Good day all, I was watching one of my favorite YouTube channels, Engineering Explained, he did a special on brake pads auto parts store value mid and best, vs OEM, vs NRS. He did all of the testing at the NRS labs but they only did SAE tests, believe it or not the OEM was the best overall pad and not the NRS. However since there is no hope at all of getting a Fiero OEM pad, and even if you could I bet a 1988 OEM pad is no where near the test samples they had ( they did not disclose the pad OEM number tested). I went on over to the NRS website to check them out. I did their year make model and to no surprise there was not a Fiero option. But they did have a link that said cant find your car? I fill out the info, not expecting to hear back.

https://youtu.be/DZ8O2tJOGLE


Today I receive this:

quote Thank you for your inquiry! We are currently out of stock of the brake pads for your vehicle, however you can still PRE-ORDER these pads. Lead time to ship would be 3 weeks from receipt of order. Pricing is as follows: Front & Rear D378 $105.99 USD

So the pricing is not too bad compared to a "Duralast Gold" level of pad pricing. And it is not like we even have that option. I figured I would share this with you all in case you wanted to hop on over and get your own pads.
https://nrsbrakes.com/

Do you know of any other performance brake pads that are available for stock brakes?

Thanks!
Chuck


------------------
"HICCUPP" 1988 2.8 GT Ocelot SS exhaust

[This message has been edited by ChuckR (edited 11-08-2019).]

I've used Wagner pads for years.....no issues.

Yellow stuff have great initial bite and stopping power, but dust like crazy and are about $200. I run them on my 88.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: Yellow stuff have great initial bite and stopping power, but dust like crazy and are about $200. I run them on my 88.

Sorry to hijack...

Can you run the yellows on the 88 rear? Reason I ask is, I decided to refresh my brake setup, even tho it really didn't have any miles on it, with some russell brakes lines, new coated rotors, and I ordered two sets of yellows not really thinking that they kept saying "FRONT" and not "FRONT/REAR" (like the other part store pads) and then after I started to install them last week I realized the yellows have no studs for the notches in the pistons, which I "thought" was needed for the rear.

You can add the studs to them by drilling a couple of holes in the backing plate and installing a couple of short roll pins.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: You can add the studs to them by drilling a couple of holes in the backing plate and installing a couple of short roll pins.

Genius. Thanks!!!!!

For the Yellow Stuff, this is on their web page:

quote Medium hardness material feels good at pedal If all you need is stopping power, this is the material choice

This makes it seem that the pad life is short. What re your experiences on them? and how bad is the brake dust, I mean the GT lace wheels are a pain to clean....

Joe,
Are not most store brands actually just Raybestos or Wagner anyway?

[This message has been edited by ChuckR (edited 11-10-2019).]

quote Originally posted by ChuckR: This makes it seem that the pad life is short. What re your experiences on them? and how bad is the brake dust, I mean the GT lace wheels are a pain to clean....

Overall service life will depend on how hard you use them.
Normal driving they might last 20K miles, take them to an aggressive track weekend and they might only last the weekend (at the 25th a guy wore through a brand new set of porterfields at Waterford in 8 hrs). I only have about 1000 miles on mine. Love the stopping power, really hate the dusting issue.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: dust like crazy

This isn't an exaggeration... I have silver 5 spoke wheels, easy to clean, but show any amount of dust. I can clean them at the car wash 3 miles away, then by the time I get home, if I touch them I will leave hand prints in the fine sheen of dust. The dust just gets darker and darker the longer I drive. If you have black wheels, it will be less of an issue.

Prior to the yellow stuff, I ran some Wagner Thermo-Quiets and was woefully unimpressed with them. Softer pedal, limited initial bite, and were dusty as well (about 75% of the yellow stuffs). I only had them on the car about 4-5K miles and also tossed the brand new set I had on the shelf. I think they have changed their pad composition or started just relabeling them.

While I race/autocross my 88 Formula trying to find pads that could hold up and give me the bite I wanted was difficult at the time.
Searching for alternatives, I found The Hawk HB100 pads for the Wilwood Dyna Lite caliper looked promising.
The pad was exactly the right size and shape albeit needing a little bit of grinding of the backing plate (about 1/16") and open up the locating holes a tad they dropped right in.
Been using the HP Plus at .480 thick but it allows use of any compound they offer in that size.