Street/Lapping Brake Pads for Cobra Brakes

[hemi_fan]

I upgraded to Cobra brakes on my fox last year and ran the pads that came with the calipers. The fronts lasted three lapping days so I replaced them with Hawk HPS's. I've run 2.5 lapping days on those and they're now toast (along with the stock rears).

I was thinking about upgrading to HP+ pads and installing some brake cooling as 2.5 track days is way too short of a life span. (The car weighs about 3300lbs btw). Would these be a good choice for a car that gets street driven occasionally and sees a fair number of lapping days? I'd like something that I can drive to the track but will hold up to the heat and have good fade characteristics.

Thanks

[Han Solo]

A search would yield about a gazillion opinions on this subject but I will repeat what works for me on a budget.

My 99 GT has the cobra brakes front and rear. On the front I removed the splash guards and put 2-1/2" shop vac hose from the fog light housings to the bottom of the strut and bent the outlet to an oval to aim it mostly at the hat area. Doing this as opposed to having the collector type backing plates results in the hoses only having to articulate up and down rather than turning with the wheels. I just tied the hoses off with tie wraps. I use the kevlar/metallic Lomandi brake pads. You can get a full front and rear set off ebay for $75-$80 bucks. Without the cooling ducts they won't last two track days. With the cooling ducts I can get four or more track days and a years worth of autocross out of a set. They don't dust to bad on the street but under hard use they will turn everything black. The dust created seems to clean off okay and having left it on for several months at times it doesn't seem to be corrosive like I've heard the Hawk dust is.

These results are on a 3500 lb. car with ABS and stock engine so my top speeds do not exceed 140 at the end of the fastest straight I've run.

I haven't been able to run many track days for the past few years but I have the same rotors I put on in 2006 with no apparent wear. The rotors are the plain surface made in Canada variety. Since they were installed I have about 6-8 track days and 40-50 autocrosses. It's on the second set of front pads and I would probably put a new set on to go to a track just to be on the safe side.

Just realized you are in Canada so you can probably get the Lomandi Kevlar MetallicPads for much less since they are made there. About $25 of my cost is shipping.

[LT1HAHA]

Carbotech XP10 in front with XP8 in the rear. Very easy on rotors even when cold with good cold bite. It will handle just about anything you can throw at it on track.

It's the only real race pad I have found thats easy enough on rotors to drive around on the street with them. Surprisingly for a race pad, they have exceptional cold bite too.

Like any race capable pad though, they are dusty. Although the dust is easily removable and not corrosive.

[hemi_fan]

Thanks for the replies, I read through a bunch of other posts but became confused as many people were auto-x'ing their car, some cars were track only, etc.

I suppose the best investment would be some brake ducts. I looked at the agent 47 kit but it seems really expensive for what it is so I might try to fab my own. I like the ones people are running that direct all of the air to the rotor hat. I'll just have to convince someone at work to weld it up for me