Their performance on track is astonishing, they have never faded and haul the car up exceptionally well. However, they are compromised on the road, squealing/shrieking at the tops of their voice when stopping gently in traffic, making a lot of dust and being too grabby from cold. Heel and toe is a challenge on the road when driving at a normal pace, usually involving a bit of a lurch. My wife also hated the strength of the brakes after driving her car for a month or two (Fiat Panda 100HP).
A new set for front and rear would have been just under £500 delivered, so time to try something else. I got a very good discount going direct to EBC and chose Blue Stuff NDX, which came in at around £140 delivered! At that price they are never going to be as good but I could forgive a loss in outright performance if they stayed silent and were more progressive on the road. They arrived in good time, and I fitted them just over a week ago along with new BMW rear discs (same worn front PF discs on AP bells). The pads slotted straight in with no modifications and sweep the full braking surface.
A cross country Wales and Anglesey trip took place this weekend (more on this later, I'll start a new thread), so bedding in took place on the drive up there, with no problems to report and glorious silence at all times.
On track they were as predicted, not as strong as the RS29, but performed well enough in 15-20 minute sessions. Anglesey is quite hard on brakes for our heavy cars with a few big stops and not a great deal of time to cool. It was a busy day with lots of traffic which meant braking at unusual times and perhaps more than would be needed on a clear track. On one occasion whilst leading (and trying to get away from) Tom's Z4M I carried a lot of speed through the right hand kink (130mph) and tried to brake in the short straight before Rocket. I'd left the braking too late and over-ran, keeping the car straight, thankfully there is a tarmac run off so I turned around to face a surprised looking Tom driving towards me, before I re-joined the track.
I'd initially felt that the pads had faded, with no ABS intervention despite a firm pedal and very firm pressing from me, but on listening to the video the ABS was fine, I was just being unrealistic at how short a distance I could stop. Still, no harm done, a couple of cool down laps and all was fine for the rest of the day. Pagid RS 29
+
Very strong, fade free performance, long lasting, an excellent track and race pad
-
Cost, dust, noise, sharp on the road
EBC Blue Stuff NDX
+
Good, progressive performance for the price, silent, low dust, cheap, a very good road and track pad
-
Requires a little more pedal effort, not quite as sharp feeling when first pressing the pedal.
Edited on the strength of video evidence that shows that the fade I thought I experienced was simply down to optimistic braking distance, my fault!
Was amusing for sure, but I think the first time ever I've seen you outbrake yourself.
