Friends and customers, we have come to a crossroads in our business that requires some major changes to our communications and procedures moving forward. While we appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and support for our services, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the many different avenues of communication, which have become impossible to keep track of as our business grows. Living in today’s world, where everyone is constantly connected, it has become normal to send messages to a company or individual at all hours via social media, text, etc and expect an immediate response. We will no longer be able to continue down that path.
 
**Official hours for the time being are 8am to 5pm EST.**
 
  Please limit all communications via a phone call or email during our business hours. Calling on the weekend or after hours is acceptable if you really need help. Be honest with yourself about whether your issue can wait until Monday or not. All emails from the weekend will get a response by the following Monday. Our Email address is support@opmustang.com. We will not respond to social media messages moving forward. If you call, please leave a voicemail and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Please feel free to follow that up with an email to us, those are much less likely to be missed because both Kelly and I see them. If you email, please feel free to send photos to give us a rough idea of what you are looking to have answered (visuals always help).

   All orders are typically shipped the same day or the next day if it is in stock. As much as we try to have everything in stock we rely on multiple vendors all across the country. We offer products that are made in small batches and require lead times to have made. We do not control the time for these products to be manufactured. We forecast demand based on sales. To keep up with demand, we have increased our purchase levels as well as the frequency of orders and this places a severe strain on the manufacturers and vendors to meet our deadlines. A manufacturer typically will perform most operations in house but not all operations. An example of this is anodizing and heat treatment processing. These are very specialized operations therefore are usually sent out to a third or forth vendor to be completed. Our vendors are at the mercy of their vendors, which places us near the bottom of the chain.

 If you need a product immediately we ask that you send us an email. We always work to fill emergency orders; we have the best Customers in the World. We have Customers who were not in rush, and graciously allowed us to to ship products from their order, which they have already paid for, to fill orders for another Customer. From the bottom of our heart, we do not know how we are this fortunate to have a Customer base as understanding and generous as you all are. Since we are a two-person operation, and much of our work is custom, we will have to give you a "window" for your shipment. If you have a deadline for an event and we promise to meet it, we will still do that as always, but will need advance notice. Please don't be offended if we are straightforward with you and tell you outright that we cannot do it. We hate to lose your business, but would rather lose that sale to another shop than let you down by missing an important deadline. Please plan ahead 3 weeks in advance, if possible.
 
  We have multiple open projects that have been dragging on for 2 years due to time constraints. We have 6 products we have been unable to complete because our time resources are constantly eaten away by social media.

  The main idea here is that we care very much about the quality of the service we provide, and care just as much about all our customers, who we consider friends, but some reasonable structure and boundaries need to be set so that we can have some semblance of life outside of this to spend uninterrupted time with our friends and families. We also hope to keep our passion and drive so we are able to provide excellent products and services to you for years to come, but at this pace burnout is imminent. Kelly is usually working 16 hours a day, I am usually working 20 hours a day and we no longer can support that. We understand that we have Customers all over the World in very different time zones, we have many fine Men and Women serving us overseas so we will continue to support them as long as everyone understands the responses may not be immediate as they were in the past. We take full responsibility for this since we have allowed things to be "loose and free" for so long, which is why we are being proactive about changing things for the benefit of everyone.

  Thanks very much for taking the time to read, we appreciate all of you, and we hope to have the opportunity to help you build something awesome in the future.
 
Sincerely,
 
Kelly and Tim Hilliard
Optimum Performance

P.S. A huge thank you to LeVel Motorsport, Glendale, AZ for allowing us to borrow much of the above.

We are asked this question multiple times a day and for good reason. There are several variables involved in choosing a proper brake compound. G-LOC offers 8 different Compounds in their product line range so choosing the correct compound for YOUR specific application can appear daunting. We are going to cover the basics so you can answer the questions yourself.

1. Obviously Year/Make/Model/Specific Brake System i.e. Brembo 4 piston, 6 Piston, Iron Rotors, Carbon Rotors etc. If it has a Non-OEM Brake System on it, knowing the caliper model or pad shape will be information you need to know along with pad thickness if it is a race caliper that allows endurance pads that are typically in the 25mm range.

2. What is the intended use? Daily Driving, Street Driving/AutoCross, Street Driving/Track Day, "It sits in the garage and I drive it to my track-day", "I trailer it to the track" Time Trials, Racing.

3. What are YOUR Goals? "I can't stand the brake dust and noise" or "The factory pads lasted one day at my last event and now I have a brake pulsation" 

4. What have you done to your car? What tire - specifically, suspension - stock or adjustable coilovers with full adjustments, brake fluid, brake cooling.


To answer these questions honestly and realistically helps in successfully choosing the proper compound. Lets run through a couple of examples.

1. 2017 Shelby GT350 
2. I drive it mostly on the street. 
3. The brake dust is horrible, constantly cleaning my wheels!
4. Stock because it's amazing.

In this case G-LOC's GS-1 Compound would be the perfect choice. You would not compromise braking performance on the street, the compound is low noise, low dust with a very high bite that will still give you factory level braking on the street. We will let you in on a secret, all brake pads dust otherwise they would not stop the car. G-LOC compounds use materials that do not attack finishes so typically the dust just wipes off. The GS-1 compounds have a very low rotor wear rate, known as "rotor friendly". This prevents metal from the rotor from etching into wheel finishes. 

1. 2017 Shelby GT350
2. I drive it occasionally but mostly do track events
3. The stock pads are ok but I find near the end of the session they begin to fade and I'm on my third set of pads. I am more comfortable in the car and I find myself pushing the braking every session. I think I need something with more bite and something that won't fade. I'm used to brake dust but want something that will still work on the street. 
4. Stock MPSS's. I do not plan on changing to a track tire.

In this case we can go in two different directions. The R12 Compound offers an extremely high bite, a large temperature operating range, it can be driven on the street and in this application would be a great starting point for someone to transition to a race compound pad. It will make noise and dust but it will shorten braking distances and used properly, not fade. 

You could also go to an R16 compound which is going to have a higher level of bite and temperature capability than the R12 but while it can be driven on the street it is best for the "I drive my car to the track, most of the time it is strictly a track toy" person.

When you begin to look into track/racing brake compounds you need to look at balancing brake bias. What we mean by this, using the above GT350; a heavy car with huge speed potential, grip and massive brakes you need to balance the braking front and rear. Most cars are typically biased towards the front because under braking the front tires have most of the grip. The rear typically gets light so in a modern car with ABS the computer does most of that work for you. When you install a track/race compound on the front you will change this bias. The higher friction level of the pad will move more brake bias up front. If you leave the stock rear pads in place and run an R12 or R16 up front the front brakes will begin to do all the braking. This leads to very hot front brakes, high pad wear and sometimes a very unstable experience in a heavy braking zone. Matching the rear compound to maintain the factory brake bias will make the car faster, the brakes will maintain temperature and the pads will wear much longer. 

How do you match a rear compound to your fronts? Generally speaking, choose a compound one or two steps down from the front. Examples from above R12 front with an R10 rear. R16 front with an R12 rear. One of the advantages with the G-LOC pad compound choices is you can adjust this to your driving style and car set-up. You can add more rear pad if you have rear downforce or trail brake. This will give you more rear bite. If you find your style of trail braking is inducing too much oversteer you can also run less rear pad. There are many combinations you can run R12/R10, R12/R12, R16/R12, R16/R10. 

Lets look at a few other scenarios...

1. 2014 Mustang GT with Track Pack - 4 Piston Brembo's 
2. Autocross
3. I dream of orange cones in my sleep.
4. All sorts of camber and sticky tires

The best choice for pure Autocross is the R6 front and back. The R6 is G-LOC's Autocross pad of choice. On Mustangs you can also run R8's. If you mostly chase cones but are thinking about trying a road course for the first time R8's will work as long as you drive within the parameters of the compound. 

1. Miata - Lighter Momentum Cars
2. Street/Track Day
3. I like passing Mustangs in the turns, but I drive it everyday.
4. Suspension/Tires

In this case you would want to start with an R10 up front balance with an R8 in the rear. The pads are mild enough on the street but still work very well on track.

1. S550 Mustang GT with the Performance Package/ 6th Gen Camaro
2. Street/Trackday
3. I don't record my laptimes and I don't want to swap pads..ever. I have had race cars in the past, very experienced but this is just to have fun with and I understand how braking works. 
4 Stock, it is really a good chassis. 

This is pretty universal for most cars. R10 Fronts with R8/R10 rears. This is a very contested area because it requires restraint to some extent. If you go this route and then decide to put on some used slicks you picked up from a race team it may not turn out how you planned. Mustangs are heavy cars, if you have an instructor you will be stopping 4000 pounds for 20-30 minutes at a time. If you use these properly they will work very well for you. I personally run these on our S550. I have 6 track days on them and they still look new. I have reasonable expectations and have pushed the limits of them from time to time. Typically I find the limits of the street tire before the pad compound.

1. S550 Mustang GT/S197 Mustang GT/5th-6th Gen Camaro
2. I drive to the track.
3. I need to beat everyone else
4. I've ruined a perfectly good street car. Full suspension, roll bar, harness, seats, brake cooling and 'street tires' that last about 2 days because they are basically slicks.

R16/R12 but you should change to R18's...when you get to the track or just buy a car trailer.

In the same scenario above with any Mustang/Camaro/Corvette that is trailered to the track and not driven on the street and runs a Rival/Hoosier/Race Team Scrub Slick should always be on an R18/R12 combination. Even the GT350 on the Cup2 tire is so fast it can take advantage of the R18 friction levels. And now a message from our Lawyers: R18's are not to be driven on the street. They require heat to begin working plus they will just wear out pads and rotors quickly. 

Last Example: I want to drive my Mustang everyday to work which is a 100 mile round trip. On weekends I want to run Watkins Glen, what Compound do you suggest?

In this case; which ends up being the case for most of our Customers who need to pay for their track days by driving the race car to work, you need to swap pads. There is no magical pad that will do this, many manufacturers will claim it, it is not based in reality. Pads sold to operate in two polar opposite environments will be a big steaming pile of compromises. G-LOC is not a marketing company, they are a hands on brake pad manufacturer. 

For true weekend warriors that need to get to work on Monday but want to win the HPDE trophy need to use a pad for each goal. GS-1's during the week and then swap on the track pads either the night before or at the track when you are bolting on your tires. While the initial investment is higher, the savings will be noticed in a short period of time. Running a more expensive trackpad only on the track greatly reduces wear. Running a street pad on the street greatly increases your sanity from a quiet pad. G-LOC compounds are all compatible with each other. You can run any compound on the same brake rotors. Swap the pads in and go, no bedding, sanding, separate track rotors etc.

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