Mix different brake pad compounds front to back

Sevs753

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Jul 16, 2009
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Location
Metro Detroit
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'13 Subaru BRZ, '04 GMC Yukon
So I'm trying to get the Miata ready for the track this year and I want to get brake pads that are better and more fade-resistant than the regular Autozone pads. I've been looking at EBC Yellowstuff pads but it's a bit expensive for a complete set.

My question is, would it be a bad idea to get the EBC Yellowstuff for the front and regular pads for the rear? My understanding is that road cars are heavily front biased and the rear brakes don't do much actual braking but just help stabilize the car during braking. This would mean that even with regular pads, the rear wouldn't really fade and not need the more expensive yellowstuff.
 
Axxis ULTs are really great! However, on a stock MX-5 EBC Yellowstuffs will be fine on front axle.

While I can't recommend mixing compounds to anybody for obvious safety reasons, I can say I've done it myself. Last few years my front brakes have been 300mm disk with Wilwood 4 piston calipers and Ferodo DS3000 pads. On the rear I've had stock 1.6 small disks with noname cheap as hell pads. I'm running stock brake balance, so rear brakes get so little use that those shitty rear pads have outlasted two or three sets of DS3000 Ferodos on the front (I've got about 200 whp and lots of track use). I can't see any danger, but naturally the brake balance is way too front biased. Now I'm upgrading to 1.8 rear disks with Yellowstuff pads.

So at your own risk it can work, but as LeVel very well said, brakes are the most important thing on your car.
 
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