A brake pad is an interesting and crucial part of a car’s braking system. A brake pad has to undergo exceedingly high temperatures without losing its structure and effectiveness in order to create immense levels of friction needed to slow down a car that is travelling at high velocities.

A brakepad in a disc brake set-up is essentially a segment of friction material attached to each side of a brake calliper which clamps against the rotating discs to slow down the rotating motion of the car wheel. In drum brake applications, the brake-pad is fixed to the wheel hub mounting plate, with the friction surface pushing out against the inside of the drum itself to slow the rotating wheels down. Brake pads are made up with differing consistencies of a variety of compounds. Compounds that are harder wearing and more durable are less aggressive in their braking capabilities. For high performance cars and racing machines, a softer and much more aggressive compound is used for the brake pads in order to cope with the extreme braking conditions that speed and racing conditions demand.

Car manufacturers will use a break pad that satisfies their braking standards. However, aftermarket brake pads can be fitted to enhance braking performance. For those drivers who experience brake fading, simply installing better quality and more aggressive brake pads will go along way to nullifying the brake fade problem. Nothing is much more important than your car’s ability to stop itself – perhaps even more when your car’s has top-of-the-range top speed or 0-62 mph figures.
We hope that helps answer the question ‘What is What is a Brake Pad?’!

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