Stoptech Street Performance Pads - Review
 

So after 1700 miles of driving on my 2012 GSR I got fed up with the amount of dust they produce, this isn't my daily and usually only sees about 200 miles a month or less every time i take it out even for less than 10 miles the wheels come back black. It makes it even worse that i have SBC RPF1's and the slightest hint of dust makes them look dull and dirty. I have however been happy with the stock brembo made by ferodo pads. They have good initial cold bite and at least on the street have been fade free. I don't have any track usage so i can't make any claims there. My biggest complaint with the stock pads are DUST. After doing lots of research it came down to the Stoptech Street Performance pads or the Girodisc Magic pads. I've read a few negative reviews of the magic pads being noisy and having horrible cold bite. Stoptech generally had positive reviews. I found a set front and rear for $90 shipped and decided to pull the trigger. Install was very straight forward and takes about an hour for all four corners. According to stoptech these don't need to be bedded in but i went ahead and did 5 medium stops from 50-10 and 7 from 80-20. and let the brakes cool. went out for a drive and wow the brakes feel great. zero noise, great cold bite, better than stock and for street driving no fade at all. again i wouldn't use these for a track day but they might hold up OK for an autocross. as for the dust on the stock pads i couldn't drive 10 miles without having to clean the wheels. i washed the wheels prior to installing these, bedded them in and went for about an 80 miles drive and came back, wheels still look great, a very very light dusting but not nearly as bad as the stock pads. something i can live with, as these are a more street perfromance pad. I would def recommend these. dust less than the HPS and DS2500 i had on my old STi. and can't beat the price either.

Wait till you see how good they make the rotors look. Its a like a mirror finish. That is the one thing I noticed with these pads after about 1000 km of use.

They are great performers. Keep us in the loop on how you like it over time.

I think the biggest drawback that you will encounter is it's initial cold bite in the colder months. If your not prepared for it. Your first stop at a stop sigh may wake you up a bit ;) After 2 stops, no issues :)

these will be my next pads. Seem to receive great reviews across the board.

I like them. For me it's these or Ferodo DS2500 if you want something a little more "sport" for a little more cash and more dust.

- Andrew

i had the ds2500's on my sti, really liked them, great for the street, could take some heat without fading, but they did dust more than the stoptech, but a bit less than the stock pads. i don' t have any facts to prove it but i would guess the ferodo's would stand up to more heat than the stoptech's would, ferodos were def more than enough for autocross, never tracked them but i think they'd do better than the stoptechs, but for the track 3500's were great.

A mirror finish would entail a glazed rotor, thats bad. That might be why you think the pads have bad cold bite, these are street pads they do not need to be warmed up.

I agree with your review; after a 2,532 mile roadtrip my wheels are still very clean considering the amount of miles, road grime, etc. When it comes time to replace this set I'll probably get them again.

Well, I have used them in the winter time and I seem to always encounter this on all my cars with the 309's. The first initial stop in the winter time is not their. When I compare that to the semi ceramics, extended wear centric pads, + HawkHPS and EBC Reds, they dont encounter this issue. Nore to the promote a clean surface as I described earlier. Of course all pads meant for street use.

Typically you do not need to warm up the StopTech pads... but on really cold/wet winter days... the cold temperature really affects them. When the car has been parked for a while... my first stop on one of these winter days can be much longer than usual. After that first stop the car is relatively fine. Also driving on the highway I hit the brakes every once in a while just to keep temperature or else once again... your braking performance will become worse the first time you try to stop.

Also keep in mind that we are in Canada... not Southern California like you... so our low temperatures are really low by comparison... lol

Had stoptech street pads on my car before. it works great for DD and weekend!:fire:
Right now I am on Ferodo DS2500.:D

Ray are you still running these pads? how many miles did they last you?

Pretty sure he sold his car last year....but I'm on these pads and have had them for about 5k miles and a few track days

I'm on my second set of Stoptech Street Pads on the front and I love them for DD. I got about 13K out of the first set that included maybe three low intensity HPDEs, but my daily commute is not brake intensive. The pads still had a bit of life left but I figured I'd start with new DD and track pads when I replaced my front rotors last summer.

I did an HDPE with the Stoptechs a few weeks ago (because I was too lazy to change to my ST43s) and came to the realization that the Street Pads don't cut it at the track anymore. I wore the rear pads (with maybe 15K) down to almost nothing due to traction control saving my ass (trying to learn how to trail brake the hairpins at Sonoma).

Seems like these are getting great reviews. Think im going to pull the trigger on them now