Brake pads STOPTECH or Hawk Performance

I mentioned it up above but thought I'd expand on my experience with the Hawk HPSs...Car's at 95,000 miles now and I've done 8 trackdays since the car was new...I still have over half the pad left, don't have squealing issues on the street, they work well when cold...Overall, would highly recommend them as a street pad that functions in regular road use, in high performance backroad use, and copes well with track use too.

I mostly agree with the info above about the rotors. In terms of pads, I also vote for Hawk HPS or EBC GreenStuff. I've ran both and love them.

FWIW, for street driving, ECS recommended to simply upgrade the rotors to the drill slotted ones and upgrade the pad to maybe the Hawk HPA. That's something that would give you the visual appeal and brake performance upgrade w/o breaking the bank.

My 2008 MKV R32 has the exact same brakes you guys do, but carries 200+ lbs more car I did 3 RT on the Dragon up & back to the Lodge...around 8/10s, no brake fade or issues and the DSG was in Sport I just did the following at 46,750 miles - 4 new OEM rotors - $270 - I never turn rotors, they're a heat sink no sense making them less so. Hawk HPS pads - $210 - they dust about 95% less than OEM, work way better and no noise Goodridge SS lines- $110 - because SS gives a firmer pedal and less likely to burst Motul - $ 20? - because I was doing a fluid change anyway The braking effectiveness is noticeably better in feel & deceleration with no noise, no dust & no squealing I have used this same upgrade on Porsche 911s, Mustang Cobra & GT and always get the same outcome If you are overpowering your brakes, your driving skill set needs to be corrected as that's hard on equipment and ultimately slower... I raced 25 years in 911's and smoothness is faster everytime If you're going to track extensively, take a driving school, and then go hog wild making mods, once you understand the weak areas and how to upgrade to overcome them, Once you can use your stock setup to it's limit, then start making changes - hint - most people with no driving instruction don't even come close to utilizing their car's potential unless its a Tercel - a lesson I learned by doing Bondurant twice and various PCA schools and SCCA & IMSA clinics The weak point is always us in the beginning - Seat time practice + seat time is the key to happiness

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 swapped out the OEM pads for Hawk HPS' within the first thousand miles and the Hawks have a quarter of the dust, no noise, an equal level of bite and OEM stopping power. They are the best of both worlds in my opinion.

i put HAWK ceramic on mine. I used the listing for the GTI and they work, but over time I had to extend the backing plate with weld to stop rattle. They are awesome pads with good street manners.

started w/ oem here, way overcooked them and then changed to hawk hps (no HP+ for the R which was what I liked). Used them last year and cooked the fronts good and used them up, not enough bite for me, but felt a bit better than oem.

I tried the hawk hps on my mk4 jetta. I wasn't to impressed with them for what they are. They took a long time to break in, break dust was okay, and the breaking performance is so so. I ran them in the fronts and rear. The rears wore down very quickly and the fronts last a long time.