Front Brake Pads

AJ/FormS said
Yeah whatever

Believe what you want AJ, doesn't hurt my feelings.

But I've never driven a non-ABS disk/drum car that was even close to 1:1 on front pad to rear shoe wear, they've all been more like 2:1. And for the most part that's all manual transmission cars and I do a significant amount of downshifting and engine braking too. With the way your car is raked even the 295's out back don't explain a 1:3 front to back brake wear. The coefficient of friction of the tires is the same, and you don't get the same amount of braking force per square inch of tire patch because you don't have the same load per square inch in the back because of the front to rear weight balance. So the extra tire width is not a 1:1 increase in braking force over the front, adding 20% more tire does not increase the rear braking by 20%. Even my car with 1.12" torsion bars up fronts dips under braking, and that's weight transfer. So even if your weight balance was perfectly 50/50 the brake split would be more like 70/30, and that means your brake wear should be more like 2:1. Something isn't right. If that doesn't bother you, then carry on. But if it was my car I'd be investigating, because no matter how good your braking "feels" the physics doesn't add up.

Mattax said
I figured you knew. View attachment 1715504712
I didn't try them either. The whole need to transfer material requires a process that's not practical around here, and also would lock me in without a lot of options.
Carbotech and Porterfield have a series of related linings (as does Hawk) which means I'd have a baseline to work from rather than throw darts again.

I'll say I'm pretty light on brakes. Generally go through a few pads or shoes sets without needing to recut or replace. Nor do I go through pads or shoes that fast. Depends also on what I'm driving and where I am driving. Even with an automatic I tend to downshift on long hills if appropriate and stuff like that. Who knows what other variables are at play. Like you said, traffic can def play a role.

I too generally have liked semi-metalics. On my 4 drum Nova I went to the junk yard to salvage some because the parts stores didn't have any.View attachment 1715504713 This was long before internet. Also had to get a backing plate from a yard after I broke the anchor pin. Guess I was a little hard on those brakes... :rolleyes:

Yeah I just like semi-metallics. I have tried ceramic compounds and I wasn't a fan, but that wasn't a set of EBC reds so I won't pass judgement on those. I'm generally not super hard on brakes, even on my Challenger which was an auto I got 60k+ miles out of the first set of pads and the shoes were less than half worn down, rotors had plenty of meat and didn't need turned. But that was with 11.75" disks and 11x2.5" drums and 275's all around. With my Duster and the T56 now I have a lot of gears to go through so even when I'm having fun out on the mountain roads I'm not on a brakes a ton, can pretty much do most of my speed control with the 6 gears and 10:1 engine compression. I try not to push so hard on public roads that I need to be hard on the brakes, I like to have fun but leave ample margin for everyone else. So around town with all the traffic, lights and intersections is most of my brake use.