I've done lots of brakes for myself and family. Well designed brake system, easy to change front pads. After some of the other repairs I've done to this car the brakes were a piece of cake.

 

Probably because the R has a fixed caliper brake system and almost everything else you have worked on is a sliding caliper design. No need to remove the caliper to change pads on a fixed caliper system.

The later R's (2006-2008) got rid of the Brembo's with the fixed caliper and went back to the regular sliding caliper for those last 2 years.
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Yes I found it to be easy too. Just replace pads on all four corners.