Brakes don't bite hard
 

Some other Evo owners drove my car (03 USDM Evo 8) and said my brake pedal feel isn't at-par w/ how Evo brembos should feel. At the track, I needed to use engine braking to stop in time for corners. Honestly, I thought this was normal (I was an inexperienced track driver and I am still a noob into Evo ownership) until other people (my mechanic, my tuner, both well-versed in Evos) drove my car and remarked weak braking feel. I tried emergency braking one time in an empty lot and I felt some vibration towards the end of the braking distance which leads me to think that the ABS is working properly.

Others:
Rotors and pads (both Dixcel) installed early 2021 but car was barely used (<1500 miles) as it went through a whole restojob
No ABS indicators on dash
Brembo calipers repainted to blue around 1 yr ago (during the restojob)
Brakes have been manually bled multiple times, no improvement

We're thinking the problem is the Hydrovac (aka Brake Booster) and/or the Brake master cylinder. I have trouble finding Evo-specific parts for these. Has anybody used the ones from the regular Lancer? Or from other cars?

I got mine biting aggressively with Valvoline fluid and Hawk StreetRace 5.0 pads. i lost it when I changed to Castrol SRF, so I'm about to try Motul 600. If that doesnt work I'll have to try something else or go back to Valvoline

what is a hydrovac

thats brake booster. not sure why its called that back in the islands :)

Track brakes
 

I ended up with the raybestos ST43 and the girodisc 2 part rotors up front, along with a stainless steel brake lines. I run the hawk HPS 5.0 in rear and used to have standard rotors in rear, although I have now upgraded to girodisc 2 part in the rear as well. I tried several hawk compounds in front and was never happy with it, either too loud or not enough bite. The ST43 is a dedicated track pad and it is pretty annoying to daily drive, but can be done. Be aware that they and any track pad is dusty and will damage the rims and body paint over time. Flip side is nothing beats a dedicated track pad on track for initial bite, withstanding high temps, and keeping brake assembly temps lower. Previous to moving to a track pads and 2 part giro disc rotors I would boil fluid and warp rotors. Mosul 600 worked well for me as well, but it is one piece of the equation. If you have to use the gear box to slow things down, the car really isn't in a safe state to be on track you are leaving yourself very little margin for error. Having confident brakes makes a night and day difference on track. Next step for me is to upgrade to AP racing brake kit, but its an investment and you don't need to start there to really enjoy track days, on stock HP at least.

It might be due to your brake pads falling apart due to being overheated. You can bleed brake fluid again and again but if you dont see any air come out then look at other components.

I realized this when I ran different brake pads. My pedal feel was always sub par but that is because I never changed the brake pads for a long time. Once I took out the old brake pads I saw that they were easy to chip and would crumble from a light touch. I got a different set of pads with new shims and put them in. This made the pedal feel stiff again and instilled a higher level of confidence going into braking zones.

My theory is street pads can be overheated and the glue holding them together will fail. This will cause a weak pedal feel since they are now structurally compromised.