Goat, there is a great BIG "yes, but" that was not covered in their answer. Discounting the traction available on a given piece of pavement, there ARE some variables that can be addressed that can shorten braking distances; weight (progressively expensive as weight is reduced), TIRES (not nearly as expensive), and front/rear balance (tricky to address). They are completely correct about consistency.
Let me share what I have learned over the years of soloing many different cars and how the Sky was addressed. With about 8,000 miles and less than one season of solo I had KILLED the front pads. There was plenty of material left but they had been overheated too many times, were fading quickly, and were starting to disintegrate. The rears were almost unworn. Reasons: The stock pads are good to about 500 degrees and so is DOT 3 fluid. Although solo is not all that demanding on brakes (NOTHING like track days where stock pads could fail in a few hard 10 lap sessions) it is still stressful. Also, typically GM biases the brakes to the front (liability is the dominant factor) beyond the normal amount of work the fronts do over the backs - that's why the front disks, calipers, pads, and fluid circuit are bigger than the back. Putting big disk kits on the front without doing the same to the rear will further bias the balance to the front. (Vendors have all said, in phone calls, that they are gauging acceptance - sales - of the front kits before investing in rears, but they are starting to show up.) In my case, I installed Hawk Plus pads on the rear with Hawk HPS front pads. (I actually DON'T like the HPS pads very much, personal feel issue, but used them because I don't like to mix and match brands when there are "sets" involved.) Once everything bedded in there was a very real difference in stopping feel and response, BETTER. With DOT 4 installed the system is now good to about 650 degrees and is nearly 100% fade free. NOW, all four corners are doing nearly equal work once the car has taken a "set" in braking and actually does not dive as much as the rears are helping more. The other easy to address factor is tires. The GXP equipped Goodyears are 220 TPC rated tires which are okay, but in cold weather they do not work as well as in warmer weather. Tires with a lower TPC rating will generally have a better level of grip, BUT, construction and tread design are important as well. If the same 220 TPC tire was available as a, say, 180 rating there would be some improvement in stopping distances all other things being equal. The down side is shorter tire life. (Ask anybody with Pirelli P Zeros and Michilen Pilots.) All that said, physics ALWAYS wins, and lower weight can be stopped quicker. A Sol 2.4 Z0K (about 2700 pounds) WILL out stop a GXP (about 3050 pounds) any day. And when I have my Hoosiers on (TPC 40 !!!) my car stops WAY quicker than with the Goodyears.
