I haven't investigated ceramic pads for the Golf R but based on the Hawk Ceramic Compound Performance Pads I have on my A4, which has huge RS4 front calipers and B7 S4 rears, I'd try them as they are quiet, generate negligible dust and are easy on the rotors.
Hawk HPS brake pads
I like my Hawk HP Street 5.0 pads and both were purchased from TireRack and helped increase my stopping power.
Ferodo DS2500 are a great compromise pad. They’re a bit more on the race side of things but I never had issues with them being sketchy. Just get a bit of heat into them early to make sure they’re there.
I'm going to tell you ferodo DS 1.11. Street driven on them a ton very easy on rotors. Endurance pad, much better than other things I see mentioned a lot like it blows my mind when people think RSL29s are better. I don't have an M3 but I have a 330ci which has the same brakes, and I've had lots of other cars from Corvettes to Mustangs and camaros. Have run that compound a ton.
I am quite happy with Hawk HP+ on my NB.
I think they work just fine. They squealed a bit even after running them in, it stopped however after the first track day where i properly cooked the brakes.
Recently completed my HPDE and by the end of the day my stock pads were completely gone. Got my front rotors and all my pads replaced soon after that. I went for the Ferodo DS2500 pads. While bedding my pads, I noticed the brake feeling/bite is quite nice when braking at around 50-60% pressure, but once I tried emulating track style braking (i.e hitting brake pedal very hard) I noticed that my brake pedal was vibrating/rattling and also felt some sort of scraping was going on. This would happen even when hitting brakes hard from low speeds of ~30 mph. It's felt entirely on the front brakes. ABS did not engage, so I don't think the vibrations are from that. The obvious visible difference I see is the use of high temp brake lube from the shop.
Hawk HPS 5.0 front and rear.
They dust the same as what came on my car from the factory, the first 1k miles they felt like they needed some extra heat in them to get a "normal" feel but by the time I left my neighborhood it was fine. Either I'm used to it now or it went away.
I swapped to Hawk HP+ as a hybrid but ultimately I hated them on both street and track. They worked fine though.
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