So this post is probably going to be a bit contentious, but I think it needs to be said. There are many brake pads on the market which their manufacturer’s say are capable of going on a race track, and they are very very much not, even on light vehicles like the Miata or BRZ/FRS/86. This post is my opinion, but it’s backed by my own personal experiences and my observations of others.
This was originally posted by me to the FT86 Club Forums in 2018. Recently, the FT86 Club Forums have had a few incidents where it’s been offline and the admins are not responsive to my offers via email to help ensure the site stays up for the long haul. I am making an effort to rehost content I’ve written, as well as rehost content written by others (with acknowledgements) that’s important information to preserve.
I originally wrote the content of this post in 2018 for the FRS/BRZ/86 Enthusiasts Group on Facebook that I help to moderate, which has a little bit more than 35k people in it. There are some common questions that come up and get posted constantly, especially by people who’ve just bought the car and already want to mod.
For this reposting on my website, I’ve gone through and added updates to some sections, but mostly have left it alone. I will follow this up later with a post that covers each topic, but rather than focusing on bang for buck, will focus on quality above all else. Most of the parts I’ve recommended here I don’t use myself and wouldn’t use myself, because I’m more quality focused. As an example, while an OFT tuner with the optimized tunes from WayneROMs or a custom e-tune from Steve99 will certainly do the job, it’s well established that if you want to tune seriously that you should get an ECUTek system and find a tuner that works with it, such as Zach Tucker at CSG, or others. ECUTek has a lot of capabilities that aren’t straightforward or sometimes not possible with the OFT, but it is more than double the cost, so the OFT is more popular in the community and will get you most of the way there. I tune my car with ECUTek, not with an OFT, but in this article I still recommend the OFT because it’s the best bang for the buck if you’re not willing cough up the cash for diminishing returns.