DBA Brakes now available at Tegiwa & The Brake Shop
Look closely at the edge of a DBA performance disc and you will see three painted stripes: green, orange and red. They are not decoration. Each one permanently changes colour once the disc gets past a certain temperature. Come in from a track session, glance at the edge of the disc, and you can see exactly how hard your brakes have been working.
Even better, those three colours match DBA’s three performance pad compounds. If the green stripe has changed, the disc is telling you it is time to move up a pad. No guesswork, no data logging, no maths.
That is a good example of how DBA think, and we are pleased to say the full range is now available at both Tegiwa and The Brake Shop.
Who are DBA?
Disc Brakes Australia have been making brakes for over forty years. They supply discs to car manufacturers as well as building their own performance range, and they make everything themselves rather than buying in castings and putting a sticker on the box.
Everything they make is a direct replacement, which means it bolts straight onto your car with no brackets, no spacers and no modifications. You get a proper upgrade while keeping standard fitment.
The discs
DBA split their discs into three levels. Here is what you actually need to know about each.
Street Series: for road cars
This is your quality replacement disc for a daily driven car. It is not a cheap disc, it is a properly made one, with better cooling than a standard item thanks to DBA’s “Kangaroo Paw” vent design (more on that below) and a precision machined face that helps avoid brake judder later on.
Best for: daily drivers, road cars, SUVs and vans.
You can have them plain or slotted, if you want them to look good through the spokes. There is also an EnShield option, which is coated all over so the discs stay looking clean instead of going rusty after the first sign of rain.
4000 Series: for fast road and track days
This is the one most of our customers will want. Same direct fitment, but now with high carbon iron, a heat treatment process that makes the disc far more resistant to cracking, and the colour changing temperature stripes.
Best for: fast road cars, spirited driving and regular track days.
The version to go for is the T3 slotted. The slots give the pad something to bite into and give brake dust and gases somewhere to escape, so the brakes feel the same on lap six as they did on lap one. The slot pattern is symmetrical, so there is no left and right disc to get mixed up when you are fitting them.
There is also an XD version if you prefer a cross drilled look, and a plain HD version.
One honest bit of advice: if your car does regular track days, choose the slotted T3 rather than a drilled disc. Drilled discs look great and are fine on the road, but DBA themselves do not recommend them for sustained track use. Slots are the tougher option once you are putting real heat through them.
5000 Series: the top of the range
These are two-piece discs. The iron braking ring is bolted to a lightweight aluminium centre rather than being cast as one solid lump, and the difference is significant.
You save around 1.5kg per front disc depending on the car. That weight is unsprung and spinning, which is the best possible place to lose it. Your suspension works better and the steering feels lighter.
They also handle heat better, because the iron ring is free to expand as it gets hot instead of being locked to the centre, and the aluminium centre keeps heat away from your wheel bearings.
The clever part is the cost over time. When the braking rings wear out you replace just the rings and keep the aluminium centres. Over two or three sets, that adds up.
Best for: serious track cars, club racing and rally.
What is “Kangaroo Paw”?
Every disc has vents running through the middle to let cooling air pass through. Most manufacturers use straight fins. DBA instead use 144 small pillars shaped like diamonds and teardrops.
Two things happen. There is roughly 30 percent more surface area for air to cool, and the disc runs about 20 percent cooler than a straight fin design. It also makes the disc physically stronger.
Cooler brakes means less fade, a better pedal, and discs and pads that last longer.
The pads
Four options, and the three performance compounds are colour coded to match the stripes on the disc.
Street Series: Your standard replacement pad. Quiet, very low dust, made for normal driving. The dust it does produce is a light colour, so your wheels stay looking cleaner.
Street Performance (green): The best all round choice for a fast road car. Noticeably better bite than a standard pad, but still quiet, still low dust, and still happy from cold on the first roundabout of the morning. Works well up to around 438 degrees C. This is what we would recommend for most road going Hondas.
Xtreme Performance (orange): The track day pad. Stronger bite, and crucially it keeps that bite as the temperature climbs, all the way to around 550 degrees C. It is also the right choice if you tow heavy loads.
Be aware it makes more dust and wears faster than the green pad. That is simply the price of more grip. Also worth knowing: more bite is not always better. On a lighter car, a very aggressive pad on the rear can make the car harder to control in the wet. DBA often recommend running the orange pad on the front and the green on the rear, which gives you the stopping power where it matters without upsetting the balance.
Race Performance (red): A full race pad for circuit and sprint use, designed to work above 350 degrees C and stay consistent beyond 630 degrees C. It is not suitable for road driving and DBA are clear about that. It is also only available for selected cars, so enter your vehicle reg to see if these are available.
Which combination should you buy?
| How you use your car | Discs | Pads |
|---|---|---|
| Daily driver | Street Series | Street Series or Street Performance |
| Fast road, occasional blast | 4000 Series T3 | Street Performance (green) |
| Fast road plus regular track days | 4000 Series T3 | Xtreme Performance (orange) |
| Dedicated track or race car | 5000 Series T3 | Xtreme or Race Performance |
| Racing to a standard-appearance rule | 4000 Series HD | Xtreme Performance (orange) |
Still not sure? Tell us the car, roughly what power it makes, and how often it sees a circuit. We will point you at the right setup rather than the most expensive one.
Bed them in properly
New discs and pads need bedding in. That means a series of firm stops from moderate speed, getting progressively harder, without coming to a complete stop at the end of each one. This lays an even layer of pad material onto the disc face.
The one thing to avoid is sitting with your foot on the brake at a standstill when everything is hot. That leaves a patch of pad material on the disc and gives you a pulsing pedal that most people then wrongly blame on a warped disc. DBA include a bed-in card in the box, so follow it.
Why buy your DBA brakes from us
We have been supplying performance parts to enthusiasts for twenty years, and we buy and drive this stuff ourselves. When you ring up with a question about which pad suits your car, you are talking to someone who has fitted them.
Free UK delivery on all orders over £150. No minimum basket games and no surprise charges at the checkout.
Worldwide shipping. We send parts all over the world every day, so wherever your project is, we can get the parts to it.
Payment plans for UK customers. A full set of discs and pads is a sensible thing to spread out, and we offer a range of payment options so you can do exactly that.
Advice before you buy. Brakes are the one thing on a car worth getting right. If you are not certain what you need, ask us first.
The full DBA range is live now at tegiwa.com and thebrakeshop.co.uk.