Two Different Brake Pads In One Caliper?

[USGUYS]

The lastest issue of Grassroots had an article on "penny Saver" race cars. In the spec sheet for the 1990 Honda CRX It states that there were "Hawk Blues" outer front and "Raybestos" inner front.
I am curious as to what if any advantage this might be. Or is it just just snake oil.

[R2 Racing]

Since the Honda caliper uses just one piston on the inside of the rotor, that inner pad generally works harder and wears out faster. For that reason I've heard of people using two different compounds on the inner and outer, but it's not something I've ever done or really thought about.

[Xian]

x2 on what Ruck said. The CRX/Civic can be really tough on front end and brake components. I'd guess they're using one of the higher temp Raybestos ST compounds on the inside and the more common Blues on the outside. I always thought the Blues were an excellent pad on my CRX right up until they faded away.

They Raybestos pads are more expensive than the Blues so I guess the thought is the use the high temp expensive ones where needed and then the cheaper ones where you can get away with it.

[tom91ita]

The lastest issue of Grassroots had an article on "penny Saver" race cars. In the spec sheet for the 1990 Honda CRX It states that there were "Hawk Blues" outer front and "Raybestos" inner front.
I am curious as to what if any advantage this might be. Or is it just just snake oil.

i saw the same refenence and thought it was interesting. i race a 86 crx si and do not have any hawk blues experience but i really like the raybestos ST compound.

[Xian]

The Blues are a great pad if you like having brakes that are like a light switch. Just touch them and you get 100% braking for right now! Their drawbacks are lower operating temperature compared to the ST compounds, faster wear (I think partly due to wearing faster at temps the ST pads can handle just fine), and more difficulty for some folks to modulate them. I'll also say that the Blues are tough to drive in the rain b/c once they come up to temp it's harder to modulate the brakes... easy to lockup an inside front if you're pushing things.

I've got a set of the ST's ready to go on the new Civic...

[CRXsi]

Where can one buy these Raybestos ST pads? I have been using Hawk Blue and HT-10's. If the Raybestos are easy to find I may try them next...

[tom91ita]

Where can one buy these Raybestos ST pads? I have been using Hawk Blue and HT-10's. If the Raybestos are easy to find I may try them next...

on my 86 si, i am using AP 256 ST-43.

i worked with Wendy at Porterfield Brakes.

i was racing both ITB and Honda Challenge at the time and there was a minor discount but i don't recall which one (SCCA or NASA or both?) was the cause.

these are some of the most expensive brake pads i have bought but worth it in terms of cost effective. i will likely buy another set for "spares" but don't think i will actually need them for my limited schedule of this next year.

[Xian]

Yep, Porterfield is really the only supplier of these (others retailing these are simply getting them from Porterfield). And, yes, they're not cheap. FWIW, they take another off the shelf Raybestos pad and then cut it down slightly for the Honda applications. I believe retail on these is right around $200/front set.

[Tom Blaney]

I always used Hawk Blues (same compound for all 4 pads), and although they are pretty fast acting, I eliminated the heat problem with titanium insulators and good brake ducts.

I still sell the insulators, but the brake ducts are very labor intensive but once you make a good set they last for a number of years.

I'm not too sure mixing compounds would be the way to go since I suspect there would be issues with heat temp differences between pads and therefore between rotor faces.

[trhoppe]

Those Raybestos ain't cheap, but they are worth every penny.

I'm using the AP409 ST-43 compound on my ITA Integra and holey moley. I feel that the can brake with anyone in the ITA field and last damn near forever. I had 1 ECR, 2 SARRCs, 1 ProIT, 1 Test day and I still decided to use them at the ARRC as they had more then 50% pad left at that point. I bet they would be good for 5+ double weekends.

I actually wore our a set of rotors (ended up with lots of pad deposits and shaking) after the 4 races and ARRC test day and swapped fresh rotors on before the ARRC qualifying. At $15 each on rotors and $100 each on pads, I don't mind swapping rotors every 5 races and my pads every 10

-Tom