Brake pads Mintex or Hawk Performance

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.

Not only do they do that, they're a terrible autocross pad. Dust is something that happens with pads that stop there are very few that stop and don't make dust. However there are different types of dust, stuff that sticks to everything and stuff that wipes off easily. But the problem with those pads in general isn't even the dust it's there very on off switch nature. They're very powerful and they're very grabby and they do not release well either which makes abs fight a lot more to do its job.

I ran Hawk DTC60's for one event. They dust like crazy which isn't the end of the world by itself, but if the dust touches any moisture at all (like the rainy track day) it mixes into what I can only describe as ferrous concrete. So not only is the dust-crete impossible to remove by any normal means, it then rusts like crazy, turning whatever wheels you have into a runny orange mess. I tried multiple different wheel cleaners, multiple brushes, soaking, anything and nothing could get it off. I had to use scotch brite and scuff the hell out of the wheels to get it off. Fortunately I run cheap TRM wheels and it's a track-only car otherwise I would have been livid.