Brake pads STOPTECH or Centric

The brakes don't inspire confidence. I replaced mine with a stoptech setup which is overkill but the feel, modulation and overall power take away one of the stock car's biggest weaknesses IMO

After the OEM's wear I'll upgrade to Stoptech pads.

Highly recommend stoptech street performance pads edit: not if your dust averse which it seems you are

...or Stoptech Street Performance pads. Very good.

I've been thoroughly impressed with stop tech pads on OEM rotors. Definite improvement over stock while maintaining the same dust level(a lot). I would not mind doing golf r brakes or tt rs brakes up front next time around.

For pads, I've had the Hawk HPS and StopTech's. The HPS seem to have a higher total clamping force, but the StopTech's have a better bite and feel.

Hey, I just did this. I'm not sure what your budget is, but these prices are pretty reasonable. You'll be paying less than you did for just the fronts, for all rotors and pads. brakeperformance dot com for rotors - blanks, slotted, cross drilled, dimple drilled, cross drilled and slotted, and dimple drilled and slotted. I snagged all 4 for about $200 -- Free shipping! Realistically, drilled rotors are a thing of the past, in terms of necessary...although, they do look fun! ha carpartkings dot com for pads - StopTech pads. I got front and back for $117, total. -- Free shipping! I have a GLI and I believe the part numbers differ from mine to yours, but they're close in price. If anything, yours may be cheaper. Pads arrived in 2 days. Rotors took around a week. Are you planning to do the work yourself, or are you just looking to buy parts and then pay someone for labor? If you're looking to do the work yourself, let me know. You'll need a few other (cheap) items - caliper grease, anti-squeal paste (some folks don't use it), m14 triple square bit, t30 torx bit, and a piston reset tool or c clamp or pliers. Piston tool can be rented from autozone or other auto parts store or you can find them online. I've never used one, but I hear tale it's easier. I was going to try to use it on mine, but have not.

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.

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...