Brake pads Akebono or Carbotech

2500 pads are a great pad, I dd those and have tracked with them. Carbotech makes great track pads that can be driven on the street, have a set on the Z06 and they take a beating at the track.

Akebono ceramic pads (ACT888) - not much brake dust, good cold bite, good wet bite. EBC rotors. Rockauto will have them - great website, btw. I got EBC simply because the rotor hats are painted black. My g35 had the rotor hats with a red ring of rust on them, looked awful. In hindsight, really any rotors will be fine. Centric premiums are ok, probably around 50 bucks each - I think they have the black painted hats as well. Akenbono pads were maybe 100 for the 4. I think I got those on Amazon. They have ones that are OEM form factor. Drilled/slotted are for racing applications, not so much for dd. Not necessary to spend the money on those. And by racing, I mean you are stomping on your brakes 20 times in 5 minutes, for 10 laps. You'll end up replacing the pads and rotors pretty quickly due to the sheer heat involved in constant hard braking. So the longevity involved is... 1 track day, or two track days. Brake pads and rotors are fundamentally a wear item. The pads/rotors will wear over time regardless of DBA's "kangeroo paw" ventilation system - DBA 4/5000's are what, 200 bucks a pop. It really doesn't matter. You should get 25,000 miles out of pretty much any set of brake pads and rotors almost regardless of what brand they are. No reason to buy 800 dollar set vs 2-300 dollar set unless you are literally a racetrack driver. I'm betting my EBC rotors and Akebono pad combo will last about 50,000 miles, seeing as how my sedan is a dd that I pack my kids into.

Pads: there are lots of options, of course. Generally speaking, the better performance a pad offers, the harder it will be on rotors. I like Pagid a lot, as well as Mintex. Akebono makes some nice ceramic pads that offer no dust and reasonable performance. I prefer a really aggressive pad. Most people underestimate that the pads are your biggest, easiest brake upgrade. My favorite pad is Carbotech. They are out of NC. The panther pad is almost a race brake pad. Constant squealing, lots of dust, and you have to warm them up to get them to work. But when you step on it, you're thankful for seat belts.

I ran carbotechs on my mkV, they are absolutely fantastic for the track. A bit scary on the street totally cold but very livable if you make sure to warm them up.

My Father works for Akebono. We run their pads on a lot of cars (Mainly my GTI and a buddy's FoST) and I prefer the Euro sport ceramics to hawk HPS pads or any other pads I've tried. The Euro Ceramics are absolutely great. They have greatly decreased dusting over stock, less noise when both cold/hot, and stopping power is improved over stock.

I have Akebono pads on my '13 allroad ------ probably a 95% reduction in brake dust compare to the OEM pads. The Akebono's have been great.

i have akebono pro act ceramic pads on my golf with 20thAE brakes. they dont seem to be wearing down in the past 5 years, and the rotors have no grooving or wear on them. nice change from doing an annual 4-wheel brake job :thumbup:

I went through two sets of Akebono Euro pads on my golf. I'm planning on putting a set on the 996. They wear well, stop well, and have low dust.

I replaced the OEM BMW pads on my wife's X5 with a full round of Akebonos a month ago and the difference in dust is just amazing. They have a nearly-OEM feel and she (the wife) doesn't notice the difference.

Just beware some of the cheaper off brand brake pads will put out a lot more brake dust than OEM or akebono pads.