Depending on the track the factory pads may be adequate for your first day, but a more aggressive and higher temp pad would be my recommendation because nothing will up the "pucker factor" like your brake pedal going to the floor. A pad like the Hawk HPS 5.0 is what I'd consider to be minimally acceptable for street tires on an average track. I'm a big fan of GLOC pads and I can confirm their R8 compound on all 4 corners works great on the GTI/R/A3/S3 for street tires.
I bought the Zimmerman kit with ceramic pads from FCPEuro for $530 front and rear and did the work myself.
Hawk makes the DTC series for the 718 base. Can't go wrong with the DTC-30 for a pad that you can drive back and forth to the track and will perform very well on track. The dust is nasty and corrosive though, so I'd recommend cleaning the wheels and changing the pads out for street duty.
I had Hawk HP+. They were extremely noisy and dusty, very strong bite though. I now have the standard Hawk HP pads, no noise and far less dust. Not as much initial bite, but still really great performance. I wouldn’t swap back to the HP+ after having both.
Have used these for a while now and will be getting them again to pair up with some DBA t3 rotors
Hawk (no, not that Hawk) pads work well, bedding in process is straightforward, and they only squeaked for a first few hundred miles or so when coming to a dead stop.
I autocross mine. With whatever pads the last guy used and old fluid, I could put the brake pedal to the floor without activating ABS. I swapped out pads for hawk hps 5.0 and put on new standard rotors and now I can stop almost instantly. I very highly recommend the hps 5.0.
i like the HAWK HPS 5.0 pads. they've been pretty good for daily driving.
I only daily as well but I did a slight upgrade due to some spirited runs each year. I did Hawk ceramics and DBA T2 rotors. Theyre enjoyably different but likely overkill.
Complete ripoff. Subaru tried that years ago on my STI, I bought Hawk track pads and did it myself (as I would have done anyway). The dealer tried the ol' "These are high end calipers and the pads are much more difficult to change". I just said "Please stop lying to me, you're eroding trust between us" and left. Easiest brakes ever.
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