I put this here because the car is a street car that sees the occasional 1/8 mile action. It is not a corner carver, so I thought this section would be the most appropriate.

70 Cuda, BB, 11.75 sliders on front, 11 X 2 1/2 rears, non power.

The car probably has regular parts store pads on front and ancient shoes on the rear. The car stops okay now, I just thought I would put new pads and shoes on this winter. But there are so many different ones and I am not familiar with any of this, so I thought I would ask you guys.

What pads and shoes would you recommend for good all around driving? I don't care how hard they are on the rotors, but would like for them to not have too much dust, or not make too much noise. And not something that has to be heated up before they work at all. Just a good set of brakes. If they had more grip and stopping power than the ones on there now, then that would be a welcome addition. After all, you can hardly get too much stopping power.

Thanks!

I normally suggest Bendiex. Are you driving spirted? Need an upgrade over OE/replacement parts?

See if Performance Friction makes a carbon metallic pad for your application. I put them on every street driven vehicle that I have owned for the last 20 or so years. Oreilly Auto Parts usually stocks them.

there was a thread (more than 1 iirc) with some good recommendations on pads that left way less dust/debris than some of the others mentioned in that thread. Not sure how to retrieve it but here's a BTT for ya. You might also Google pad/shoe breakin procedure. EDIT What Mgoblue said sounds like a good plan (easy availability) and PF was a name I ran across when I was searching for metallic shoes for the stock car (found some NOS 60's velvetouch sintered? metallic shoes on eBay). reportedly they gobble up drums like crazy but with short runs times (like my app) they'll be perfect for me

Firm Feel's pads are great. Virtually no warm up time, long lasting, great fade resistance and rotor friendly. I will never use anything else.