This has been a week of fast decelerations and obviously fast accelerations all the time, all in the name of testing for the forum of course.

With these race pads, deceleration becomes really fun, as their bite is so damn good, and it only gets better the harder you use them.

An old quote from 2006:
“If I would rate the 3 different pads on a scale from 0 to 10, then EBC Redstuff is about 8.5, the Hawk Ceramic 9.25 and the Pagids 421 a 10. Compared to the standard small brakes I had before they would rate a 5!”

Since then I have used the Hawk ceramics (4 sets), and now than these RS15. If I would have to scale that one, it would be a 12, and even more when hot, and more if glowing hot.

The thing that kept me away from black pads being it pagid 421 or others, where that they would dust so badly with my driving style, I would have had to clean the wheels every week, otherwise it would be hard to get the tare like stuff off. Cleaning isn’t one of my favorites. The Hawk Ceramics (besides being excellent pads with good braking power) gave very low dust, and as its grey it doesn’t get noticed to early even.

The RS15 do dust more, but then again I have had them work all week, and its greyish as well. I could even spray it off with water easily just now.

The pads did squeal a bit, and it was the rears only (at least so far). I have temporarily put back the hawk ceramics at the rear, and indeed it proved only that one caused it. Next week I will try some anti-squeal stuff and also chamfer the pads. Will also grind the disc better for bedding in, I could only do the outside for the rears as I was a little lazy to take off the calipers.

So all in all, I can still recommend the Hawk Ceramics, good braking power, low dust and no squeal.

But, the Pagid RS15 are something else, it makes me want to brake much more, fantastic pads, but a risk for squeal (which I am willing to take).

 

Subscribed, I am needing some brakes soon, so this is very interesting to me.

My main concerns are low dust (the stock pads I have on it now are good, but damn do they make a lot of dust), good initial bite, and longevity, but to still have something that won't melt if I ever take it to the track. From what I'm hearing it sounds like the Red Stuffs or Hawk Ceramics are my best bets. But I've run Hawk HPS pads on my Mustang for a good while now, and have been dissapointed in the initial bite and dust characteristics of them. Are the ceramics significantly better?

And SeanB, do you have a writeup anywhere on how you installed the Alcons? This sounds like something I may want to try. But are you running the 400mm rotors? I'd like to stay with 18" wheels, which obviously isn't possible with rotors that huge. So do the Alcons work with 355mm rotors? I've been thinking about the Brembo swap, but have always been more impressed with Alcons calipers.

 

If you mean initial bite when the brakes are cold than I would guess that the Hawk Ceramics are maybe a tad less than the HPS. But once warmed up the initial bite of the ceramics is better. Dust wise they are great, so low dust and grayish in colour, so better than the HPS.

I found the cold bite of the Red stuff not good, they needed to be hot almost before it was getting good, so I was glad to experience the Hawk ceramics afterwards. EBC back than gave me the advice to go to the Yellow stuff version, but as I already moved to the Hawks I didn't try them anymore, but on paper they indeed looked better than the redstuff ones.

But this is on the 355 discs, have no idea what how different pads would work on the smaller stock rotors.

 

Red Stuff are not the best choice for the XJ8's; I used mines for 5-6000 miles and they killed the new EBC discs (there is pad composition transferred to the discs, making their surface rough and vibrating.
The guys were fair play and replaced them with Yellow Stuff, their recommendation for our Jags. The Red Stuff are recommended for double piston calipers or front wheel drive vehicles.

 

Yikes! I'll keep a good watch on the rotors. How hot did you get them?

 

I use the TEXTAR 2329301 ,Porsche uses Textar as original equipment .
The give a bit brake dust but work really well.

 

Just an update. So far I have driven with the Pagid RS15 on the fronts and Hawk ceramics on the rear as the RS15 squealed too much there.

Last Friday I put back to RS15 on the rear, used anti squeal plates, sanded the discs for some good brake in, but unfortunately the squeal came back very quickly.

Have put the Hawk back on the rears and all is quiet again. Will keep using the RS15 on the fronts (just love them), and for now also the Hawks on the back, though will see if I can find a different pad for the back in the future.

 

I got my Redstuff pads pretty hot today, did 20 laps on a racetrack. No problems so far. The rotors are slotted Black Diamonds.

 

Thats the thing with Redstuff, they need to be hot to work decent, which is right for the track but then there the RS15 are a leage on their own again (also more expensive though).

 

That's weird, I didn't notice any difference with the Redstuffs hot vs. cold. Nothing like Ferodo DS2500 or DS3000 which really need to be heated.

I will try the RS15 pads next for sure.

 

That i use:

Brake pads BOSCH 0 986 424 828 = 130 Euro
Brake pads TRW GDB1064 = 105 euro
FERODO FDB577 = 85 euro

 

Welcome to the forum Octavian,

Please post in New Member Area - Intro a MUST section to introduce yourself to all the members and tell us something about yourself and your vehicle.

Follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

Information on part numbers depends on the supplier and cost depends on where you are located.

Graham

 

Quick description of my experience, might help:

I recently went ahead and put some Red Stuffs on my 2000 XJR. Stock 325mm front brakes and 305 rears. Went with some stock replacement Brembo blank rotors and the afore mentioned EBC pads.

Impressions:
-VERY good stopping power for a streetable pad. They will absolutely stand the car on it's nose.
-Very good initial bite and feel. They pull down very strongly, but aren't at all grabby.
-They work great from dead cold. No heating required.
-Fade resistance is solid. They will go away some after repeated VERY hard braking, but for even mild track use they are plenty heat resistant.
-So far, good dust properties. They dust much less than the pads that came with the car, and much less than the Hawk HP+ I have on my Mustang.

 

Update,

I switched from Red Stuff to Akebonos for my front pads.

I like the Akebonos better, plenty of good braking, no squeaks and near zero dust.

The Red Stuff pads, for me, made more dust than the Akebonos. Both stop fine for on road use.

 

I guess I'll throw in my 10k mile later impressions on my RedStuffs.

-Squeaky. Squeaky squeaky squeaky. Nothing helps. Hate to drive with my window down because of the squeal.
-Fairly dusty. They seem to dust more and more the older they get. Not horrible, but pretty dusty, even for a moderate performance pad.
-Bite is pretty good and fade resistance is good though.

Think I'm going to move to the Akebono Ceramics next. So I'm kind of damning with faint praise on the EBCs. They're OK, but not good enough to keep me from looking for something better.

 

"So I'm kind of damning with faint praise on the EBCs. They're OK, but not good enough to keep me from looking for something better." <--- Well said, my sentiments exactly.