I am upgrading my Fiero brakes to brakes that use the same pads at Third Gen calipers. What brake pads do you recommend?
I'm looking for something "near race". I don't mind if I have to warm it up a little bit before it grabs, as long as it doesn't fade during track days on fast courses and hard driving down my favorite mountain.

It will be used with 11.25" rotors in a car with rear weight bias and slightly less than 3K# race weight. Ought to be a braking monster when I finish putting the new engine together.

 

Any brand of Ceramic Brakes. They work AWESOME.

 

I have heard great things about Hawks brake pads, i currently have Bendix pads, work very good for me, but not quite a race pad.

 

I went to pep-boys and got their brand of ceramic pads for a friend's civic. They were cheap (for ceramics), and once we bedded them in they worked great, he doesn't have much brake dust and no squeeking AT ALL!! I haven't personally gotten a hard test on them but they stop much better then what was on there before. Putting that out as a good cheap option

 

What bed-in procedure did you use?

I've had Porterfield RS4's and PBR Metal Masters recommended to me elsewhere. Has anyone here had experience with them?

 

You might want to check out www.frrax.com it's a fourth gen sight, but these guys are serious about their roadracing. They seem to have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't.

 

Avoid ceramic pads if you're running it on a road course. Plenty of Vette guys as well as myself have learned this the hard way...they fade quickly at the temps you'll hit.

Hawk HP+ pads do good for limited track use, they bite OK cold on the street, only tradeoff is they dust and squeal.

I gave up trying to find a dual-duty pad, so I run Hawk HPS on the street and switch to Hawk HT-10 for track days. The film transfer layer is compatible, so I don't have to re-bed the pads after swapping back and forth.

 

This is the consensus on the fraxx board as well. You go through pads so quick on a road course you might as well have a race dedicated set.

 

Thanks for the link. I'll check out the Frrax board.

Thanks for the info on the Hawk pads... What bedding procedure do you use?
Do you do much mountain driving? How are the street pads for that?

 

The roads I drive on make laguna seca look flat, I run carbon ceramics that autozone sells, they work great are super quite, and don't dust. I can fade them in about 5 or 6 hard stops, but you'll never do that on the street, and I have no problems auto-xing them. Keep in mine I have the LS-1 conversion, so stock brakes will fade sooner. Then again I drive a mack truck compared to a thirdgen.

As for beding the pads, check Bear's website, or do some reading on frrax, it seems to vary depending on who you ask.