But I do know this: Rear brakes become less important and front brakes
become more important as traction levels go up. The sticky tires you have
put on your car for autocrossing increase the traction level above the level
around which the designers created your braking system. To get higher
levels of deceleration, you need more braking power on the front brakes.
You have changed to aftermarket pads which I assume to have a higher
coefficient of friction to do this. Since the forward weight shift will be
greater at these greater levels of deceleration, it may be that more braking
in the rear is not required. The bigger and stickier your tires, (and the
stickier your surface, like good military concrete) the more your front
brakes have to work and the less the rear does in proportion to the whole.
Eventually, I suppose the rear can do less on an absolute basis. That is to
say, LESS rear brake power than stock may be required.
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Yes, I do have ABS and sticky tires, and controlling the mass of a 4200lb
car on course is..challenging.
I belive by braking techniques are tuned well enough at this point, to where
I should never experience any rear lockup in anything but a straight line,
engine braking is mostly what I rely on in transitional situations (IE: Cone
avoidance navigation).
For $50, the Hawk ST+ pads in the rear cant hurt, and for normal street use
definitely would feel better and perhaps take some of the extreme load off
the front when were towing tires/tools/etc from event to event.
And I love the Hawk ST+ pads in front, but MAN, do they dust or what. Ive
only gotten hot enough to fade a little at one event here in Muskogee
(Solotime #1), but that had more to do with the car not being tuned well
enough (alignment, tires, front track width) and causing more braking than
required thru the course.
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