Brake pads Akebono or Hawk Performance

Zimmerman blanks and Hawk HPS pads, Motul 5.1 fluid. Initial bite is as good as if not better than stock, but they seem to get much stronger with some heat in them. Biggest plus is the massive decrease in brake dust.

Hawk hps 5.0 and blank Zimmerman rotors

I have been running Akebono on most all of my cars and have 3-400k worth of driving on them. I tried some semi-metallic pads once. Loved loved loved the initial grab, but hated hated hated the dust and the way they wore the rotors. If I was tracking, I wouldn't run the Akebono's, though. There are better pads for that. As someone mentioned, the Akebono's don't have as much of an initial grab as they need to heat up. I did try the Pagid pads once that I got from the now defunct BavAuto. They were just OK.

I run AkiBono pads with Brembo rotors on both of our E39’s and both E46’s ( and Volvo xc90 ???? home depot use-free vehicle) and love the setup. On the E46’s very similar feel to OE Jurid or Pagid and on the E39’s ( US spec 2003 540/6 and 2001 530 sport auto) softer initial bite yet excellent braking with great modulation and stopping power, quiet, long lasting, minimal rotor wear and the light dust is barely noticeable, easily rinses off and is non-caustic.

Just replaced mine with Akebonos and no complaints so far.

Akebono ceramic pads with OEM or Zimmerman rotors is an OEM+ solution. They produce almost 0 brake dust and maintain OEM feel and performance.

Whole setup feels really damn good.

They're quite a good combo. I glazed them doing too much drifting in the snow, but fixed with a bench grinder and they're as good as day 1.

I have Hawk HP+ on my NA, and while the bite is good, the brake dust is pretty significant

That's normal for those. I have been through 3 or 4 sets now and to be honest, I think I'm done. After COVID they just seem to be very unpredictable. I've my last set did some weird stuff sometimes and my current set feels like it needs way more temp then it should. When I did a track day and put dtc60s on it, they gripped immediately on a cold stop where the HP+ felt like it needed some use. None of the other pairs have felt that way. The noise is also totally random now, the first couple sets would be loud unless they had heat, but the new ones are a lot quieter and sometimes loud.