| Reviews of
EBC Brakes Pads |
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EA Falcon running YELLOWSTUFF in Aussie Saloon Car Championship 2005
Posted Thursday, October 13, 2005 9:08 by Les Morral
The tests were carried out under racing conditions at both the Phillip Island GP circuit (4.45km) and the Oran Park long circuit (2.62km). Testing was carried out with the cooperation of current Australian Saloon Car Champion Bruce Heinrich driving his EA Falcon Saloon Car.
Bruce, as well as several other top drivers use the Hawk (black) competition brake pads – quote “they are consistent and you always know that they are going to work”.
A new pair of RDA “off the shelf” front brake rotors (non-slotted or treated) and the EBC Yellow Stuff brake pads were fitted to the car in readiness for the first of three Friday practice sessions. The weather was overcast and cool.
After the first session we checked the brakes and everything looked fine. Bruce commented that the brakes worked fine without too much warming up, and that the pedal had a good feel to it unlike the Hawk pads that have a fairly harsh pedal feel. He also reported that pad performance was on a par with the Hawk pads. We decided to leave the pads in the car for the rest of the day. In all we did twenty-one pretty quick laps in the three practice sessions.
After a nine-lap practice session on Saturday morning, it was time for qualifying. The weather was fine. It must be noted that Bruce was vying for the 2005 Saloon Car Championship with three other drivers and needed a good haul of points at this round to maintain his lead. A qualifying position at the front end of the thirty-five car field was a must, and with so much on the line, we were confident that the EBC brake pads would do the job and as such we left them in the car. Bruce qualified the car on pole position! He also won two of the three races on the weekend, and ran second in the third!
We checked the brakes after the meeting and decided to leave them as is for the next round of the series at Oran Park.
The weather at Oran Park was fine and warm. Once again the car qualified on pole position. Bruce also won all three races over the weekend and was subsequently crowned 2005 Australian Saloon Car Champion.
After two “full-on” race meetings the brakes were inspected. The rotors will be skimmed and the pads will be cleaned up, they will then be re-fitted to the car.
Bruce’s comments “The performance of the EBC pads is excellent as is the wear life, and I will definitely use them in the future”.
Les Morrall – TASCCO
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EBC red
cermaics or Ferodo 2500 pads (which is best?)
Posted Monday, November 1, 2004 19:41 by Pete Smith
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MR2 SW20 Brake
Pad Replacement
Posted Monday, August 23, 2004 9:01 by David Byron
It’s early days yet but the results of yesterday’s brake
pad replacement are very positive.
The Redstuff front and Greenstuff rear combination is a
significant improvement on the Green/Black combination I’ve
been using for the last 15 months.
(I don’t mean to imply that the green/black set-up was no
good. They never faded on me – even on the track – but they
didn’t have the immediate bite that I wanted.)
Characteristics of the red front & green rear are:
1) Immediate response to light brake pedal pressure –
even from cold.
2) Amazing stopping power with no drama, i.e. no
juddering or uneven pull or sudden grabbing.
3) Unbelievable and rapid deceleration when braking from
high speed. These pads reduce speed very quickly.
At last I’m happy with my brakes and can’t wait for the
next track day by which time these pads should be properly
bedded in………
Many thanks for your fine service, advice, and prompt
delivery.
David Byron
MR2 Club
Hamilton
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More pads for
Nissan
Posted Wednesday, August 4, 2004 9:34 by Don Conway
I had a great run last season using your Greenstuff pads
on my P10 Primera racecar.
Now need to replace them prior to new season.
( Last year you mentioned that a new ceramic version of
the Redstuff was coming out but you did not have it
available then.Do you see any reason to change to Redstuff?
)
I was very happy with the Greenstuff but maybe I am not
hard enough on my brakes? Disc wear was minimal and brakes
never gave me any reason for concern. Good braking and pedal
both cold and hot....even in the 1 hour races.
Do you still have stock available of the Greenstuff
DP2775? and what price now?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cheers
Donald Conway
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2003 WRX Wagon
PGT Rally car
Posted June, 2004 by Subie Gal
Recently, as recent as the past 2 SCCA Rallies I’ve
competed in, I’ve been testing some new brake pads from EBC
– EBC Redstuff CERAMIC.
Most of us have heard that EBC pads at one time were
considered to be less than rotor / wear friendly pads, and
that they earned a horrible reputation. Especially EBC
Greens which had an issue with leaving massive pad deposits
on the rotors and often caused “warping.”
Well, there is a new owner, new outlook and many changes
occurring at EBC. I’ve been working with Andy Freeman -
Managing Director Freeman Automotive / EBC Brakes UK Ltd and
CEO of EBC Brakes USA Ltd. Andy’s been kind enough to supply
our rally team with some front/rear pads to test and provide
feedback on – HONEST feedback so here goes J
The old specification of pads from EBC were known to be
prone to rotor chewing, fade and quick wear. The great news
is Andy, seeing that changes were in order seems to have
dramatically changed the formula of the EBC range for our
Subarus. He realized that the old spec EBC brakes were just
not up to the task and has made changes bearing that in
mind. These changes, after 4 full days of testing, ARE
EXCELLENT in my opinion.
I chose to test the street/mild track setup pads on my
Rally car, thus I’ve been running the EBC Redstuff Ceramics
(note there are 2 different types of Redstuff – and the
CERAMICS are of the new spec and new compounds) – I tested
these pads on my SCCA ProRally car at the Rim of the World
rally as well as my most recent rally here in the NW Region
(over 140 stage miles).
2003 WRX Wagon PGT Rally car Brake set up:
- OE Rotors
- Goodridge Stainless lines
- Motul brake fluid
Rim of the world offered some very high speed, hard
breaking tarmac stages were I really put the brakes to the
test. Rotors and pads were literally smoking by the time
Friday’s stages were over with. This was my first experience
with these pads in this type of condition – and without
hesitation I trusted them wholeheartedly and pushed them to
the limit. Even in these extreme conditions I found the
following:
Braking ability/Fade Resistance – I never experienced
brake fade! Even at the highest temperatures – and I was
brutal on these pads, even noting that in between stages
they did get a chance to cool down a bit. Pedal travel
remained as it should, I was not feeling any extra travel
which means that even though the pads were heating up, the
heat was not getting all the way THROUGH the pads to the
point of fading. Rotors showed zero signs or warping, or
wobbling which meant that the pads were not leaving nasty
deposits onto my rotors.
Brake feel – excellent feedback, the pads did get a bit
“tired” by the end of the night’s stages, but I thrashed
them to the limit – and they never let go. By tired I mean I
felt a slight change in them, but they did not fade. I could
tell though that I was really putting them to the limit.
Rotors – for once, were not scored, did not warp or have
that wobbly feeling. I’ve been struggling with this all
season long. Later inspection showed that rotors were in
good shape.
Dust? – Yes, of course there was “some” dust produced but
not 1/10th that of the Porterfield R4’s I’d been running
previously on this setup.
Compared to my previous pads? – Again, I’d been running
the Porterfield R4’s. I’ve never had brake fade with the
Porterfields but these EBC’s, unlike the Porterfields, did
NOT score my rotors, they did NOT dust up the entire front
end of my car and they did NOT wear completely away - I was
most excited about the fact that they didn’t leave mass
deposits or warp my rotors beyond use. Typically, after 2
days rallying, my Porterfields were destroyed – worn to the
point of being unsafe.
Once I removed the pads I saw they were quite a bit worn,
and were heated so - that the outer edges of the pad started
crumbling off a bit. That looked a bit odd to me as I’ve not
seen anything like it before, yet on the plus side, I never
experienced any fade and the pad SURFACE looked only
slightly worn (shoot me, I failed to take measurements). And
keep in mind, I absolutely COOKED these things to the point
that I baked the red paint right off of them!!
I have since learned from Andy and EBC that a very small
amount of edge crumbling around the edges of the pads is
quite normal & occupies only a tiny bit of the pad surface –
thus been assured there is absolutely nothing to worry about
in regards to this.
I utilized these pads again at our latest NW Region SCCA
Rally which is a much higher speed (100+ in places) rally
than Rim of the World. Again, I experienced NO brake fade,
excellent feedback from the brakes, and my rotors came out
like champs once again! That’s 2 rallies, same rotors – must
be a record for me this year!
My Conclusion:
I would recommend these brakes as a GOOD street, probably
light track, and light rally pad.
Street Application: Yes! You can run these on the street
with confidence for once they’re bedded in properly, they
don’t need to HEAT up to perform – and they are obviously
rotor friendly. Noise: These pads come with noise reducing
shims, and seem to be relatively quiet. Dust : There will be
some, as is with any aftermarket pads, but these dust a lot
less than the Axxis and Porterfields that I’ve tried in the
past – just keep up on cleaning your wheels and you’ll be
fine.
Overall when you look at the fact that I thrashed the
pads, and they held up damn well, didn’t damage my car,
these pads are an excellent value for the money! WRX/RS
Front/Rear EBC Redstuff Ceramic can be found for $89’ish per
pair – that’s less than ˝ what I was paying out for the
Porterfields.
EBC has earned a new customer and a new outlook! I’d say
at this point that Andy has succeeded in his aim to MAKE
CHANGES and cure the damaged reputation EBC once had. I know
that I’m sold on it… for nearly ˝ the price I can get
apparently twice as much racing out of these pads, and save
needed $$ on rotors!
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Evo running
EBC GREENSTUFF Pads
Posted Friday, December 19, 2003 14:46 by Stephen Saggers
I'd just like to let you know how good your ebc green
pads have been for me.
I've only had them a week but even in this short time I
would recommend them to anyone. I used to have pads that
would turn my mags from silver to black in just a couple of
days, now there isn't even a hint of dust. They're also
better at bringing my car to a stop.
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Subaru
Impressa WRX STI running EBC Pads
Posted Monday, December 08, 2003 08:05 by John Felstead
Here is the latest report from the testing I have been
doing on the new EBC pads. I received a new set of ceramic
reds for the front and rear of my STi to try using as a road
pad only. I had a trip coming up to the Catalunya rally so
it was an ideal opportunity to see how these would cope both
in the UK as a daily pad, plus also I would have the
opportunity to try these in some very severe conditions
driving over the Pyrenees into Spain.
I have now covered 6500 miles on these pads, 3200 of that
was on my trip to the Catalunya rally. To get down to Lloret
I drove via the motorways of the UK, France and Spain and
avoided the severe mountain roads and the pads worked as
expected with good bite from cold and were always ready for
use even if they weren’t aplied for a very long time.
Once down in Lloret, the driving was to say the least
“spirited” with us covering aprox 1000 miles in the week
driving the rally stages multiple times. I covered a lot
more stage miles than the rally competitors. The first real
test was when we drove the shakedown stage, at the end of
this I had pushed the brakes so hard that the paint used to
give them their red colour was smoking severely, yet the
brakes hadn’t shown any signs of fade and the feel was
consistent throughout. The other good thing was the brake
pedal hadn’t shown any signs of extra travel, so the heat
wasn’t getting through the pad material and into the fluid
at any level.
We then spent the week out on the stages, driving through
the mountain passes or just cruising early morning to the
stages to spectate, during all this driving the brakes
performed faultlessly. Driving home, I decided to take a
trip across the Pyrenees via the N152, one of the most
challenging roads in Europe for brakes and handling, it’s
hard to describe quite how busy you are, but you are on the
brakes every few seconds as you enter the next switchback,
it’s non stop flat out driving for around an hour without
any letup. Again absolutely no problems at all, and this is
with a fully loaded up car being driven rapidly. If the
brakes can survive this road they will survive anything the
UK can throw at them.
Since returning I have just used these with my day to day
driving with a fairly even match of normal road and motorway
driving. Dust wise these do produce more than the EBC
Greens, and it helps if you keep on top of the wheels every
week, but they are producing a lot less dust than the Mintex
I normally used would have, and certainly kept the wheels
cleaner than those on the other cars down in Catalunya
running Mintex.
So how have these pads survived? They started out with
12.5mm thickness. They are now between 8mm and 9mm in
thickness, the thinner pad being the hotter running pad.
They have 0.5mm taper wear from leading to trailing edge,
which is normal behaviour. The pad material is still intact
and there are no signs at all of the friction material
breaking away from the backing plate. In other words they
are perfectly capable of doing plenty more work without any
loss in performance, I am impressed. Disk wear wise, there
is a slight amount of wear, around 1mm, this wear is from
all the testing I have done on track and road, so well
within normal wear rates for AP Disks, they aren’t eating
the disks, just behaving as expected.
I have also been doing some testing with the softer
compound Race yellow 1605 pads; I covered 140 miles on track
at Oulton Park last weekend in the wet. These worked much
better than the previous Yellows I tried and took just a few
laps to bed in properly. They felt very similar to the reds
on track, with similar levels of feel, they were consistent
and didn’t suffer any fade, they also didn’t suffer from any
sensation of crumbling, so are slightly more stable than the
reds as a track pad I would say. Wear rates are good, again
starting with 12.5mm thickness, after 140 miles on track
they now measure 11mm. There are no signs of heat getting to
the backing plates at all, so they seem to have slightly
better heat insulating properties compared to the reds,
although the wet weather may have helped in cooling these.
The pads have now gone back to EBC for analysis in their
test labs and they have given me some more to try to do
further testing.
I am more than happy to keep using these new materials
and would say they are definitely worth trying if you are
looking to change. Hopefully you find this information
useful.
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Mini 7 running
EBC Pads
Posted Tuesday, November 4, 2003 22:30 by Richard Box
I managed to fit these to my 'so-called' development car
at Teretonga last weekend. The driver did one session on his
original pads and mentally their performance and braking
points around the track. We then fitted the EDB pads. He
reported back that after the initial bed in period which
only seemed to take a couple of laps, they felt more
progressive than what he had been running.
They also seemed to be more agressive in the initial
slowing of the car, then on a long braking period ie end of
the straight, they seemed to 'not fade' but for want of a
better word, smooth out.
As it is this driver's first season of Mini 7 racing, the
feedback that I got from him I took as being positive. I
couldn't determine what brand of pads were in the car
previous, but the EBC pads seemed to be doing everything
they were supposed to. Throughout the meeting, we measured
the wear of the pads and they were starting to progressively
wear down which is expected.
As we discussed, most Mini 7 cars are running pads which
are way too hard for the application in which they are in
and I would have no hesitation in pushing these EBC pads to
the drivers in the future, as I believe in the long they
will be beneficial in the braking performance of these cars.
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1994 Mazda RX7
S6 running GREENSTUFF with standard callipers.
Posted Monday, July 14, 2003 15:15 by Steve Skelton
Installed the new pads and brake fluid about a fortnight
ago and took the bat for a blast on Sunday after a few
hundred kilometres of bedding the brakes in.
Greatly impressed by the increased braking capacity -
have to get a set for the HSV Clubsport and Fiat 131R as
well. The brakes on the bat have always been good, but with
me running a programmable engine management computer, the
upgrade has certainly been well worth the effort.
The clutch also uses the same reservoir as the brake and
probably explains the gear change problem when on the track
some weeks ago. The moisture content of the fluid was also
found to be very high and replaced with a higher temperature
fluid.
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2002 Land
Rover Freelander running EBC GREENSTUFF Pads
Posted Wednesday, July 2, 2003 by Roger Bower
I am writing to say how pleased I am with the performance
of the EBC disc brake pads you fitted to our 2002 Land Rover
Freelander.
After experiencing difficulties with the OE pads at
21,000 km and following your recommendations of fitting EBC
"Green" pads we now have much stronger and smoother stopping
power with less brake dust.
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