Originally Posted by Dave9
Originally Posted by SilverFusion2010
I want more bite when I slam on the brakes. I was involved in an incident in May where I pushed current pads too hard and got fade. These are really great for urban and suburban environments but fail after a couple of 80-0. (I'm not admitting anything either)
You can't have both. You can either have pads with good grip when hot, OR cold, or not great at either, a compromise.
It's true that brake pads capable of great high temperature performance often don't provide good initial bite. But few people choose full race pads for the street.
However, is is good to understand that extremely rapid initial bite is often not a desirable thing for performance drivers as it can lead to immediate lockup and subsequent ABS activation. A properly chosen pad with 0.25 second temperature ramp-up is a non issue, does not elongate cold stopping distance and in fact will almost always test about 5 feet shorter in all tests from cold to hot.
It's also good to understand that there is little difference (about 5 feet) in 60-0 cold stopping distance among quality pads from the most basic organic to ceramic to semi met pads to full race pads. Often with the semi-met to race pads stopping a few feet shorter.
Quote the test below: "As the number of high-speed stops continued, the average semi-met pad had, by far, the most consistent braking performance"
http://www.hendonpub.com/resources/article_archive/results/details?id=1569
High performance semi metallic pads will please capable drivers. There is a reason very high quality semi metallic pads are universally chosen for police cars.
