Thoughts on Hawk HPS Pads
 

I was about to order the Hawk HPS Papds (Front/Rear) as I probably only have one autocross left in my stock pads. Before next season i want to go with a full BBK, but I can't afford that at the moment. I thought this would be a good comprimise for track use as well as occasional public roads driving.

Recently i've been hearing some negative reviews of the HPS so I just wanted to get your thoughts...

Thanks,
-hS

track or autocross?

I'm going to use them for autocrossing, but your thoughts on either would be appreciated.

-hS

I like my HP+ for track days, I don't have any experiance with them on an autocross track, but I would assume they would be slightly better for around town driving. My HP+'s are pretty noisy when cold.

Cool.. thanks for the info.
Anyone else have experience with the HPS pads?

-hS

I've used them for track days and they work OK. The HP+ are better on the track if comparing the two...but they suck on the street. They are really loud....squeek like no tomorrow after about 2 days on the street :(

I did a lot of testing on the hawk pads over the winter. The HP+ is only made for the front brakes and not the rear. I did not like the idea of having different pad material in the front versus the rear. I tried the combination anyway since I was looking for the most stopping power while autocrossing.

The front pads made a very loud squealing noise, it didn’t matter if they where cold or hot. I contacted Hawk and they said the only way to avid the squealing is to go to the more streetable HPS pads. Well I stuck with the front HP+s for a few more weeks until I pulled up to a stoplight next to a vette and the pads did their usual loud squeal. The vette driver looked over at my RX-8, it was very embarrassing. The next week the HP+s where swapped for HPSs. I have two autocrosses with the HPSs on all four wheels and I feel they do stop the car better than the stock pads. I never felt much of a difference from the HP+s versus the HPSs.

If you are not doing track racing where the brake temperature is much higher, I say go with the HPSs. In addition you will have the same material on all four wheels. No more squealing.

Strange - I've got both front and rear HP+ pad sitting on my floor waiting for install. :p:

Been running the HPS now and they are quiet and stop the Racing Brake rotors quit nicely :)

They do make HP+ for the rear....on my car the rears don't squeek :D: ....the fronts sure do!

Well I guess I am wrong, when I ordered mine I was told the rears are not made.

Yea it was a bit tough finding them. I just couldn't believe Hawk would only make fronts, but no one seem to list them, and I wanted a match frt-r set like you. Went to the Hawk site - there they were, so I had RacingBrake special order them after giving them the part number.

The rears are fairly new. They didn't have them 6months ago when I tried to order them.

I used HP+ in the front and HPS in the rear last year and they seemed to work OK.
I didn't notice any difference when I went to HP+ all around

Quick Question... if i went with HPS on the front and rear for daily driving and autocrossing... and then later on decided to do a track day, would these pads hold up?

-hS

They would work fine on all but really high speed braking intensive tracks. I don't think the HP+ would be that much better for that anyway....you'd need Track pads like Blues..

HPS should be good for what you want IMHO

alright.. thanks for all the help. This is the exact info i was looking for.
I think i'll run one more autocross with my stock pads, and then make the switch to HPS pads.

-hS

When I ordered Hawk pads last summer they only had the + for the front. I got them and HPS for the rear. I did not like the feel of the mismatched compounds. I recently replaced al lteh pads with HP+. The difference is amazing. HP+ is what I would recommend as an upgrade to OEM. I hope you like brake dust though.

HAHA, i don't mind the brake dust.
I tend to clean my rims once a week, and with just water and soap it comes right off.

I have not tried them on the RX8, 15k miles and still on the original pads, but I did not like them on my other cars. My feeling was for the amount of dust and noise they made they should have been better. On our Corvette we used the Carbotech Panther+ and the Hawk made as much dust and more noise and was no where near as good. We also tried them on our Miata and it sounded like a city bus squealing to a stop every time you touched the break pedal.
I do have Hawk HPS on my Expedition and they are ok, stop good but still very dirty. I see no reason to change from stock for autox on the RX8.

well apparently my previously attempted post did not make the thread

for autox on the OE brakes the OE pads work very well

I do not like HP Plus and never have. If I need track pads I'll run real ones not HP Plus. HPS is much better as a street/autox pad. You might also consider the new Hawk Ceramic pads.

Pads
 

I have the HPS pads with the Racingbrake set up and they are great.I drove the 350Z with the HP+ and was not too crazy about them.They are not as quite and I didn't like the dust.It's your preference and what u want to use them for.

Yea Team, I seen that Hawk has ceramic pads now, has anyone tried them yet?

Go with Porterfield Cermaic Brakes they been in racing for years.

The squeal and wear and tear on the Rotors from Hawks' aren't worth it.

Porterfield can be just as crappy depending on what you use where, I've dealt with noise and rotor wear with them, plus the last time I ever ran them they recommended the wrong compound and then refused to own up to their mistake and do the right thing, I won't ever run Porterfield again, but that's me ...

actually I would recommend the new Hawk ceramic over the HPS, general feedback is no noise, very low dust, and good stopping power for street, autox, and light track use

Thanks