golgo13

iTrader: (134)

UPDATE 8/17-18/13: Two days of intense sessions at Thunderhill in 100 degree weather with braking from 130 to 75-80 without issue. On Sunday 8/18 near the end of the day I began to feel some vibration under hard braking that was not consistent from turn to turn. This could be due to a number of factors. I'll post updates as I go. The pads are holding up quite well at my improved skill level and are now down to about 15% remaining on the front. This looks like the end of these pads. Time: 2.25:56
UPDATE 5/25/13: Ran the new set-up with the Bluestuff pads in the rear and the Orangestuff pads in the front at Laguna Seca. Please note that I installed a 2" brake ducting kit prior to this event. Time: 1:53.03
UPDATE 11/21/12: Installed the new Bluestuff pads and the high carbon rotors sent by EBC.
UPDATE 11/17/12: EBC sent me a set of Bluestuff rear pads and a set of their high carbon rotors to bed the pads with. This should sort out the issues I mentioned with the Orangestuff not heating up enough.

I'll start off by staying that this is a completely unbiased review. I do not in any way represent EBC Brakes or any of their affiliates. I'm just a dude that drives an Evo IX on the track.

Some spec info for people with similar set-ups:

Power - 291whp/300tq
Suspension - MR Bilstein/Swift Spec-R springs, Whiteline RCK
Tires - Dunlop Z1 Star Specs
Brakes - EBC Orangestuff (F/R), DBA 5000 Rotors(F), OEM Rotors(R), Stainless steel lines, ATE Super Blue fluid, Girodisc titanium shims, Binary Caliper Ducts and 2" brake ducting

Smike hooked me up with EBC to help them crowd source some reviews for their pads. I've never really heard all that much about EBC from guys in motorsports, so I wanted to see what they were all about.

Since I basically destroyed my Racing Brake ET800 pads after two track days (scroll to the bottom), EBCs timing was spot on. I had one serious track weekend left of the year, so I was determined to put my next set of pads through the paces. Buttonwillow seemed like a great place to do just that, too. EBC sent me a set of fronts and then the rears which took about two months to get, since the rears were not in stock state side.



Prior to bedding in the pads I pulled the front and rear rotors and sanded both sides of the discs to remove any prior coating to help the new peds bed properly and create a new mating surface. Bedding in was pretty straight forward. Since these pads are their most aggressive compound, I had to find a safe road in Mexico that had no traffic so I could properly bed them in at race like conditions. Once heated, their bite really came alive and felt good. At the end of the bedding in process the pedal got spongy, which was something to note. This was the last time it felt this way post bedding, however. Prior to running the pads, I bled the brakes in accordance with my normal HPDE spec.

I think I'll break down my experience with these pads as such:

Pedal Feel - Firm and solid throughout the day, both days in 95+ degree ambient weather, with 105+ on track. Brake ducting may have played a part in this.
Consistency - The car was starting to develop some vibrations under light braking in the front, this may be due to various other factors and not the pads. Braking hard at Laguna Seca with the Bluestuff in the rear was great, the issues I reported earlier with the rear end wobble was gone thanks to the lower operating temps of the Bluestuff pads in the rear.

The only thing I would recommend to anyone wanting to run these pads is to use a softer compound in the rear. I had a hard time heating up the Orangestuff compound in the rear, even under hard braking. Because of this, I was getting abnormal wobble/vibration as the rear tires were just not braking enough, unsettling the car when slowing from 130mph to ~80mph. Typically I run a softer compound in the rear, due to the fixed brake bias of 60/40 on the CT9A.

Modulation - Pads came on smooth as pedal was applied and released consistently during transitions. They also did great when trail braking. Initial bite was smooth, no surprises but I really had to work to get the deep biting without tripping the ABS.
Fade - None.
Stopping power (cold/hot) - These are track pads and they have no cold bite. Do not use them on the street. Once heated over 300F, they wake up.
Noise - None, surprisingly. I did get some light noise on track as the brakes were heating up, but that promptly went away. I assume the pads were clearing the surface of the rotor of any mile rust due to the car sitting between events.
Dust - Far less than expected. Don't worry, your super heavy show car rims are probably safe. With these pads, I was expecting a pad with insane stopping power, quite a bit of noise and lots of dust. That always seems to be the trade off with pads. You get to pick the one trait between pad longevity, noise, dust and bite that you want the most.
Longevity - So far they look to be at about 90% remaining, but that's just eyeballing them. I haven't had time to get the car up and the wheels off yet to measure the pads, but I will do that soon and update this thread accordingly.
Rotor Temps - I need to get the wheels off and check the temp paint to update this correctly.







Initial inspection and pad thickness seemed to indicate about 9.5mm of compound on the fronts and about 10mm on the rears.

















Here are the Bluestuff pads and a set of EBC high carbon rotors, courtesy of EBC for this reveiw:















Got the Bluestuff pads and rotors on:









Here is what the Racing Brake ET800 pads looked like after two track days:





I will say that from brand new to all the way down to the backing plate the ET800 pads held up 100%, but this review isn't about those pads. Here is a pic from the Thunderhill back straight in the braking zone where you can see the cloud of ET800 pad disintegrating.



I'm pretty impressed with the Orangestuff pads so far.

I've got a set of Performance Friction 08 enduro pads that were about to go on the car before I got these, but I'm quite happy with the way the Orangestuff pads have performed.

I'll be using them until they die and updating this thread as I go.

Smike

iTrader: (8)

Great review!

Looking forward to the updates as you drive on this pads more!

WRC-LVR

iTrader: (1)

excellent detailed review !!! One thought...would you use the Blue stuff in the rear pads to help the bias a bit..Supposedly they are one step down from the orange pads.

Im on the same setup and brakes except for the pads( Yellow stuff ) ,,so just wondering

Thanks for the input....

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

I think a step or two down from the EBC Orangestuff in the rear would work out quite well. I took a guess when I said Yellowstuff or Greenstuff as an optional rear pad, since I thought at a quick glance that the Bluestuff was more of an endurance pad.

I usually run aggressive street pads on the rear, and those work out just fine.

Smike

iTrader: (8)

Orange Front and Blue Rear (or Yellow) is an option.

WRC-LVR

iTrader: (1)

Yep makes sense, might be just enough to get the balance right or least stop it from wiggling around under braking.


Methinks i will get the blue stuff for the front and toss on the Orange on the front for track days.

Thanks guys,

Milburn

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

Brendan @ EBC Brakes is going to send me a set of Bluestuff for the rears, so I'll be able to get a better idea how the car does with one of their own softer compounds in the rear.

I also plan on swapping rear pads at the track on the same day to see how they differ in a much closer time interval. (Instead of waiting until the next track event to do a direct comparison) This should allow me to get a better feel for braking characteristics. I'll start with the Bluestuff for a couple of sessions and then put the Orangestuff pads in for a couple more sessions.

I'll update this thread as I go, but don't expect anything until spring.

grillpt

iTrader: (24)

Nice write-up. Always good to hear about other compounds out there that are available to us.

What kind of pricing are we looking at with these, any idea?

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

Not sure, I can try and find out.

WRC-LVR

iTrader: (1)

Thanks !! Im very interested in how the car handles under braking with the slight difference in compound.

Bump for a great review and great guy !!

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

Updated review. These pads in the evo with a 60F/40R brake bias just doesn't seem to heat up the rears enough, so something softer will more than likely be ideal.

grillpt

iTrader: (24)

Running a different set-up front to rear on the Evo is pretty common. Myself and most of the guys I track with all do this. Currently I'm running ST43's up front and XP8's out back, seems to work well. Just and fyi...

chu

iTrader: (72)

Same. I've tried running a square setup a few times with different brands of pads, and each time resulted in the rear feeling "skiddish."

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

golgo13

iTrader: (134)

Here's a video of them in action:


Also, Brendan confirmed that they're sending me a set of Bluestuff for the rears.