Brake pads Carbotech or OEM Mazda
I am currently using Carbotech XP10's in front and the XP8's for the rears. I really like them and have not had an issue so far. Plus the company has great customer service. They are definitely NOT a street pad, and I need to swap them the night before a track meet and put street pads on the day after, but the effort is worth it.
I just replaced my pads all around with Carbotech so i get majorly reduced brake dust and just OEM rotors.
If you KNOW you're going to be doing a lot of track days, you definitely want to go straight to some full blown track pads, at least for when you're at the track, along with fluid.
With the XP8s I had, I left early and bed my pads in on the way to the track.
Running Carbotech XP8 and XP10 here. They’re great on track, and also very usable on the street. I’m currently not switching back to my EBC Yellowstuff pads because the Carbotechs aren’t bad enough on the street to justify me switching pads (yes I’m a being a little lazy). They dust like mad though and are quite squeaky.
I inherited a 2011 cx7 from my parents who purchased this car new. They have always kept care of their vehicles. This is a non turbo model. Other than normal maintenance items they had replaced the AC compressor. Since I took it over in 2020, I replaced drive side front wheel bearing and passenger front caliper, brake pads all the way around plus normal maintenance items. 320,000km runs perfectly.
The xp12s are beasts. I pulled brake bias 1-click from full rear to get them balanced on level braking. This gives me one click for more rear, which was really enough for the track. I love late braking, and I can hammer these on a 20min session with NO change in performance.
I sometimes daily drive on Carbotech XP10 front XP8 rear, and they’re totally fine but they dust and squeak like mad. First braking when cold isn’t super grabby but totally doable for a daily driver pad. They’re grabby once warmed up on the street but nothing to be worried about. I’ve gotten ~10,000 miles of driving and two TNIA track nights on a 450hp 3500lb car, and i suspect they can last a lot longer than that based on the pad wear I’m seeing.
My cx9 was at 3mm on the rears at 52k. Get a caliper compression kit and it yourself. It's not very hard. I did my rears a month back in my driveway for $130.
I put OEM Brakes on my ‘19 3 GT AWD. I’m 20K KM into them, and they pulse like mad when I brake above 90KM/h. Absolute fucking trash. The factory brakes also did this, above 90KM, but started around 50K into their life.
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