Colbalt Racing Brake Pads

[modifiede30]

Anyone used Colbalt Racing pads - any feedback on how they performed would be appreciated.

[962porsche]

I have found that different makes and models of cars tend to like different makes of brake pads .
for my VW Ferodo pads work the best . I tried 5 other makes of pads and different compounds of the makes .
with the Porsche I found hawk race pads work best . again tried many others .
with my D-sports car wilwood pads work best tried hawk's race pads went right back to the wilwood's .
I could keep going but you get my point .
it's not just the pads and the car they are on it's also how you use your brakes .
some people wait then brake late and very hard when others will trail brake more then others and some people like to do allot of left foot braking . so it's also how you use your brakes that will have to do if you like one type of pads over another .

[kfoote]

To add to this a bit, as a racing pad manufacturer, Cobalt is a highly reputable company, and there are several pro racing teams at least in the IMSA Continental Tire series and in World Challenge that are currently running them. If you want to try them out to see if they work for exactly what you are after, I'd say go for it.

[austaz]

As said they produce a selection of pads for different purposes so even within their offer you might find pads you like and don't like.

I ran their GTS (?) pads on the STI which were supposed to be some sort of "all round" pad with a very wide temperature range, high initial bite and high torque so they could be used at the track or auto-x. They did had a massive initial bite and high torque with minimal warmup, but they ate rotors when used cold or even hot and left massive amounts of metal splatter on the wheels and down the side of the car. I think there were a lot of complaints about these and they are no longer sold, or at least no longer on their web site.

Overall I wasn't happy with the message they gave around the GTS pads and ended up going to Hawke DTC60's (great) and HT14+ HT10's (cheaper and almost as good). But I might have been just as happy had I gone to XR1 or some other of their pads.

[TroyV]

I ran the XR2 pads on my 03 Cobra (3820 race weight 475hp) the last two seasons that I had that car.

I'm not as scientific as some of the other egg heads on here, but I put track pads into two categories; rotor conserving pads, and pad conserving pads. I consider Carbotech XP series pads to be a rotor conserving pad, in that they are designed to not eat your rotors up, at the expense of the pad wearing a little quicker. I found the XR2 to be a pad conserving pad. They lasted way longer but killed rotors in the process.

In the case of the Cobra, the pads for the 00 Cobra Brembo caliper (both Carbotech and Cobalt) were around twice the cost of the rotors, which were just OE spec Brembo vented blanks. So it made sense economically to get the pads that were more damaging to the rotors and lasted longer. In terms of straight performance, I think the performance of the Carbotech XP12 and Cobalt XR2 to be generally similar, though I felt like the Cobalt had the edge on initial bite, and modulation.

The drawback to the pad conserving pad is that you need to keep the wheels and car clean from brake dust as there is rotor material in it. Clean the wheels and car frequently.....That goes double for when you are using these pads during a rain event.

[962porsche]

I ran the XR2 pads on my 03 Cobra (3820 race weight 475hp) the last two seasons that I had that car.

I'm not as scientific as some of the other egg heads on here, but I put track pads into two categories; rotor conserving pads, and pad conserving pads. I consider Carbotech XP series pads to be a rotor conserving pad, in that they are designed to not eat your rotors up, at the expense of the pad wearing a little quicker. I found the XR2 to be a pad conserving pad. They lasted way longer but killed rotors in the process.

In the case of the Cobra, the pads for the 00 Cobra Brembo caliper (both Carbotech and Cobalt) were around twice the cost of the rotors, which were just OE spec Brembo vented blanks. So it made sense economically to get the pads that were more damaging to the rotors and lasted longer. In terms of straight performance, I think the performance of the Carbotech XP12 and Cobalt XR2 to be generally similar, though I felt like the Cobalt had the edge on initial bite, and modulation.

The drawback to the pad conserving pad is that you need to keep the wheels and car clean from brake dust as there is rotor material in it. Clean the wheels and car frequently.....That goes double for when you are using these pads during a rain event.

yes you have some very good point about the cost of rotors to the pads .

[modifiede30]

Good info. My rotors are cheap compared to a good quality pad, so I'll take a rotor eating pad anytime given the almost $600 cost of replacing pads all the way around.