After breaking an axle at this year's RallyCross National Championships and hopping in a fellow competitor's car, my eyes were opened as to how bad the brakes suck on my Prepared FWD SRT4. While my car weighs a good 300 lbs more than the Integra I co-drove, there's definitely has to be some improvement to be had. Long term, an upgrade to a better braking system will happen, but for now, I just want to go with pads.
I'm currently running OEM SRT4 pads, as the car regularly gets street driven to our events due to me pulling the club trailer with my truck. I hadn't moved on from the stock compound, thinking it was good enough and definitely safe for the street. Whatever pad I ultimately go with needs to be safe for the streets, as I don't want to kill the person who is driving my car to a race for me.
My braking is typically hard short stabs of the brake for weight transfer, very similar to autocross. Heat issues are likely not going to be a problem, even though we do typically have rather long courses in my region (90-150 seconds are common).
So, what would the hive recommend? Just go with HP+ since they're going to be safe on the street and are readily available? Contact Hawk and see if they'll make pads with a more aggressive compound, say DTC-30, that should still work good without massive heat input? Any other companies and pad materials to investigate?
For a high-performance street pad try EBC Redstuff, easy to live with as any street pad but a lot more bitey and can handle almost enough heat for track use.
I thought Nationals was next weekend. Oops!
I just read the report, looks like it was an awesome event. They let you get back in your car for afternoon runs? I thought the rule was once you hop into someone else's car you can't hop back into yours for the rest of the day.
The rule was intended to keep people from, say, jumping around to different cars that favored different course conditions. Clearly this was not the case, which is where leeway has to happen.
As for pads... hmm. What were his brakes able to do that yours can't? Is it an initial bite, or just general brake torque?
Something else to bear in mind is that naturally aspirated engines have an easier time with brake assist than turbo engines, so you may be (also) feeling a booster issue.
I'm street driving on Carbotech AX6 pads, which is their autocross specific pad. 2008 civic coupe, 2800 pounds, autocross, track sprint, and daily. I have a set of Hawk HPS that's only going back on the car if I know that I won't be competing with it again.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I've heard that interpretation of the rule before. The way it's currently written leaves all sorts of room for interpretation. Should I have not been allowed to get into a different car since my problem didn't require a permanent withdraw? Should I have been forced to finish the day in Christian's car and then been allowed to run mine the following day? ...and so on. Let me tell you though, there was certainly no advantage with my tall self crammed into his car with the fixed postion seat. 
Initial bite and overall torque were much higher. In the first run in the Integra, I braked at my normal spot for the SRT4 and then had to get back into the throttle to get to the actual turn, thanks to nearly coming to a stop so early.
I'd say his car has 5-6 times the braking power of my current arrangement.
In reply to FooBag (Forum Supporter) :
I can speak from experience with RXBRC meetings/phone calls that the intention of the rule is that once you hop OUT of a car, you can't hop back IN for the rest of the day. You can go into a third car if the second one breaks, but not back into the first. This is the "permanent withdrawal" part: you can only finish your runs in another car if your car is permanently withdrawn for the day.
OTOH the last time I was in an RXBRC meeting, your co driven car's owner was in charge, so... 
HP+ is the way to go for an SRT. Be mindful the ABS system will get super pissy with different pad compounds front to rear.
