Thread: Hawk Performance Brake Review - Who using Them?

When that little kid runs out in front of you how fast you are going and reaction time will matter more than hp or pads. If you encounter 10 kids in 10 blocks, then the pads will start to matter a lot. Most pads of any decent quality are very close for stopping distance if all else is the same - for one stop, and one stop only. Where they suck is when you have to use the brakes hard more than once. I don't like the Hawk's initial bite, either, but otherwise they don't suck too badly. I'd not buy another set.

Tires and the overall functional quality of the braking system will matter most. I guess if someone made the leap that more hp automatically means going faster all the time, but seeing as I drive consistently faster in my 140 whp car than my 270 whp car, that's not so true for me at least.

Your point I think however is a good one, tires matter a lot more, and for example if I were running a comp tire, I could get on my brakes (powerful) a lot harder in a shorter distance. With even a very good street tire, I have more brake than tire, but I know that, better than having less brake than tire IMHO. I just adjust accordingly, sure I could cause all kinds of bad things by over-braking and exceeding the tire's traction limits, but why would I? Key to a panic stop is not to panic

I see we're in complete agreement about brakes then.

LOL, pretty much, "it depends"

I just get tired of baseless recommendations for pad A over pad B because A is the s-hi-t, when there's no discussion of how it's used.

Putting the relatively expensive Hawk HPS's on a mostly street use car is stupid, no wonder some people say they suck. Even the more street-friendly HP's have lousy initial bite even when warm, but they work well enough and don't combust into white smoke or fade to nothing even after 20-30 minutes of hard use on a track on a hot day. W/o 4-pot fronts I bet they'd feel like crap however for street-only use, you'd be better off with stock replacement pads for feel and performance at lower speeds - they'd throw more dust but bite quicker and more than enough stopping power - just no "bling"

I had to laugh Friday when one of the Evo guys came in after 10 minutes or less with smoke pouring out of his rear Brembo, some of the best brakes in the world, but the EBD (electronic brake distribution)/ABS was reacting to his "early-apex, unnecessary-extra-braking-but-I-have-300+whp-for-exit-speed" style. It's pretty hard to smoke a rear Brembo unless you are spending way too much time on the brakes and using your gobs of horsepower to feel "fast" by yammering the car down the straighter sections of a track or out of corners you went into too fast. What a strange coincidence the only people I heard having brake problems were all driving AWD cars that come with Brembos stock, and not because they were faster, there were plenty of Z06, NISMO Z, and other 300-400 hp range cars out there. Actually I did hear from one of the C6 guys happy that the cryo-treat on his stock drilled rotors seemed to be working, before he was getting cracks around the dimples - smart money, $10 a rotor instead of dumping his stock setup for a magic $5000 upgrade solution.

Best brakes money can buy aren't worth **** if the person's driving style manages to render them combustible after 10 minutes of hard use. Also another reason not a fan of "intelligent" force distribution systems designed more with street use parameters in mind.

He's probably on an Evo forum today asking what new brand of pads to use because "my pads sucked Friday, they didn't last 10 minutes before overheating"...probably hates his tires, too, because they wear too quick...talk about a classic case of "learning to drive a fast car slow"

EHH I had HPS' on an S2000 and I did not like them for street use nor did I care for them on track days. I like the OEM pads on the street and autocross and used Cobalt for dedicated track pads.

I have HP+ on my wilwood setup now and I do not like them at all on the street, ZERO initial bite when cold, and for the track I like them even less! Their initial bite is OK but they seem to have no torque after that. I had better results with AD22VF's and Carbotech panther + pads.

Granted my car has a pretty good suspension setup and 225 Hankook R compounds so YMMV.

I plan on getting a set of Hawk Blue's as well as HP10's for different tracks.

I'm with wes. HPS's and HP+'s suck. HPS's don't generate enough braking torque and chunk up on the track. HP+'s make a ton of noise, eat rotors, and are grabby on the street. Neither do a fantastic job at their primary purpose either, compared to other dedicated street or dedicated track pads. HP+'s just happen to be convenient as an entry-level pad cause they have so many applications available (and they're cheap).

Though personally, I think the Blues are definitely showing their age compared to some of the newer compounds out there.

What about Ebc brakes. Does anyone use those pads on any of their cars? I heard that they are a decent pad but what about for track use?

I do not like EBC for anything other than an OEM replacement and even then I think there are better pads out there. For track use I would not use them.

I'm using Hawk Blue (track) pads on my Spec Miata and DTC-60 on my 1995 G20 Track car and am very happy with them for track performance.

Both last about 8 track days before being down to about 40% when I install new pads (not enough heat transfer IMHO once down to 40% or less and braking is compromised)

What you can recommend me for AD22 caliper? Car is used for daily/track/hillclimb. I was decided for EBC Redstuff, but Hawk pads looks interesting too. So what you think?

where do you buy the hawks from?