Has anyone tried aftermarket performance brake pads and/or shoes from companies like Hawk, StopTech, Carbotech etc? I'm thinking about trying to get a set for my 72 Riv. I once had a conversation with a fellow from Carbotech and he indicated that they would install their high-tech brake pad material on any customer-supplied brake pad/shoe cores.
Ok nobody has... Here's a post I made recently on the BPG Forum. I hope somebody checks it out. Cheers! How serious are you about stopping? It seems that the only talk about improving braking performance on Buicks involves major replacement of hardware. What about brake pads? A few years back I was involved with SCCA Solo II autocrossing and I tried something new in an attempt to get my Sentra SE-R to stop quicker than the other guys. I purchased a set of Carbotech ceramic brake pads. Ceramic? You bet. They were incredible. All I did was replace the front pads and my car stopped quicker than I ever thought was possible. There was a caveat though... The brakes were pretty noisy. I had purchased a set that was competition oriented and this was something that the Carbotech representative warned me about before I purchased them. The same sales rep also indicated that there were pads with a more street oriented ceramic/metallic material (ie. quiet and low dust) available that I would be happier with if I intended to use them every day. At about the same time I was unhappy with my wife's Subaru Legacy wagon. On a trip to Canada we loaded the thing up and it seemed that it would hardly stop. I talked to the Carbotech rep and, although they did not carry pads for the Subie on the shelf, he said that they would bond their fancy brake materials to any customer supplied backing plates or brake shoe frames (yes! this is available for brake shoes too!) for any application. Well, I never followed through with the Subaru and I have since stopped autocrossing. However, I now have my 72 Riv project and I'm thinking that this would be a great time to take Carbotech up on their offer and get them a set of rear shoes and front pads for the Riv and go ceramic. If the street oriented brake material is anything near what the competition mix was... well, all I can say is that I'll have to experience it first hand. In the meantime, please go to www.ctbrakes.com and at least read the company info and FAQ. There is a ton of great information about brakes regardless if you are going to buy anything or not. And also please note: I am not affiliated with Carbotech in any way. I just had a good experience with them; they were easy to talk to on the phone, their pads did exactly what the guy said that they would do and he was honest about the noise that the competition pads made. I'm just hoping that their street application pads' description of "low noise" really means LOW NOISE. We'll see... Oh yea, One of the best things I remember about the ceramic pads was that they worked great hot or ice cold. I imagine that this would work well for the drags. The only thing was that they worked so well hot that my Sentra's stock (and probably thin) rotors warped during one hard and hot day of autocrossing. Apparently, as the Carbotech rep pointed out, you can get your rotors cryogenically (did I spell that right?) frozen which hardens the metal and prevents warpage. (I've seen this for excavator/loader bucket teet too) Not that anyone would need this for street use... I'm just saying is all. Did I mention go to www.ctbrakes.com?
Upgraded my brake system a few years back to the "green stuff" pads along with the braided brake hose kit from Russell. I was very please with the effect especially for the money/time spent. To my knowlege nobody offers an upgraded material for rear drums but I figured there might be a reason for that (drums tend to lock up). Let us know if you try them out. regards
I have purchase a set of ceramic matrix shoes from praisedynobrake.com They said they make drum brakes stop as well as discs and are used on military/police vehicles. At $100 a set its not a bad deal. I just have to see how they stop now!
I have also gotten stuff from praisedynobrake.com. I love them. I actually have a thread here about two years ago that chronicled my changeover from totally stock to new cross-drilled and slotted rotors, braided lines to replace the rubber ones and ceramic pads. I believe my stopping distances dropped by about 15 ft., so a good car length. You should be able to find it in a search. Here, I found it: http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=56693
Cool! The pads I had on the Sentra were "green stuff" too... if my memory serves me correctly. I may have had my noise problems because I didn't cut the rotors first. My bad. I was cheap.
Awesome. I imagine that my little Sentra benefitted more because of it's lighter weight. I never did any measurements though. It just felt soooo much better with the ceramic pads.
I'm goin with chtopping's cross drilled Ai-fin drums and custom cermaic shoes. Also going to do the braided brake line kit as well. http://www.chtopping.com/CustomRod4/
