Best Bang For You Buck All-Round Brake Pads???

[Charlie Brown]

I can't believe I'm reading that people fit brake pads that work when they are "warmed up". I want mine to work 100% from the time my car first moves until it is parked for the night. Oddly enough, the OEM pads do that.

Must have something to do with Mazda having a bigger bucket of money than us minnows to get the pad material right for 99% of the people driving a MX-5.

And JBT the OEM pads on the NC work fine both on and off the track. I just wanted to raise the top end working temp as a bit of insurance on the track which is why I went for the HPS. The only offset is on a winter morning (probably not Brisbane) you need to ride the brakes for 50 metres to put a little heat into them.

My original NC pads, probably made in Japan, were a different material to the replacement OEM pads I bought here. The second set was probably made locally by Bendix and boxed as Mazda and lasted a lot longer than the first and therefore obviously didn’t dust as much.

[wks5]

thanks guys, appreciate the advice.

just by the sounds of what you guys have said so far, it sounds like the OEMs may be the way to go but just depends on price now.

if anyone differs in opinion, i would still like to hear it as i'm not quite in the market yet for another month or so.

[kula]

i went from OEM to Bendix ultimates to Hawk HP+ and the hawks are easily the best.

OEM were shockingly bad, ultimates were ok.

[Hellmun]

I can't believe I'm reading that people fit brake pads that work when they are "warmed up". I want mine to work 100% from the time my car first moves until it is parked for the night. Oddly enough, the OEM pads do that.

Well I think the HP+'s could still lock up street tyres dead cold...it's just as you get them hotter they just get better and better. You always pay a price for performance though and with the hawks they're nearly $200 and if used cold too much people have complained here that they do eat rotors fast and dust like crazy.

My car back when it was standard came with sumitomo pads and they were only slightly better than the DS2500's when cold. Couldn't hold a candle when the 2500's got hot though.

So how much "mountain driving" will you be doing?

[16bit]

i have found the ultimates to be significantly better then the stock pads on my nb8a. they do dust a lot - so i painted my wheels black

[JBT]

Well I think the HP+'s could still lock up street tyres dead cold.......

I'm glad I have ABS.

So how much "mountain driving" will you be doing?

Heaps, as well as track days. My car has a gearbox too.