Thread: Hawk Performance Brake Review - Who using Them?

The three factors I use to decide how much brake someone needs.

• Weight of car
• Power output of engine
• Expected driving style
  

If you can't get up to any serious speed in a short time span you don't need to scrub off serious speed very often.

As in HP = horsepower.....all this talk of horsepower...I don't get the correlation from upping HP to needing better brakes.

You missed the biggest factor.....tires. SHAWNATGERBROCK touched upon this.



I strongly disagree. De-acceleration is just as important as acceleration...you can be slow at acceleration but still be competitive with enough de-acceleration. The brake zones are where races are won and lost.

Tires have a lot to do with overall braking performance, but little to do with choosing a brake system or brake pads (unless taken to extremes).

HB213E.626 Disc Brake Pad; Blue 9012 w/0.626 Thickness; Front;
HB213N.626 Disc Brake Pad; HP Plus w/0.626 Thickness; Front;
HB213F.626 Disc Brake Pad; HPS Performance Street w/0.626 Thickness; Front;
HB213Z.626 Disc Brake Pad; Performance Ceramic w/0.626 Thickness; Front;

Just for reference sake! These are for AD22 caliper

And that's where expected driving style comes in. If you're going to be racing then of course your brake needs are special.

And what about the unexpected?...I want my brake to be "special" when the little kid decides to jump out in front of my car and I have to stop on a dime. I don't want too much bite for the tires I'm running, nor, do I want too little. The tires are what stop your car. Whether it's at the track or in a panic stop situation, matching the tire and brake pad is critical. To say tires have little to do with choosing pads shows you don't understand the physics involved. To say engine HP is a main factor in selecting pads?...good luck with that...

Please stop passing along bad info...it's annoying.

Why yes I am thank you for asking!!!

HPS and HP+ both suck IMHO. Had them on different cars and used them from street, autocross, and track day. Not a fan.

Blue's are a different animal and are good pads....

Power output of the engine? I'd argue less power you need at least as good or better brakes, because going fast is all about conservation of momentum.

Watch the first minute or less of this vid for a good example of how important braking is when you're making "low hp" - the Honda in front of me has a +50 whp advantage, weighs 400 lbs less, is running Hoosiers, prob -3 deg camber, and a long list of other typical trailered track car mods. His brakes however are nothing special.

At about 4 minutes you see a white Evo putting down over 300 whp just blow by me, easily 20-30 car lengths by the first turn. Both cars running comp tires, I am running Kuhmo XS's in a 205 width.

I both cases count how many car lengths in front after the first braking zone, the actual turn is no-brakes until the RH Turn 2, I'm coming off the banking at anywhere from 90-105 mph. Can't match their power out of the turns, but both the first two braking zones I am braking harder and much later, and not braking at all for the first turn off the oval, just lifting early enough to slow from ~120-125 by the yellow sign on the left of the wall.

Also granted both are braking for a corner they don't need to, early apexing, so you can always add that to why despite huge hp differences you can still easily close the distance.

Brakes ALWAYS count, the only determination should be above the minimum you need to achieve consistent and repeatable stopping distance is reliability and what's reasonable to spend. I could buy Brembos for my car and gain nothing in performance over Wilwoods, it's not heavy enough to matter. Conversely I'd need 6-pot Wildwoods on my G Coupe to match my Brembos because they're more flexible at the calipers.

IDK if my bud's NISMOZ is in this vid, watch his braking into same first turn - bleeding 130 mph plus to 70 in a very short distance.

YouTube - CT CART PoconoNorthLateAMPractice1



Brakes count for slow cars, too. And for a street/race pad, the Hawks don't suck, but they do take some serious break-in time and I personally like the Feredo's better for a dual-use pad.

My experience has also been that Hawks (HP's and HPS's) do produce a lot more dust than advertised, and it's really hard to get off my powercoat finish on the Traklites. I've never found a dual use street/track pad with good enough performance that didn't throw a good amount of dust.