Todd TCE
04-14-2006, 07:32 AM
Great story from the 'IN' box.
Hey Todd,
I just thought that I would follow up with you on this. I put the "D" pads
in about 3 weeks ago and have been driving on them since. They were
properly bedded per the instructions. I am much happier with these for
street pads. While they still dust a good bit, they are not as dusty as the
"E" pads that were in there before. They are also significantly quieter
than the "E" pads. As expected, the cold braking performance is awesome,
and I like the pedal feel better for every day driving. And I do understand
that I need to swap these pads out if I intend to do any extended
high-performance driving. But I think that the trade-off is worth it.
About a week after installing them, I drove the car 200 miles to Nashville
to participate in an "Evolution Phase One" autocrossing school. I got 18
autocross runs in that day. The "D" pads are awesome autocross pads. I was
extremely happy with them. I had two instructors both ride in and drive my
car on course. Both of these guys are past SCCA national champions and
drive a lot of cars. My Impala was the 4th fastest car on course out of 20,
being topped by 2 "Street Modified" Subaru WRX Sti cars on race rubber, and
a C5 Vette (by only 0.1 seconds). My car bettered another C5 Vette, a Lotus
Elise on Azeni RT-615s, a fully race-prepped 2004 Honda Civic Si, and a
Mini Cooper S on Hoosiers among others.
There was another Impala SS there with a C5 front and rear brake
conversion, and both instructors drove that car too. After the event, one
of the instructors approached me to comment on how well the car drove. He
was very surprised at how well balanced the car is, and that it felt much
better than the other Impala. When I asked him what was different, he did
not hesitate - He said: "The brakes. The other Impala had plenty of
stopping power, but your brakes were so much more linear and predictable,
with fantastic pedal feel, that it makes the car easier to drive fast."
There was one high-speed section after a 5-cone slalom that ended in a
tight 180-degree turn around a circle of cones. When this instructor rode
with me (before he drove it), we approached the circle at a pretty fast
clip, and I drove it in deep before hitting the brakes. The car simply
"parked", whipped around the circle, and shot out the other side. As we
exited the circle, the instructor said: "DAMN!!! This thing has BRAKES!!!"
:) After driving it, he said: "When you drop the anchor out on this boat,
it sure does stop".
I will not get a chance to swap in the H pads and put this behemoth on a
road course until mid-May, but I can tell you that the brakes perform
wonderfully on an autocross course. I just thought that you would be
interested in hearing some positive feedback from some SCCA folks that
drive A LOT of different cars.
See ya,
Terry Kehne
Hey Todd,
I just thought that I would follow up with you on this. I put the "D" pads
in about 3 weeks ago and have been driving on them since. They were
properly bedded per the instructions. I am much happier with these for
street pads. While they still dust a good bit, they are not as dusty as the
"E" pads that were in there before. They are also significantly quieter
than the "E" pads. As expected, the cold braking performance is awesome,
and I like the pedal feel better for every day driving. And I do understand
that I need to swap these pads out if I intend to do any extended
high-performance driving. But I think that the trade-off is worth it.
About a week after installing them, I drove the car 200 miles to Nashville
to participate in an "Evolution Phase One" autocrossing school. I got 18
autocross runs in that day. The "D" pads are awesome autocross pads. I was
extremely happy with them. I had two instructors both ride in and drive my
car on course. Both of these guys are past SCCA national champions and
drive a lot of cars. My Impala was the 4th fastest car on course out of 20,
being topped by 2 "Street Modified" Subaru WRX Sti cars on race rubber, and
a C5 Vette (by only 0.1 seconds). My car bettered another C5 Vette, a Lotus
Elise on Azeni RT-615s, a fully race-prepped 2004 Honda Civic Si, and a
Mini Cooper S on Hoosiers among others.
There was another Impala SS there with a C5 front and rear brake
conversion, and both instructors drove that car too. After the event, one
of the instructors approached me to comment on how well the car drove. He
was very surprised at how well balanced the car is, and that it felt much
better than the other Impala. When I asked him what was different, he did
not hesitate - He said: "The brakes. The other Impala had plenty of
stopping power, but your brakes were so much more linear and predictable,
with fantastic pedal feel, that it makes the car easier to drive fast."
There was one high-speed section after a 5-cone slalom that ended in a
tight 180-degree turn around a circle of cones. When this instructor rode
with me (before he drove it), we approached the circle at a pretty fast
clip, and I drove it in deep before hitting the brakes. The car simply
"parked", whipped around the circle, and shot out the other side. As we
exited the circle, the instructor said: "DAMN!!! This thing has BRAKES!!!"
:) After driving it, he said: "When you drop the anchor out on this boat,
it sure does stop".
I will not get a chance to swap in the H pads and put this behemoth on a
road course until mid-May, but I can tell you that the brakes perform
wonderfully on an autocross course. I just thought that you would be
interested in hearing some positive feedback from some SCCA folks that
drive A LOT of different cars.
See ya,
Terry Kehne