This is more of a comment for others to benefit from rather than anything else.. Several weeks ago I contacted the SpecMiata Superstore to get some Hawk HP Plus pads and a new set of front rotors. They were out of the HP Plus and instead the salesman suggested I try some Blacks instead. He confirmed they would not be overkill for the street...

Yesterday I put them on, and went out to bed the pads in.

Boy was he wrong. These things are SUPER noisy AND dusty.

What's worse is that if you use anything else than a gentle brake pedal pressure, these things will come on so strong that they lock up the front tires.

I've driven 50miles and the front rims are BLACK with brake dust...

I do have decent sticky street tires (160treadwear) but with only a 185 section in contact with the road, these pads are way too much for these tires. We'll see if they will at least now sell me the HP Plus street pads that I wanted all along at a steep discount... It goes w/o saying that they won't take a broken in set of pads back.

-e

Hi Eric! How have you been? Don't you just hate it when some sales guy you don't even know suggests a product model you don't want when they are out of what you do want, just to make a sale? How do your rotors look after breaking in the black pads?

Yea, leave it to a salesman to mess things up. I can't remember the number of times that I've gone to buy some brake pads and mickey mouse will try and sell me those "lifetime guarantee" pads.

He just wants me back in a couple of weeks to buy new rotors.

the brand new rotors are taking a beating - that's for sure...

at around town speeds with the windows down you can HEAR the discs getting litterally ground down... some serious pad... I can tell it would be great for the track with stickier rubber... just not exactly ideal for the street... hahahaha still waiting on a reply from those guys, i'm curious to see what they will say.

-e

I heard back from them.

Their offer is for me to send the pads back, and if I've say only used 5% of the pad so far they will refund 95% of the purchase price... Their thinking is that they can re-use the pad on one of their cars... pretty darn generous. I'm going to take them up on it.

-e

That is a very generous offer, good on them. Have to say the Hawk Black is an awful brake pad, can't understand how it is still available for sale. Like you Eric I could hear the pads grinding the rotors, and see the results too.

I liked them on the Rusty Old Datsun. They are similar to Porterfield R4s but last longer.

So what are you saying John, when they heat up in a race situation they work well?

Yup. They suck below 200 degrees F and work well up to about 900. On a stock Z brake system they would get cooked on the track (like the Porterfield R4s) and not last more then an hour or two of hard use. But, on a vented rotor that has air going to it they last a long time. Good hard initial bite and they modulate well coming off the brakes.

Not a street pad because of the things mentioned above.