So I have read a lot of different reviews on people with Hawk, Stoptech, and Nismo brake pads on factory brembo G35's. What would be the best option with some track days, autox, and spirited driving often? I bought the car used and haven't owned it to long but the brakes feel fine but I plan to do some track days soon and just would like to see what my best overall option would be.

 

Hawk HP Plus fantastic, had them on my S13 with Z brakes. Now on my G Sedan with Akebono's. Im really happy with them.

If you want something a little less noisy/dust ( the dust isnt a big deal if you wash your car regularly)

HPS are decent, you kind of have to warm them up. Id avoid Hawk if your not going with the HP Plus pads.

 

I've been using HAWK HPS pads for over 30K miles and often do canyon runs hitting speeds close to 100 mph with heavy braking without issues. Never needed to warm them up even with cooler temps here in SoCal. It's required to do the "Bed In" process immediately after installing HAWK pads....SEARCH!
Gary

 

I've had Hawk HPS on a prior car (a 300ZX, which is heavy like the G35) and was never very impressed with them as a street pad. Yes, I bedded them properly, but up north, they required warmup to get them to work. And in the rain they were downright scary. 1/2 second delay before braking would kick in.

Bottom line is that pads are a compromise. What works well on the street (where you need lower temps for good initial brake bite) won't be as good on the track (where you need higher temp tolerance and once warmed will work great on initial bite), and vice-versa. There is no magic do-it-all pad unfortunately.

 

Hawk HP+ or HPS will not hold up at the track, ok for auto-x and street. I run EBC Blue and they have held up great at the track and work well on the street. Less noise and dust than the HP+ that I had on prior.

 

I had hawk HP+ last, currently looking to replace them as well. They were alright on the street, designed for autox mostly I think, so decent cold performance. They were pretty loud and dusty though, the car was basically undriveable with windows down on the street. They did alright at the lower speed track I go to, but at the higher speed one with a lot of braking, they didn't really hold up. Quite a bit of fade after a few laps and they got eaten up. Damn our heavy pig of cars.

 

As an update, tried the Stoptech super street pads on an 05 g35 sedan with brembos, so kind of a mini review:

Dust: alot, i don't care
Cold brake power: good enough to be better than my tires, ie abs brake, even when cold/wet (cali so no snow)
Noise: some high pitched squealing with daily driving especially at low speeds, pretty tolerable
And the all important Track use: went to cali autoclub speedway. 94 degrees, sunny. Pretty noticeable brake fade after about 2 laps. No longer able to get to abs braking after 2 laps, but still decent braking power and pretty manageable. No data logger so I can't give you numbers. Fade was pretty constant, after it overheated, kind of just kept at that same lower braking power for the whole 20min session, so the straights where long enough to cool it to some usable level between the braking zones. Still able to generate decent braking power, enough to get the rears uncomfortably squirmy when braking in not quite a straight line. previously used at buttonwillow. Lot lower speeds, no real issues, though I wasn't braking aggressively.

In comparison, the Hawk HP+ pads, the only other pads other than oem brembo i've tried have felt very similar, only a ton louder. They also had brake fade at a higher speed track, and I would say it was about the same, maybe slightly worse than the stoptech, but again, I don't log, so don't know for sure.

I think i'll try the Ferodo ds2500 next if i'm still tracking this car after the stoptechs die. I keep hearing terrible things about the EBC blue, but maybe i'll think about it. Hope other people post more about their experiences so I don't have to buy every single pad out there till I find one I can live with for both track and street.

 

Anybody have a review of the yellow box hawk hp ceramic?(with Brembos)