jpun15

Looking for brake pads that could do mixed duty street and occasional track days. Tried HPS in the past - were garbage on the track. Tried Carbotech XP8 which worked well on the track but made so much noise that it couldn't be driven around town. Recently came across Hawk High Performance Street 5.0 Brake Pads on tirerack. Its not cheap - comparable to HP+ pricing, and Hawk says its not a replacement for HPS. Anybody heard of these brake pads or can make other recommendations?

bgoetz

What about just going HP+? I am actually thinking of going that route but was curious to see what setups guys were running for mixed duty

SpeedFreaksUSA

You would probably see the thread anyways but I'll leave this here just to make sure.

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/109...or-mixed-duty/

billios996

I had the HP+, I won't do the mixed use pads again. It's like the all-season tire of brake pads, not very good at one task. Too aggressive/noisy/dusty for street, OK only for entry level track day/HPDE. Perhaps the newer compounds SpeedFreaks mentions in the other thread are improvements on the HP+. Regardless, you're still blowing away money wearing these expensive pads down on the street. My opinion is, you are better off with a good street pad and swap out for a good track pad for track days.

devildust

I just put on Hawk HP+s on the car, havent tracked(that's next week) yet but I do not get the noise that everyone complains about. I bed them in and so far so good on the street noise wise, the dust is crazy though.

SpeedFreaksUSA

HP+ was never designed for anything more aggressive than autocross. It has an MOT of only ~900*F at which the friction levels fall off a cliff. The newer "hybrid" compounds like Project Mu HC+800 have an MOT of ~1,400*F and the fade is much more gradual when they do overheat- they give you a lot of warning. Even the Project Mu Club Racers are officially labeled as a "track only" compound but unofficially work well as a street pad if you don't feel like swapping pads in between events. I have been daily driving mine in between track days for about a year without issue. Cold bite is as good or better than most street pads, they aren't too hard on rotors when cold, they dust less than an HP+ and they are, in my experience, quieter than HP+ as well. HAWK has down a fantastic job at creating brand awareness but other than being a big name Im always baffled the people request a lot of their compounds over newer, better compounds. Their DTC-60 and 70 race compounds are great but everything else they make is subpar in my personal opinion. For example HPS are worse pads than OEM AP1 in almost every aspect and yet I see so many recommendations for them by people on the different forums we sponsor. People just know the name, I guess

-Matt M.

Back S2k

I like the the hp+ on the street and autox. I dont care bout noise or dust too much so I have zero complaints and think the pads are fantastic. Granted I use these for dd and autox only.