Remember when I said that racing brake pads are terrible for driving on the street? Well, I lied. Most race pads are terrible for driving on the street, but Carbotech has proven that they don’t all have to be!

I bought some Carbotech race pads last fall to replace the Hawk Blues that I had eaten through. I ending up getting XP8s for the front, and AX6 for the rear, at the recommendation of the rep whom I spoke with at Carbotech. He said that both would have sufficient heat capacity for a stock-power-level Miata, but that the XP8 would last longer. He recommended the AX6 in the rear to bias the brakes forward - improving trailbraking ability.

His assessment seems to be pretty spot-on. The front and rear pads are wearing evenly, despite the fact the front does most of the braking. When I ran Hawk Blues at all 4 corners, the fronts wore much faster than the rear, probably almost twice as fast. I think that next time, I’m going to try XP8 in all 4 corners though. I tend to trailbrake conservatively anyways because I don’t like to spin, and I’d rather give up a little trailbraking flexibility for the longer life of the XP8 in the rear.

On track, the Carbotechs were excellent. The pedal is a touch squishy until the pads heat up (~1 lap or so), at which point the pedal is firm and very responsive. I honestly haven’t noticed much of a difference in feel between the Carbotechs and Hawk Blues when threshold braking at the track. Suffice it to say that both pads provided ample feedback and excellent feel.

But the place where the Carbotechs really shine is actually off of the track. They are PERFECTLY FINE for driving on the street! The ONLY issue is that the pedal feels a little squishy when the pads are cold, but this is really negligible at best. The pads are very rotor friendly, even when cold, and pad and rotor life seems to be good. I will probably get ~8 track days out of the pads, which is reasonable given that I drive them extensively on the street too. The pads also haven’t seemed to care if they are wet or not.

Another huge plus for the Carbotechs is the issue of brake dust. I don’t normally fret over cosmetic issues, and brake dust certainly falls into that category. When I wash my car, I give the wheels a quick once-over, but you won’t see my spending hours trying to get all the hardened brake dust off of the wheels. However, brake dust does become an issue, even to me, when it is highly caustic like the Hawk Blues. Hawk Blue dust has literally eaten into the paint on the sides of my car - you can feel the paint surface is more matte/pitted than the rest of the car. Getting my paint eaten away is not good in anyone’s book, so the Hawks require more vigilance in washing away the brake dust. The Carbotechs dust moderately, but the dust is not caustic at all. It washes right off easily, and won’t eat away at the paint.

The only downside is that Carbotechs tend to be a little pricier. But I simply consider the extra cost a small price to pay for changing my brake pads ONCE and then having a car that is as perfectly happy on the street as it is braking from 110 mph at the Glen. That is a lot to ask of any pad, and the Carbotechs deliver.