003 and later WRXs used, so this pad mis-fit may not apply to later model years.

 

I got the R4S too, they are pretty good cheap brakes. Mike from GST recommended em or me. They are more noisy then stock and take a few seconds more to warm up, however they do not have the yucky squeak noise that the stock pads do when going in reverse.