How to Choose the Right Brake Pad Material for Your Daily Driver and Your Racer

Boost Your Braking Power with the Proper Brake Pads

Next to your tires, your vehicle's braking components make up one of its most important systems. You may have it in your mind that you want your car to be faster, but none of that will matter if you can't stop when you need to. There are a variety of brake pad materials and options available to accommodate a wide range of performance and budget criteria. Brake pads will also be one of the most budget-friendly options for upgrading your brakes, making them an important part when looking for performance gains. The science of stopping might be more complicated than you'd think, but that's why we're here to help you get set up properly. We at Boostin Performance are eager to make your performance goals a reality, so let's discuss how performance brake parts are essential to making that happen.

The Fundamentals of Braking

Before we talk about improving your brakes or selecting a brake pad material, let's establish a frame of reference on how your braking system works. To put it simply, your brakes are a hydraulic system that uses friction to slow your vehicle down. When you press on the brake pedal, you put pressure on the brake fluid (which transmits that force to the brake pads), squeezing the rotors and reducing your speed. Worth noting: a spongey brake feel typically comes from when the brake fluid itself is squeezed instead of the rotors. That all sounds simple enough, right? It can be, but it can also get plenty more complicated. Most vehicles are equipped with brake boosters and ABS, which add some complexity. While those should be considerations in your build, we'll focus on one of the most easily controlled variables in your vehicle's braking system: the brake pads.

Which Brake Pads Should I Choose?

Changing your brake pads is the easiest first step towards significantly upgrading your vehicle's braking performance. It's a simple job, typically requires few tools, and is generally budget-friendly—all relatively speaking, of course. When you start looking at brake pads to purchase, you'll see they come in various materials. So let's learn more about the different options and their attributes.

Pad Material	Organic	Ceramic	Semi-Metallic	Carbon Fiber
Stopping Power	Good	Great	Great	Exceptional
Cold Performance	Good	Moderate	Great	Poor
Heat Tolerance	Low	Moderate	High	Exceptional
Brake Dust	High	Low	Moderate	Very Low
Noise	Low	Very Low	Moderate	High
Longevity	Low	High	Moderate	High
Rotor Wear	Low	Low	High	Low (Carbon Rotors Req.)
Cost	$	$$$	$$	$$$$$

There are plenty of factors to consider when choosing your brake pads. While these general attributes can help narrow your decision, there's still plenty more to consider for your specific application. So, let's break into some of the use cases each pad material is best suited for.

Pad Material	Use Case	Reasoning
Organic	Daily Driver	Organic pads are a great economical option for street use where operating temperatures are typically low. You’ll have to clean your wheels more often, but they’ll work perfectly fine for daily driving.
Ceramic	Daily Driver	While pricier, these pads offer great performance for daily driving and are easy on your rotors. They produce less dust but can be prone to brake fade in high-heat applications.
Semi-Metallic	Daily Driver, Weekend Racer, Race Applications	Semi-Metallic pads are great for most performance applications, offering great stopping power and the ability to take a respectable amount of heat.
Carbon Fiber	Race Applications	By far the priciest option, carbon fiber brakes also offer the best performance in race applications without a doubt. However, they don’t perform particularly well in street applications where brake temperatures remain low.

Of course, not all brake pads are created equal. One "semi-metallic" brake pad can be drastically different from another manufacturer's "semi-metallic" brake pad, so it's important to look to those with the inside knowledge. If you're having trouble deciding on the proper brake pads for your car, give us a call at Boostin Performance and speak with our performance automotive professionals to get your vehicle rolling (and stopping) as it should.

Find the Right Brake Pads With Boostin Performance

As we've established, your brakes are a critical system in your vehicle, and there's plenty of braking performance to be gained with a relatively small investment. New performance brake pads are a great place to start when looking to improve your vehicle's braking abilities. They are an essential supporting modification if you're increasing your vehicle's power, so allow us at Boostin Performance to help make your automotive aspirations a reality. Stop in (get it?) today!