Brake pads Hawk Performance or OEM Mercedes
Centric high-carbon rotors and Hawk HP Street 5.0s. Less initial bite than the OEM pads, but more stopping force with higher pedal pressures and much less dust.
I run Hawk hps 5 and have had a great experience with them the past 2 years. Seem to have improved stopping power and they produce less dust.
For pads I'm having pretty good success with the new Hawk Ceramic 5.0. I run those on my GLI(with Golf R calipers/brakes) and on the .:R. I was surprised for light track duty they were ok on both cars. Not a full on track pad to be clear. They are also a high torque pad so they have really good bite.
I'm using Hawk HPS pads and Raybestos Advanced rotors. No issues with braking, much stronger than the stock equipment. Still limited by the tires.
I consider my W204 C63 visceral, even if not analog. The 6.2 V8 makes all kinds of nasty noises you would not expect from a Mercedes and it howls all the way up to 7200rpm, which may not be that high, but still impresses me given the size of the engine. The car is quick, noisy and has the brakes to back it up.
I like the Hawk HPS 5.0 pads, but I'm not sure if they will be good on the track or not.
if you are sick and tired of scrubbing your wheels then i would highly recommend ceramic pads as the dust is a fraction of the OEM pads. I just changed out mine a few months ago (hawk ceramic from pelican parts) and the change is night and day. I don't track may car and i would say i'm mildly spirited in my driving, but these have been great so far.
I had about 21,000 kms on my GLI and noticed a little bit of vibration at higher speed braking. I was sick of the OEM pads dust so I swapped out the pads to Hawk HPS street 5.0's. The front rotors had a ton of wear on it for a relatively new car. I heard from a few shops that the OEM pads eat rotors. I decided to change the front rotors but kept the rears as there was hardly any wear on it. Brake pedal feels much more solid and next to no brake dust and better braking power. Great upgrade and strongly recommend.
They are absolutely not track pads. They fill this awkward in-between in which they have the coefficient of friction and modulation of good aggressive street pads but also dust and make tons of noise in street usage.
I'm not happy with HPS 5.0 on my M3- I'm probably going to switch back to "regular" Hawk HPS, as they have worked for me on quite a few cars.
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