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Last weekend I tested the Performance Friction Carbon Metallic pads on my aspire swap.
I installed a pair of the ebay crossdrilled rotors. I then used a pair of the low cost metallic pads from O'Rielly auto parts to break in the rotors. I like the cheap metallic pads for the street, they have good initial bite and don't take much pedal effort, but on the track they break down and chunk out quickly. I was going through a set of those regular metallic pads every day on the track last time.
The Performance Friction Pads take more pedal effort than the low cost metallic pads, and they have less initial bite so I don't recommend them for regular street driving. On the track is where these pads are worth their weight in gold (okay, maybe not that much). 1 set of pads held up to all three days (over 400 miles!) of track abuse. They are only about a quarter worn! I'll post pictures when I put my street pads back on. They feel good on the track. Once they heat up the bite is good and I had no fade whatsoever! I was slowing the car down from 130+ MPH to about 65mph once every minute and 15 seconds and that's with a few other braking spots in between. My rotors are almost black so they were getting to 600 or 700 degrees. Performance Friction tells me that these pads are rated at 600 degrees so I was at the high end of their working range, but they held up great.
I've used PFC pads in the past with similar results, they make a great track pad. Several years ago I was working with a Grand AM Koni Challenge Porsche Team and we had the best luck with PFC pads. In the Koni Challenge GS class we were required to run stock Porsche Brakes, and not the Turbo or GT3 brakes. This was very hard on brakes and most of the pads we tried just disintegrated from the heat. The PFC pads would often hold up to a whole weekend of Racing, even the 24 at Daytona!
The PFC part number for the Aspire is 466.20, the old one is 4664, but that's been superseded. I think they run about $60 a set. Plus, they are made here in the U.S.A.
Note: They also fit the Capri and Escort, so I imagine the protege and 323 as well.
I installed a pair of the ebay crossdrilled rotors. I then used a pair of the low cost metallic pads from O'Rielly auto parts to break in the rotors. I like the cheap metallic pads for the street, they have good initial bite and don't take much pedal effort, but on the track they break down and chunk out quickly. I was going through a set of those regular metallic pads every day on the track last time.
The Performance Friction Pads take more pedal effort than the low cost metallic pads, and they have less initial bite so I don't recommend them for regular street driving. On the track is where these pads are worth their weight in gold (okay, maybe not that much). 1 set of pads held up to all three days (over 400 miles!) of track abuse. They are only about a quarter worn! I'll post pictures when I put my street pads back on. They feel good on the track. Once they heat up the bite is good and I had no fade whatsoever! I was slowing the car down from 130+ MPH to about 65mph once every minute and 15 seconds and that's with a few other braking spots in between. My rotors are almost black so they were getting to 600 or 700 degrees. Performance Friction tells me that these pads are rated at 600 degrees so I was at the high end of their working range, but they held up great.
I've used PFC pads in the past with similar results, they make a great track pad. Several years ago I was working with a Grand AM Koni Challenge Porsche Team and we had the best luck with PFC pads. In the Koni Challenge GS class we were required to run stock Porsche Brakes, and not the Turbo or GT3 brakes. This was very hard on brakes and most of the pads we tried just disintegrated from the heat. The PFC pads would often hold up to a whole weekend of Racing, even the 24 at Daytona!
The PFC part number for the Aspire is 466.20, the old one is 4664, but that's been superseded. I think they run about $60 a set. Plus, they are made here in the U.S.A.
Note: They also fit the Capri and Escort, so I imagine the protege and 323 as well.
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