Brake pads Brembo or STOPTECH

I had StopTech brakes on an E92 M3, they were excellent, and I recommend them. Whether or not you need them is another question, and I would only offer that it seems to be a questionable undertaking, from a cost effectiveness perspective. If you need more stopping power for \"spirited street\" driving, the solution for that is easy, and free, slow down. As for your anticipated modest track use, good pads and fluid are all you need. I have 10 years of track experience with several cars, including M3, GT3 and ZO6. Although I have not tracked the Golf R, given its modest power level, and the effectiveness of the OE brakes, I am confident they will be fine for your needs, given proper pads and fluid. The real enemy of sustainable braking is heat. Putting much less money in front cooling ducts would probably help more than bigger brakes. With all that said, I agree that fixed calipers offer a design advantage, but probably one that is beyond any real benefit to 99% of folks on this forum. Finally, being able to change pads by simply popping them out the top of the caliper is cool, and obviously faster. But as for me, I'm not sure the time saved is worth the additional cost. After all, we aren't talking about pit stops in critical competition. So, spend your money as you wish, and have fun, but the bang-for-the-buck score on this one is pretty low.

I had both Wildwood and stoptech when working on my previous sti projects. You can't go wrong with either. I really loved stoptech for cost and easiness of changing pads out.

Adam's front slotted rotors, Stoptech Performance front pads.

I trust companies like Brembo or mintex to make decent, quality parts more than I trust Volvo to supply some. Volvo themselves don't make brake components. On my 240 for example the front brakes are Girling and the rears are ATE.

I had a set of 4 pots on my GLI and I must say the stopping power on the 4 pot Brembo>Stock.

Stock brakes are just ok. I'll be fixing the issue in the aftermarket world. Brembo package probably fixes this issue, but mine was used and didn't come with that option.

I have always followed a similar technique that I found from StopTech but it's cool to see what is happening while doing it. And for anyone doing this, it takes a good long drive to cool down everything before you come to a complete stop. I didn't watch the whole thing but heard the guy touch on it briefly and that is if you have to come to a complete stop do not leave your foot on the brake pedal as you will surely leave a big blotch of pad material in that one spot and then you will get the "warped rotor" feeling as that bit of the rotor will be extra grabby.

Brembo's

I've had a couple of bad experiences with Stop Tech pads ( High Performance division of Centric ). Euro made semi metallic pads are usually very good ( ATE, Brembo, Ferodo Valeo ). Bendix Titanium II pads are very good. Akebono Premium Ceramic pads are very, very good...

Even though they have the word street in the name, they are very prone to judder and deposit build up and are not good under gentle street usage.