The DC-30 has a starting working temp of 100F, that doesn't work too well on the street. What if you have to panic stop before the pad heats up? What if your driving conditions are in 45F to 50F and the pad can't heat up? It needs to be warmed up to function properly in order to stop optimally.
The HPS was one I looked at that works for the street which people who track and drive street said they were similar to the AX6 (which I disagree with looking at the stats and lack of data / specs). There are race CarboTech pads I'd love to throw on, why? I know they'll bite harder than the AX6. However, I want them to work and like I mentioned when its below 50F and raining the pads *DON'T* heat up properly and I *HAVE* to use caution and understand that this is a limitation of having better braking when things warm up. I can't even imagine if I had to wait for them to try and reach 100F in a raining cold condition. Also as you go up in more aggressive pads they'll squeal and start making ugly noises. Its all part of what comes with those pads due to their composition.
Working temperature for pads is a KEY factor on if and how well they're going to stop and when they'll fail.
If you're going to put them on and try them out that'll be a good data-point. But honestly I wouldn't run them unless its going to be a summertime pad only, track only, or if I live in an area where its constantly 80+ degrees ambient, then it won't take as long to heat up and work properly.
And temperature ranges are VERY important when selecting a brake pad. You can't ignore this data. I have a friend who races all around the world, people call him in to tune their cars and to get them performing handling and brake wise for their cars. I had very in-depth discussions with him about brake pads, brake compositions, brake working temps. This is a KEY entity of braking, pure track/race pads cannot be used on the street. They just don't work and are not safe. I discussed the AX6, the composition, the working temps of this and he said that this one just skates the edge and makes it in to working on the street and light racing since it begins working at 50F and past 1000F. Hence why its called an 'autocross' pad. People like true race / track pads since they have more bite and more modulation than what street pads offer and they can take the heat. However you ARE hammering your brakes constantly on the track. So it is possible and you can reach the 100F to 250F (initial) working temps very easily on these race pads on the track. I will state that you can NOT do that on the street in normal everyday driving conditions. Period. And I'm not talking about a quick sprint and having fun, I'm talking your daily commuting car, driving downtown and a kid's ball rolls in front of your car and you have to panic stop.
And personally if you run a race pad with a high initial working temp, where your pad has trouble for the majority the time reaching this temp, I really do feel you're jeopardizing others on the road since you can't properly stop your car until things do get heated.
Remember what we're trying to do here, trying to improve a poorly designed / inadequate braking aspect of the Roadster. Just putting on custom rotors won't help out if your pad doesn't work in the driving conditions you're putting it in. Unless you're going with a bigger rotor/big brake upgrade, you have to get your pads on the Roadster right or else things can get even worse than what we have with the crappy stock setup.
Before talking with a member about the Carbotech's back when.... I was looking to upgrade the stock brakes with the EBC's. I knew that they have a low and high working temp that work for the street, also I've ran them before. I'm not going to sway people from trying things out, but looking at the Hawk specs I don't see a brake pad they make that works optimally on the street but has a track/race pad characteristic without having a significant trade off in one or more important safety areas.
Lastly, think of working temps of brakes this way... like a set of tires or racing tires. Tires 'stick' best when heated up to an optimal temperature. Too cold and the rubber compound is to rigid so you'll just skate and slide off the road. Too hot and the tires starts to feather and shread prematurely. However, when your tire is working in an optimal range it's able to stick pretty much like glue.
