Re: Recommended brake pads for a 4kq

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

Michael Williams asks about brake pads.

I've put Metalmasters on pretty much every street vehicle I've owned, or
at least all of those that I've had long enough to get around to the
brakes.  This covers a WIDE range of applications, from 1500-pound
British roadsters through 2800-pound Japanese sport coupes, and does
include my 1980 Audi 4000 and both my GTIs (an '83 and an '84).

I'm going to put them on my '83 Audi Coupe GT sometime in the next few
weeks -- I'm sick of the smell of overheated stock brakes after a few
moderately hard stops.  

The daily warmup period on Metalmasters isn't that bad -- for me, it was
just the first stop of the morning that took longer than I expected, and
that was at the end of my block so I was never hot-footing it.  You do
need to bed them in properly after installation, though -- that's easy:
drive slowly (10-15 mph) and come to a full stop with about half
pressure, then take it up to 25-30 mph and come to a stop with a bit
*more* pressure, and then for the next 20 miles or so try to avoid rapid
stops (though it's always better to abuse the brakes than the bodywork,
if you have to choose).  That not only beds them in, it also helps with
outgassing (that is, removing the vapors left in the pad matrix after
manufacture), which ensures longevity as well as fade reduction.  I've
got friends who pop new brake pads in a toaster-oven (hint: do NOT do
this right before your significant other is about to warm up a blueberry
scone in the same device); I've never gone to that extreme, but I feel
honor bound to report on it.

The rewards for all this are *vastly* reduced fade in high-speed
applications, whether that includes track time in a street car or just
mountain-road playtime.  

How much?  I used to live in southern California and one of my favorite
lunchtime roads out in the Agoura Hills had one curve in particular that
I used to call "the Repco Curve."  Whenever I'd get a new fun car,
within a few days I'd drive it on that road to see what it was like. 
Invariably, this one turn (an off-camber left, with a long drop off the
right, about midway through a fast downhill stretch after several other
hard corners) would fade my brakes.  So I'd yank the front wheel hard
over, scrub off speed with the front tires, and then cool it for a while
till my heart rate slowed back down.  I'd then go out that week and buy
Metalmasters for the car. :-)  The next time through that corner, the
brakes just worked.

(Brakes as performance gear, though, always reminds me of one of the
most unusual fast cars I've ever owned: a 1963-1/2 Ford Falcon Sprint. 
This was a midyear homologation special, built for two purposes -- to
win the Monte Carlo Rally and to beta-test the Mustang high-performance
gear in an existing model line.  Bo Ljungfeldt, Ford's hired-gun rally
driver, came in 2nd overall to Eric Carlsson in the Saab 96, but the
Falcon was fastest overall in all the "special stages," including hot
laps of the Grand Prix de Monaco circuit.  The race versions had 11"
discs; the street versions had Galaxie 500 drum brakes off Ford's
4000-pound full size car, which meant your first, oh, three or four hard
stops felt like you hit something, but after that it was basically a
260-cubic-inch toboggan.  Driving that car up a mountain road with
modern high-performance tires was like jumping from rock to rock in a
fast-moving stream: you'd gather up all your courage, get pointed in the
right direction, and then *leap* for the apex, and as you neared it
you'd sort of hope it would stick and you wouldn't go sliding off the
edge...)

Anyway, I've always been pleased with Metalmasters, back when they were
Repcos and now that they're Axxis -- I just installed them on the front
of my '67 Alfa coupe, and they're just as good as they ever were.  If
you're planning on a LOT of track use, you might be better off with
CoolCarbons or another carbon/kevlar pad, I understand -- I've never
used them, but friends who race with either SCCA or various marque clubs
swear by them.  And as a side benefit, they are much less prone to
dusting up your wheels.  

--Scott Fisher