Brake pads R1 Concepts or Hawk Performance
Hawk HPS 5.0 pads, Raybestos AT. I'm on my 4th? set of front pads+rotors after 125k miles. Rears are still the stock.
Blank rotors and Hawk HPS 5.0 pads. I’ve been running them for almost a decade, and I’m always surprised at how long they last and how little dust they make for how aggressive as they are.
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.
I am quite happy with Hawk HP+ on my NB.
Hawk DTC 50 or 60 on front, DTC 10 on rear. Squeals for sure! Works great with cheap stock rotors and toyo RA-1 or RR... Its my daily (300k km) and now backup track car when weather is iffy
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 ran HP+ pads and nearly ruined some STI Rays wheels I ordered from Japan. The key to cleaning the dust off is using a cleaner that has an iron remover. Sonax makes a good one. Meguiar's all wheel cleaner also works OK. I had to treat each wheel about 5x with a soft bristle brush and still ended up using a blue Scotch Brite to get the hard deposits of dust. I ended up removing some paint in some indescreet locations. I was super bummed. I no longer run these pads and run ceramics for the street. I plan to run more aggressive pads when needed, but haven't picked anything yet. The HP+ are great. The modulation is amazing. The bite, even when cold, is awesome. But there's a major trade off.
after about halfway through the second session I began to feel a fluttering under hard braking. Some light shaking of the steering wheel. No noticeable pulling left or right. No noticeable brake fade.
Fast forward to the next day. I noticed this black gunk on my front pads. The rears look good as new.
Under normal conditions my Hawk-30 pads squeak. Now I am noticing a rhythmic squeaking when I brake at street speeds.
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