Braking the 5.0 GT

During a trip to Switzerland and Italy I had lot of possibilities to test the refurbished Mustang GT brakes(see Brake upgrade 5.0 GT) whilst driving over several mountain passes. On streetdriving the Hawk pads give better brake feel and less pedal effort. You can feel that the pads have a higher friction coefficient and I am quite sure that the stopping distances are reduced. But driving mountain passes reveal new problems with this setup, due to the higher friction cefficient and better braking the heat builds up much more quickly, the frontbrakes start to smell and smoke, disks start to warp and the brakepedal jumps. Luckily the Hawk pads can handle the heat and the car is still braking. Conclusion: Instead of the stock pads the stock frontdisks are now weakest point in the system.


Simplon pass