Hawk DTC-70 on Track: When You Need It and the 70/60 Split
DTC-70 is the pad people reach for when DTC-60 is not enough. It has more bite and a higher working temperature, and on the right car it is excellent. On the wrong car, or on the wrong tires, it is too much pad: it overpowers the grip, keeps the ABS busy and wears rotors without stopping you any shorter.
This article is part of our guide to Hawk pads for track cars. It covers when DTC-70 is actually the right call, how the DTC-70 front / DTC-60 rear split works, and what it costs. The shapes we list are in the DTC-70 collection.
What Hawk says
| DTC-60 (G) | DTC-70 (U) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating range | 400–1600°F | 400–1600°F |
| Optimal range | 700–1100°F | 800–1200°F |
| Character | High torque, good modulation and release | "Extremely high torque and highly aggressive initial bite" |
| Hawk's use | Lightweight front axles; rear of a DTC-70 split | High deceleration with or without downforce; alone or split with DTC-60 |
Hawk names one front/rear pairing for its whole range: DTC-70 with DTC-60, the DTC-60 on the axle where you want less torque: the rear. Above DTC-70 sits DTC-80 (optimal 600–1500°F), which Hawk aims at the hardest-braking circuits. Below sits DTC-60. A Civic race shop puts rough friction numbers on the gap, about 0.70 for DTC-70 against 0.61 for DTC-60. Those are a vendor's figures, not Hawk's, but they match what owners describe: the same family, with noticeably more bite and a hotter window.
What owners actually use it for
A front pad for sticky tires
Owners do not describe the DTC-70 threshold in pounds or horsepower. They describe it in tires. Advice relayed on m3post: DTC-60 generally, DTC-70 "if I were running slicks". An F8x owner on bimmerpost: DTC-60 is "good for 200TW tires", DTC-70 "probably better for race compound tires". On the M2 forum, DTC-70 is pegged for "full non DOT slicks". The one weight-and-power example we found is a Grassroots Motorsports poster running DTC-70 "on a 3000lb 500+ hp car".
Fast cars where the 60s run out
The strongest reports come from cars that put serious heat into the brakes. A NASA TT3 record-setting C7 Grand Sport ran "Hawk DTC70 front and DTC60 rear" on Girodisc rotors. A GT350 owner on trackmustangsonline called the 70/60 bite "out of this world, almost too much", with even wear after eight days, and a GT500 owner on mustang6g called the same split "AMAZING". On a Boss 302: "Usually we would run 70 front and 60 rear, since 70 is the more aggressive." A Rennlist member running DTC-70 on a Cayman and a GT3 said coaches remarked "the braking is extremely good". And on a small-brake car, FR-S drivers on ft86club found DTC-60 "wasn't enough" at Sebring; one wrote: "I'd go DTC-70's."
Which cars run it
Community practice, not Hawk's. The last column links our DTC-70 pad in that car's shape, plus the DTC-60 rear for the split.
| Car | How it's run | Our DTC-70 pads |
|---|---|---|
| BMW E46 M3 | DTC-70 front, DTC-60 rear for years by one owner; 70 at both ends "can potentially cause a dancing/unstable rear end". | Front HB464U · DTC-60 rear HB518G |
| BMW E36 M3 | One owner, with better-than-stock ducting: "good torque, and nice modulation… The backs last forever." Little data. | Front HB135U · DTC-60 rear HB227G (DTC-70 rear HB227U) |
| BMW E9x M3 | DTC-70 on slicks. One owner on 70/70 reports ABS intrusion and noise. | Front HB551U · rear HB630U |
| Porsche Cayman / 997 GT3 | One owner on both, praised by coaches. A 991 GT3 thread found DTC-60 "easier to modulate". Little data. | Boxster S / Cayman S: front HB291U · DTC-60 rear HB290G 997 GT3: front HB483U · rear HB651U (DTC-70 only) |
| Nissan 350Z Brembo | 70/60: "great cold on the street, and when they get hot they are insane" until the fronts crumbled and the rotors heat-cracked. | DTC-60 rear HB180G |
| FR-S / BRZ (2013–20) | Instructor-pace drivers move up from DTC-60. On RS3 street tires, DTC-70 "would freak the ABS out" (on a car with STI Brembos). | Front HB711U · DTC-60 rear HB671G |
| Corvette C7 / C8 | C7 Grand Sport TT3 record on 70/60; a C7 HPDE regular "happy with these". A base C8 went 70/60 after the stock pads wore out, but its cheap drilled and slotted rotors cracked. | C7 Stingray front HB453U · C7 Z06 (iron) front HB649U |
| Corvette C5 / C6 | Hawk's split applies; little readable owner data. | Base/Z51: front HB247U · DTC-60 rear HB248G Z06/GS: front HB531U or HB658U · DTC-60 rear HB532G |
| Mustang S197 GT / Boss / GT500 | 70 front, 60 rear is the usual order; some run 70 at both ends. | GT: front HB484U · DTC-60 rear HB485G Brembo / Boss / GT500 front HB453U |
| Mustang S550 | GT350 and GT500 on 70/60; another S550 ran 70 front, DTC-30 rear at Road Atlanta: "Pads worked great." | PP front HB805U |
| Camaro SS | A retailer sells a 70/60 kit for the 2016+ SS 1LE; the owner reports we found were on DTC-60. Little data. | 2016+ SS (6-piston) front HB649U 2010–11 SS front HB453U · DTC-60 rear HB194G |
Not in the table: we found no owner reports of DTC-70 on Miatas or S2000s, and none readable for the STI and Evo, although their Brembo front shape is the same as the Mustang's. F8x M2/M3/M4 owners who move up run DTC-70 front with DTC-60 or OEM rears ("I don't bother with the rear pads").
Pairings
The 70/60 split
DTC-70 front, DTC-60 rear is Hawk's own recommendation and the most common way owners run it. The logic is bias: the rear of a car under hard braking carries less load, so it needs less torque, and DTC-60 has lower friction across the whole temperature range. The E46 story shows why. An E46 M3 owner on bimmerpost warned that 70 front and rear "can potentially cause a dancing/unstable rear end", and called DTC-60 "a better on the rear". He ran 70/60 for years before changing brands, and for 200-treadwear or R-compound tires he suggests "DTC-60 front and rear, or DTC-70 front with DTC-60 rear".
70 at both ends
Hawk says DTC-70 can be run alone, and some owners do. An S197 driver ran it front and rear on the grounds that "the ABS doesn't like different pad compound". An E9x M3 owner on 70/70 said the bite sometimes triggered the ABS and unsettled turn-in. It can work on a car with the grip and balance for it, but 70/60 is the safer starting point.
What not to do
Never run DTC-60 front with DTC-70 rear. A few owners report it, and one 996 GT3 owner was even advised to, but it is the reverse of Hawk's split and of the hub's rule. Vorshlag documented the result of a racier rear on their C5: bias moved so far rearward that "not even the C5's ABS could keep up". A milder rear, such as DTC-30 on the S550 above, is fine; a hotter rear is not.
Where it falls short
- It overpowers street-type tires. On 300-treadwear tires, "DTC70 will definitely over power the tires" (F80, bimmerpost). On 200-treadwear tires, most owners stay on DTC-60. More torque than the tire can use goes into the ABS.
- ABS and modulation. Owners call it "binary" in feel, "hard to modulate", and "notorious" for being tricky. An E9x M3 regular on m3post rates it too aggressive for a mostly stock car: "Extremely high mu is not always what you want."
- It needs heat. The optimal range starts at 800°F. The same E9x regular notes DTC-60 is flat "at almost all temps versus a 70 that needs you to maintain a certain amount of heat". The E46 owner found DTC-70 "Cold brake torque was inconsistent even after multiple stops". Not everyone agrees: the 350Z owner called them "great cold on the street", and one F8x owner reports "tons of bite when cold".
- Rotor wear, especially cold. Hawk claims "superior rotor & pad wear". A Civic race shop calls DTC-70 "hard on rotors, especially when cold", a GT500 owner on mustang6g relays Hawk's advice against street use because of rotor wear when cool, and a GT500 owner running 70/60 went through about two sets of rotors a season. Swap to a street pad for the road.
- Bedding on used rotors. A Viper owner's DTC-70s would not bed on rotors that had run other pads until the rotors were resurfaced.
- Noise. The E9x owner on 70/70 would not run them on the street "because its sooo damn noisy".
- Carbon-ceramic rotors. No Hawk compound works with carbon-ceramic rotors.
DTC-70 pads ready to ship
In stock when we wrote this, for cars in the table above.
 DTC-70 Front — Mustang S197 GT (HB484U.670) $323.99 Shop on Enzuca → |
 DTC-70 Front — Corvette C7 Z06 (iron) / Camaro SS 2016+ (HB649U.605) $421.19 Shop on Enzuca → |
 DTC-70 Front — Corvette C6 Z06 / Grand Sport (HB531U.570) $417.59 Shop on Enzuca → |
 DTC-70 Front — Corvette C6 Z06 / GS, one-piece (HB658U.570) $474.29 Shop on Enzuca → |
Browse every shape in the DTC-70 collection, and the rear pads for the split in the DTC-60 collection.
The Bottom Line
Most track-day drivers do not need DTC-70. On street or 200-treadwear tires, DTC-60 gives the car all the bite the tires can use, with more forgiving modulation. Move to DTC-70 when you are on R-compounds or slicks, the car is fast or heavy enough to put real heat into the brakes, and DTC-60 is fading or running out of bite.
When you do, run it at the front with DTC-60 at the rear, as Hawk recommends. Expect more rotor wear, more noise and a pad that needs heat before it works, and keep it off the street. Tell us the car and caliper and we will confirm the shapes for both ends before you order.