3rd Gen Brake Tech
 

What I'd like to do is dicuss some new things that will be happeneing in the automotive aftermarket in the next few weeks and how it can benefit us mazda owners and autox enthusiasts.

For those hat don't know I work as a Territory Sales Manager for NAPA auto parts here in Birmingham, AL and I've been attending monthly tech/sales meetingsto discuss new products and changes in the automotive aftermarket. One of the biggest changes you'll see in the next 5 years is the introduction of our brand new Adaptive One Brake Pads.

ADO's (line code) are not some gimicky pad made up to refreshen an aging brake line. This is a 100% ground-up new project. Everything about these pads is brand new...even down to how the friction material is mated to the backing plate. In the past fricition material has been bonded, rivited, or glued to a backing plate. Now, the ADO's, use an almost velcro-like mounting system to ensure there is no cracking or seperating of any kind.

When it comes to the friction material ADO's will use 2 different ceramic blends per set of pads. The difference in the ADO line is that the inboard and outboard pads of each set are different and designed for the type of use they'll get. For instance...

The outboard pad in a new ADO set will be a much harder biting ceramic pad. This will will mean several things...

1. Harder biting = more heat. This is ok though as the outboard pad will receive almost 250% more airflow than the inboard pad thus cooling it off faster.

2. Harder biting = less pad wear. Less pad wear on your outter pad means less brake dust on your expensive wheels. This is BIG for us Mazda owners suffering from shitty OE pads (beck Arnely's btw.)

The inboard pad will be a softer ceramic blend. this helps out in similar yet opposite ways. You get less airflow so the pad is designed to operate at higher temps. It's also going to do 85% of all your dusting so it'll be on the inside of the rim and not as visible.

The key thing to the ADO and the reason it is called "adaptive one" is because of the dual nature of the pads you'll basically be getting a pad that adapts to your driving style. Imagine a pad that is quiet enough to drive everyday but will provide enough braking power and fade resistance to use on track days as well! When you take it off the track it goesright back to being street pads.

Here's the catch though....there's always a catch and I see this being a big hurdle for us initially when dealing with these pads. Rotor Wear. the rotors will now wear unevenly. the outter face (front) will wear much aster than the the inner face. This is just to be expected based on the type of pad you're running. Rotors will still be turnable but you'll taking off far more front than back.

As always discard at or below minimum spec.


For pricing information it isn't concrete yet. I did come up with this though.....tentative.

2003 Protege5
AD7856 --- list = $134.71 Sale price expected to be in the $65-75 range. I can even go lower than that if I end up running a GB on them.


This is a NAPA exclusive for 8 years. We hold the worldwide patents on this design and no'one can immitate it (even though Bendix is trying their hardest!). These pads will start showing up in stores in the next 4-6 weeks and currently stores know which vehicles they will be able to service. I am able to look on our corporate backdoor site to see which applications we have in the DC.


Anyway, just food for thought if anyone was wondering about potential brake upgrades in the future.

Is that price for all 4 or just fronts?

just fronts. It's higher than typical pads but very reasonable when you look at EBC's or Endless pads....and you'd be like getting 2 types of pads in one. Hard on track days, soft on street days.

will there be msp/626 v6 pads?

interesting concept. I could kinda just do it by buying two sets of brake pads (ignoring the fact that only half the pads have the wear sensor thingy

I don't know what you mean by inboard and outboard pads ... I guess you just mean inside and outside relative to the rotor? If so, I guess it does make sense to have a higher biting compount on the air facing face of the rotor.

yeah ryan. Inboard pad would be softer and do the majority of the dusting....

There's more to it than the fact that it's 2 different formulations. It's the mounting technology, the quality of the friction material and the increase in performance and stopping power you'll get with organic-type pedal feel.

bump for application? :P

now if my EBCs ever wear out...

I should have 85% coverage in the next few weeks on the shelf. After that it'll be aboout a year to get 96% coverage.

Most everything you're going to want will be on the shelf. It'll be stuff like the germans and oddball cars that won't have coverage.