135 mixed street/track pads

[tuj]

Hi all.

I have recently upgraded my track shoes (BFG R1's) and I expect I will probably be putting more load on my braking system at the track. On RFT's I was good with stock fluid and stock pads for several track days.

My question is two-fold: First, what fluid should I upgrade to?

Second, what pads (both front and rear) do you guys like as a mixed duty (call it 80/20) street/track pad? My daily commute is short and does not have time to heat up the brakes much. Also I am not willing to put up with squeal. Dust is ok though.

I have heard the stock 135 pads are about the same as Hawk HPS? I always liked HPS pads.

Thanks so much.

[RyanDavies]

Ferodo DS2500. No question.

Quiet, very progressive, easy to get heat in for daily driving, and last forever. They do dust quite a bit, but the benefits are well worth it. Given the number of pads I've tested to find this balance, I'm pretty set in this opinion.

[tuj]

Thanks RyanDavies , I went with Ferodo DS2500 front and rear as my OEM pads were starting to get a little low for the upcoming track event. They should be here in time for the next track day.

[Elsabor67]

On fluids, Motul RBF 600. That is what I currently use on my car. You can also use Ate Type 200 which is the same as Ate Super Blue Racing with the exception that it is not blue in color. difference with the Motul is that you would have to change it more frequently depending on the amount of time you spend on track.

I flush mine yearly.

[tuj]

Elsabor67 Yeah, Motul RBF600 is what I went with too.

[joeo]

Big fan of the PFC08s and the Motul fluid for track days.

[hydra]

I'm partial to Motul RBF600 and Stoptech Sport pads...

[E82MSport]

I've ran stock BMW pads, StopTech Street Performance and Performance Friction 08's on track.

BMW are ok for a few laps but as you would expect, not rated for track at all.

StopTech Street Performance are a great street pads and work ok for track. Better than BMW but not a track pad by any means. I found after a few track days the ST pads can crack. Not sure if that was a fluke but that's my experience.

PFC08's are true track pads that perform very well. With my driving style I didn't find the limits of fade after several 30+ minute sessions. I'm very happy with them but they should not be used for street unless you like noisy pads. I also wanted to mention they have very good rotor wear and long life. I've got about 600 miles worth of track laps on mine and they still have plenty of life left. There's a local performance shop that hosts private track days and the track is open all day for as much lapping as you can handle. Little more money but I usually get about 3 days worth of lapping in one day as compared to a typical open HPDE event.

[chris82]

My local shop likes Pagid RBF, it's what I've used. Very good stuff

[julienjj]

I used to be a ferrodo ds2500 guy until I tried the EBC yellowstuff. Basically the same high temps resistance, no noise and aggresive cold bite that match the oem brakes for half the price of ferrodo's. They have a friction cx of .50 in average as per EBC

They where noisy on the first 500km as explained in the notice that came with them, after a good bed-in at 500km I never heard anything from them. They are kevlar based, so their dust is a bit yellow-ish/brown.

[tuj]

julienjj looks like its going to be EBC yellowstuff's for this track day. Ferorodo has changed from making the 135i pad an "in-stock" item to a "2-3 week lead" item.

[HP Autosport]

Originally Posted by RyanDavies

Ferodo DS2500. No question.

Quiet, very progressive, easy to get heat in for daily driving, and last forever. They do dust quite a bit, but the benefits are well worth it. Given the number of pads I've tested to find this balance, I'm pretty set in this opinion.

Those are great pads, but limited availability. It took nearly 3 weeks to get a set for our customer a couple of months ago. If anyone is looking for those, order as soon as you can.

[geeyore]

Pagid RS-29 and Castrol SRF have served me well, on track and DD. Squeal is very minimal for DD. More like occasional chirping, but that seems random or maybe weather dependent. Track performance is outstanding. I run them all year and ambient temps are not a factor.

Black Apex wheels, because brake dust from Pagids is normal track pad amount (i.e., a lot) and I don't like buffing my wheels every weekend.

I'll probably go to StopTech BBK next year but I'll definitely be sticking with RS-29's and SRF.

Front end bite of Pagids is .... ummmm.... "grippy" but this is what you want for threshold braking. Once inside the initial grip there is plenty of modulation.

There was a time when I used HPS and HP+. The former no good for track and the latter sounded like a school bus on the street.

[uberschnell]

Originally Posted by geeyore

There was a time when I used HPS and HP+. The former no good for track and the latter sounded like a school bus on the street.

Hawk has the HPS 5.0, HP+ performance with HP quite and low dust. From HAWK "5.0 is our latest offering. It is an improvement on HPS, in that it adds more break torque, initial bite, and lower dust.
We plan on phasing out the original HPS over the next 12 months."

Yellow are really good pads for track, they do wear out rotors and can be a little loud on street. Your fluid will probably boil over before the yellows fade

DS2500 are fantastic on street, never tried them on track. Expensive

[froop]

Curious to see how you go with the EBC Yellows. I hear conflicting information about them. Some really like them, some say they are rubbish.

I personally use Castrol SRF fluid and I'm currently using ProjectMu HC+/HC800 pads. They definitely can handle more heat than the DS2500s that I used before but they can be very noisy and is the dust is pretty full on.

[AlexR6]

Originally Posted by RyanDavies

Ferodo DS2500. No question.

Quiet, very progressive, easy to get heat in for daily driving, and last forever. They do dust quite a bit, but the benefits are well worth it. Given the number of pads I've tested to find this balance, I'm pretty set in this opinion.

Last forever? They lasted 6 trackday... and on one side friction material suddenly detached from the steel carrier resulting in a destroyed rotor!
Obviously my fault but this means they're good for 5/6 trackdays maximum... and if you have a 135i, maybe less!