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Hawk or Stoptech Upgrade

11K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  Devo 
#1 ·
Hello, just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on a brake upgrade. Looking for some reviews and opinions between these 2. Looking at the StopTech sports kit for front and rear and the Hawk Performance Rotors w/ HPS 5.0 pads. Also, SS lines will be installed. Not sure if they will be StopTech of GoodRidge. Any input on those as well is appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Which brake kit we recommend is really based on your use case. I would give you a different brake setup for daily commute than spirited driving or auto X. Let us know how you intend to use your car and we can give you much more focused information.

That said I can give you a few pointers that will help

Any high carbon rotor should perform well in daily driver or spirited driving platform. High carbon rotors do not need to be drilled or slotted to perform well in daily driving or spirited driving environments but plain rotors will not shed head as quickly as drilled rotors and will not shed dust as quickly as slotted rotors so they are not the best option for a track car that will be running longer laps. For my money Duralast Gold rotors work great for my daily commute, sprited driving and the occasional track day. ( That and they have a 2 year replace it whenever I want warranty so I can track them then bring them in for a free replacement )

As far as pads are concerned there is a scale between grip, cold bite, heat fade and noise. FOr a track car nothing matters but heat fade and grip but for a daily driver noise and cold bite matter unless your cool with using the guy in front of you as a bumper during your morning commute. I have Stoptech Performance Street pads and they have more grip than my OEM compound with decent cold bite. They do throw alot of dust on my wheels but they do it quietly which is important to me on a 3 hour daily drive in traffic. Compared to Hawk HPS pads they are quieter and they will not handle the heat as well but for the occasional track day they have worked out great ( that and for $100 a set i can afford to keep a few spares around the garage ).

SS lines are a great call, as long as you pair them with a performance fluid you will be able to take a bit of slop out of the system. If you have an 08-14 I would also grab a master cylinder brace while your doing brake work. They will cost you about $110 and take 2-3 hours to install but it takes all the firewall flex out of the equation and makes your brakes eel considerably better.

hope that helps
 
#4 ·
If you not doing autoX or track events with laps then I would go with the least expensive high carbon plain rotors you can get and a nice slightly aggressive street pad. Something thats got good cold bite and is relatively low noise ( so you can drive it around town ) and can safely slow you down from 120+ mph that youll be hitting at the end of a quarter mile. The stoptechs should be fine for your purposes.
 
#6 ·
arcticscythe always has sophisticated advice - he must be an Engineer like me.

I've had great success with StopTech's Cyro-Stop rotors with their street performance pads for street and occasional track event. These are the one's I'd recommend:

https://tougetuning.com/shop/stoptech-cryo-stop-rotors-front-2002-2007-subaru-wrx/

https://tougetuning.com/shop/stoptech-street-performance-pads-2003-2005-subaru-wrx-front/

You don't need slotted or drilled, and most of the grassroots racers I know use blank rotors.

Racing pads will squeal and dust and your gf will think your car is broken instead of fast. Swap them in for performance driving events only, out afterwards, and run streets day-to-day. Pad swaps are fairly straightforward.

If you want slotted or drilled rotors for optics or personalization, go with a PowerStop kit:

Power Stop 1-Click Street Warrior Z26 Brake Kits | Power Stop

Enjoy,
 

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#9 ·
For what its worth a few months back I purchased the Hawk HPS 5.0 pads and had them installed on my '13 wrx hatchback at a local shop. I ended up having to take them off a couple days later because they would smoke badly with normal driving. It could have been installation error however. The shop recommended I have one of the calipers and both rotors replaced which I did even though I had no issues prior. I didn't have the time or money to keep messing around with it so I told them to switch the Hawk pads to their's since they guaranteed them. When the Hawk pads were on the car they definitely made a difference in breaking. I honestly wish that it was installation error because I would be happy with the Hawk pads otherwise.
 
#10 ·
Old thread...but I just swapped front stock brakes for stoptech slotted rotors and matching pads. COBB sells them. Noticeable difference over stock-esp when braking hard. No other changes to hardware.

As far as smoking goes...sounds like your shop put too much grease all over the place...you were probably burning it off. Sloppy install...
 
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