Todd TCE
04-13-06, 04:57 PM
Got this the other day from an Impala customer who kicked some serious butt! Same can apply to the CTS with some effort.....
Hey Todd,
I just thought that I would follow up with you on this. I put the "D" pads in about 3 weeks ago and have been driving on them since. They were properly bedded per the instructions. I am much happier with these for street pads. While they still dust a good bit, they are not as dusty as the"E" pads that were in there before. They are also significantly quieter than the "E" pads. As expected, the cold braking performance is awesome, and I like the pedal feel better for every day driving. And I do understand that I need to swap these pads out if I intend to do any extended high-performance driving. But I think that the trade-off is worth it.
About a week after installing them, I drove the car 200 miles to Nashvilleto participate in an "Evolution Phase One" autocrossing school. I got 18 autocross runs in that day. The "D" pads are awesome autocross pads. I was extremely happy with them. I had two instructors both ride in and drive mycar on course. Both of these guys are past SCCA national champions and drive a lot of cars. My Impala was the 4th fastest car on course out of 20, being topped by 2 "Street Modified" Subaru WRX Sti cars on race rubber, anda C5 Vette (by only 0.1 seconds). My car bettered another C5 Vette, a LotusElise on Azeni RT-615s, a fully race-prepped 2004 Honda Civic Si, and a Mini Cooper S on Hoosiers among others.
There was another Impala SS there with a C5 front and rear brake conversion, and both instructors drove that car too. After the event, one of the instructors approached me to comment on how well the car drove. He was very surprised at how well balanced the car is, and that it felt much better than the other Impala. When I asked him what was different, he did not hesitate - He said: "The brakes. The other Impala had plenty of stopping power, but your brakes were so much more linear and predictable, with fantastic pedal feel, that it makes the car easier to drive fast.
There was one high-speed section after a 5-cone slalom that ended in a tight 180-degree turn around a circle of cones. When this instructor rode with me (before he drove it), we approached the circle at a pretty fastclip, and I drove it in deep before hitting the brakes. The car simply "parked", whipped around the circle, and shot out the other side. As we exited the circle, the instructor said: "DAMN!!! This thing has BRAKES!!!" After driving it, he said: "When you drop the anchor out on this boat, it sure does stop".
I will not get a chance to swap in the H pads and put this behemoth on a road course until mid-May, but I can tell you that the brakes perform wonderfully on an autocross course. I just thought that you would be interested in hearing some positive feedback from some SCCA folks that drive A LOT of different cars. See ya,Terry Kehne
Hey Todd,
I just thought that I would follow up with you on this. I put the "D" pads in about 3 weeks ago and have been driving on them since. They were properly bedded per the instructions. I am much happier with these for street pads. While they still dust a good bit, they are not as dusty as the"E" pads that were in there before. They are also significantly quieter than the "E" pads. As expected, the cold braking performance is awesome, and I like the pedal feel better for every day driving. And I do understand that I need to swap these pads out if I intend to do any extended high-performance driving. But I think that the trade-off is worth it.
About a week after installing them, I drove the car 200 miles to Nashvilleto participate in an "Evolution Phase One" autocrossing school. I got 18 autocross runs in that day. The "D" pads are awesome autocross pads. I was extremely happy with them. I had two instructors both ride in and drive mycar on course. Both of these guys are past SCCA national champions and drive a lot of cars. My Impala was the 4th fastest car on course out of 20, being topped by 2 "Street Modified" Subaru WRX Sti cars on race rubber, anda C5 Vette (by only 0.1 seconds). My car bettered another C5 Vette, a LotusElise on Azeni RT-615s, a fully race-prepped 2004 Honda Civic Si, and a Mini Cooper S on Hoosiers among others.
There was another Impala SS there with a C5 front and rear brake conversion, and both instructors drove that car too. After the event, one of the instructors approached me to comment on how well the car drove. He was very surprised at how well balanced the car is, and that it felt much better than the other Impala. When I asked him what was different, he did not hesitate - He said: "The brakes. The other Impala had plenty of stopping power, but your brakes were so much more linear and predictable, with fantastic pedal feel, that it makes the car easier to drive fast.
There was one high-speed section after a 5-cone slalom that ended in a tight 180-degree turn around a circle of cones. When this instructor rode with me (before he drove it), we approached the circle at a pretty fastclip, and I drove it in deep before hitting the brakes. The car simply "parked", whipped around the circle, and shot out the other side. As we exited the circle, the instructor said: "DAMN!!! This thing has BRAKES!!!" After driving it, he said: "When you drop the anchor out on this boat, it sure does stop".
I will not get a chance to swap in the H pads and put this behemoth on a road course until mid-May, but I can tell you that the brakes perform wonderfully on an autocross course. I just thought that you would be interested in hearing some positive feedback from some SCCA folks that drive A LOT of different cars. See ya,Terry Kehne