I did a post sometime back about how much good performance tires improved pretty much everything on my VW sport wagon. When Goodyear had the rear tires off, I snuck a peek and the rear brake pads looked pretty thin. I had wanted to upgrade brakes anyway, as the 'hats' (or hubs) on stock rotors were rusty and nasty looking. And was thinking about getting slotted. (drilled look cool, but really don't add anything and can crack more easily) Well once again sanity set in, and as this is not a high performance car, I went with plain smooth face. I did go for aftermarket Optimal brand, which have an e-coat anti corrosion coating. But I did opt for a street performance pad....EBC Red Stuff. Well it turns out that besides the rust, the rotors were fine and stock front pads had 60% life left, but I went ahead with new parts. Other than damage to my bank account, I'm glad I did. New rotors look great, but more importantly the upgrade pads have much better initial bite and it's much easier to modulate the braking. And they're not even bedded in yet. That takes about 500 miles, which is months for me.
While not a performance car, it handles well enough to be a lot of fun driven swiftly. And two keys to that are tire grip and braking. Seems counter intuitive, but to go fast on a curvy road, you need good brakes to set up for corner entry. Plus at some point I hope to try Autocross racing.
Next up will be suspension upgrade. Sport springs and Koni yellow dampers. That should be fun. May add some chassis bracing down the road. A friend of mine in CA has identical car added a cross brace to his and said it makes a huge difference in feel.
Anyway, more random thoughts on cars.....
Happy motoring.
