GT Motoring

Also, ive spent alot of time with Cobalt in the past few days relaying as much customer experiences, as well as our experiences with the product to them. Here is their current info on the GTS pads for customers as posted on their site:

Description: Cobalt GT-Sport is a class-winning autocross compound exhibiting very good cold performance, strong/solid initial bite, linear pedal feel with excellent modulation, and high fade resistance. Along with its excellent performance, the GT-Sport compound is rotor friendly and has very good wear rates over a broad operating temperature range. For the serious autocross driver, the GT-Sport will let you take back the time under braking! NOTE: while suitable for spirited street driving (i.e. canyon and mountain drives, etc.) it is not recommended or designed for everyday street driving. Designed for Autocross, HPDE and Light Race events.


Technical Specifications: GTS

Temp Range - 50F - 1200F
Torque Curve - High

General Application - Club Racing, Autocross, RallyCross, HPDE
Professional Series Applications - N/A

Racing Type - Touring Car, Rally Car (Tarmac & Gravel)
Road Conditions - High to Low Grip Tarmac (Circuit), Gravel, DirtInitial Bite - Strong, Modulation and Release - Excellent
Pad Life - Sprint Production - OEM Fitments and Race Fitments
Availability - Normal Production Compound
Axle Selection - Front and Rear

GT Motoring DC5

Indeed the rears have held up surprisingly well for the amount of abuse I've put them through, even with the slotted rotors in the rear.

I've been incredibly happy with mine and I've been rather rough on the brakes, too. The pictures and your accounts of your ordeal definitely tell a completely different story than what I've experienced.

I hope that this gets cleared up soon. Doesn't look like much fun at all.

Conversely, BTW I had a similar issue to yours with a set of Hawk HP+s about 2 years ago (oddly enough, recommended to me by Andie when I first started driving as a good starter pad). The results were identical, however I think I did have a tendency to brake rather poorly as I was just learning at the time. Wish I could provide more help for ya on this, but unfortunately, I've had no problems

jguerdat

Even light usage on the street (10-15 miles, mostly expressway) gave me significant brake dust on the wheels that required I clean the wheels to keep them from being unremovable. Since I didn't always have the time or forgot to do so, the street wheels have build-up in the corners by the spokes as well as variable layering on the rest of that horizontal surface. I have found nothing that would remove it.

It's almost like we're talking about two different compounds here. The GT-S was my first experiment in the high-performance pad arena and they were very definitely no rotor-friendly. Whether that's due to different compounds, usage, vehicle weight, speed, etc., I have no idea. They worked well but I couldn't recommend them to anyone who was a more-or-less casual user (I include autocross in this category since it's 30-80 seconds at a time, not mile after mile or lap after lap). I've had OEM pads last much longer with similar event results in the same or worse overall usage...

Willie Gee

There are definitely good batches of these pads. Many members in Florida are running these pads without issue ( besides noise) on the street, and because of their recommendations for excellent streetablilty and performance with spirited driving and Auto-X, I purchased the GT-Sports. Unfortunately the batch I purchased was bad, then the replacement pads that were sent to me were equally as bad.

It would be irresponsible for me to not share this experience as it has ruined my wheels, two sets of rotors, paint and put my life in unnecessary danger.

dead-bird

Sorry to hear about this Bill.

Hopefully the folks at Cobalt will step up to the plate soon. You gave them a second chance which is way more than I would have done. They need to return the favor and take care of all issues caused by there product.

All I can say is, No Cobalts for me...

Adrenaline Racing

I was crosslinked over here from the Miataforums and thought I'd chime in a tad with our experiences with the new Cobalt compounds to see if we can clear things up any.

Cobalt GT-Sport : This compound has been reformulated since its inception (4/07)to provide smoother but LESS torque as well as less noise. My personal experience with them has been pretty good. I daily drive them on a Mazda Miata as well as have some local guys running the GT-Sport compounds without any wear issues as indicated by the original poster.

I have not had *any* reports of the dust being corrosive on the GT-Sport compound.
Cobalt markets these pads as an Autox only pad and I agree with that. I wouldnt recommend daily driving these as the cold wear is similar to Hawk Black pads.

I've had extensive personal experience with the XR2 and XR3 compounds as well with no problems. After a full day at an HPDE with an E36 M3 I had virtually no measurable rotor or pad wear. Same results with most other cars.

The only issues I've seen were that the Stock Honda S2K wheels seem to like to corrode with the XR2 compound only. Most other aftermarket wheels we've run them on had no issues whatsoever.

I had another BMW customer have corrosion issues with the wheels on a set of White Kosei K1's and his stock wheels as well.

Both customers were able to remove the corrosion with oven cleaner.



Overall pad performance consistency on the track has been excellent. The pads have good torque and modulation and work fantastically when used as intended. Using them as a dual duty street/track pads is where most of the problems seem to occur. I would recommend using all of their pad compounds for the recommended applications only. If done so, you'll get excellent pad wear and performance!

Willie Gee

Users please read this thread in the Miata forum: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?p...426#post2763426

Miata users, contrary to the post above, are also having issues with the Cobalt GTS pads.

Adrenaline Racing

I just got off the phone with Andie and had a conversation with him as to what was going on.
While I suspect he wont be buying anyone a whole new set of wheels, he is looking into commonalities of why this is happening on only some cars and not on others. A fix will be issued in the near future, whether it be a new formulation of the current sintered carbon compound or even a reversion to the old GT-Sport compound.

Anyone interested in details needs to contact me directly and I'll fill you in as I get details.

negcamber

Adrenaline, thanks for weighing in...

Please convense Andie to revert to the old compound...I am really enjoying them more than any other pad I've used (and have been a CarboTech user for over 10 yrs).

But can't risk the cold brake damage seen by WillieGee and RichardNorman. An autox pad should be designed to work cold since that is the normal operating temp for autox brakes...just don't get enough runs to get the brakes hot.

alejo

This may not be up to him given the legal channels facilitated by the United States judicial system

I don't know if anyone will file a legal claim and subsequently succeed, just calling out the flaw of the quoted statement.