Brake pad choice: Mintex, Carbone Lorraine, Pagid and others

The short version

• Road use: Mintex M1144 is the pad most owners recommend, and several say they are much better than the standard pads.
• Road plus a few track days a year: Mintex M1155, or for some owners the 1144, and for a single track day a year one owner suggested sticking with the 1144 and good fluid.
• More bite, or regular track use: Carbone Lorraine RC5+ (sometimes written CL5+), or Pagid RS14. Both cost much more.
• Avoid: EBC pads, according to most owners. See below.

Pad by pad

Mintex M1144

• Described as a good road pad with instant bite and good feel from cold, and about half the price of RC5+. Several owners called them their perfect road pad.
• Complaints: dust, wear (one owner said they wear faster than 1155s and are "made of chocolate"), and noise. Opinions on noise differ: some say they squeal and groan, others that they only squeal if not bedded in, and one that they never made a noise.
• Not suited to the track: one owner said they were "next to useless" there and another that they do not survive two laps. One owner who ran 1144s all round for a year was disappointed, with some alarming ABS moments, and found 1155s much better.
• One owner said fast-road pads like these wear the discs faster than the standard pads do, and now changes discs every time. Another said 1144s last about two thirds as long as 1155s but the discs outlast them.
• One owner said 1144s take longer to warm up and feel dead on cold damp mornings. See brake pedal problems. That contradicts the "instant bite" reports above, so it may depend on the car and conditions.

Mintex M1155

• A harder compound, recommended by owners as a road pad that also copes with track days, and said to make less dust and last longer than 1144s.
• Complaints: they need heat, so some owners found them "wooden" and lacking initial bite from cold, though others had no problem from cold. They can squeak at very low speed, and they can rattle in the front calipers, so fit anti-rattle shims.
• On track, one owner got 5 to 7 laps before fade and 2 to 4 track days per set. They lack the ultimate stopping power of the best Pagids.
• For one owner they were a little wooden at any temperature. For another they were fine in all weathers, and he seals his wheels with a detailing sealant so the dust jet-washes off.

Carbone Lorraine RC5+ (CL5+)

• Described as sharper than the 1155, a good road and track compromise, and more aggressive. They cost about twice as much as 1144s. One owner thought they were not twice as good and went back to 1144s.
• Known issues: pad material crumbling or separating from the backing plate (some owners had it, others never did, and it may be historic), clunking or rattling unless you fit anti-rattle shims, and some squeal.
• They need to be used in anger now and again, or they get squeaky.

Pagid

• RS4-2: reported as a good road pad and better than the 1144 on track by one owner. Another found them no better than 1144s and a waste of money, and lost bite from the third lap on track, with vibration at the front.
• RS14: reported as good from cold and good on track, and fixing the problems that owner had with RS4-2s. They make a lot of dust that needs washing off frequently, and they are expensive.
• RS29: described as an endurance racing pad.
• One owner said RS14s felt no different on the road than the road pads.

EBC

• Most owners were scathing. Greenstuff was said to be poor on the VX, with one set lasting less than a track day, though another owner pointed out they are a road pad, not a track one. Several owners said that EBC pads of various grades did not work well on a car this light, and one called EBC's quality control inconsistent.
• Yellowstuff divides opinion: several owners found them wooden on the road, and one said no one tracks them regularly. A few owners like them, saying they are quiet, work well in the wet and are good on track. An owner with a race background argued that the car's more even brake balance means the pads rarely reach the temperature where Yellowstuff works well. That was his reasoning, not a test.
• One owner liked Bluestuff from cold and hot.

Others mentioned once or twice

• Performance Friction (PFC 08 and 11): one owner runs 11s on the front and 08s on the rear. Poor from cold, squeal when hot, not harsh on discs. Another said they squeal a lot and need heat.
• Ferodo DS2500 and DS1.11: one owner uses DS2500 front and DS1.11 rear, with a stronger pad at the rear in all temperatures and a weaker one at the front, and says the balance is great with no front lock-up with or without ABS. This is one owner's setup, and the thread had no other reports. Another owner said nobody rates Ferodo, but that was a summary of the thread, not a test.
• Brembo HP2000 or Brembo sport pads: one owner on the road with grooved and drilled discs said they stop well with little dust but sound like a cheese grater. Another said Elise-supplied Brembo sport pads felt wooden when cold.
• Hawk HTC 60: one owner who rated them on a previous track car and was trying RS14s.

Discs, fluid and shims

• Discs: owners say standard-pattern discs from a decent maker are fine for the road, are cheap, and make little difference to track-day performance. A few owners recommend a coated disc so the unswept area rusts less. If you are changing pads anyway, doing the discs at the same time takes about the same time.
• Fluid: owners recommend changing it at the same time, and not leaving it. See brake fluid replacement. One owner suggested Gulf RF800 or RF1000 (still DOT 4, with a very high boiling point). Another said not to go by DOT 4 versus DOT 5 on the label, because the minimum boiling point difference is small and most good fluids are well above it. Race fluids such as Castrol SRF were said to be for race cars only.
• Calipers: new shims and a good clean of the calipers at the same time were recommended,. See front and rear pad replacement.

Bedding in and noise

• One owner said 1144 squeal usually stops once they are bedded in, which takes a couple of stops. Another follows the maker's bedding-in procedure.
• One owner suggested that squealing performance pads can be caused by always braking gently. Several firm stops from speed on a clear road can clear a glazed surface. That is his advice, not a maker's.

If the brakes feel weak

A Turbo owner on 1155s asked for more bite. The replies, in short:

• Check the fluid, the calipers (sticking on one side) and the condition of the discs first.
• Check that the brake servo gets a strong vacuum. The one-way valve and the vacuum hose perish, and cams with a lot of overlap can leave the inlet manifold with poor vacuum. See brake servo vacuum hose.
• One owner measured his braking with a phone accelerometer: about 1.4 g braking against 1.6 g accelerating and 1.4 g cornering. He thought the brakes feel poor because the car's other abilities are so strong. Tyres were also named as the real limit. Several owners could lock the wheels with any of these pads.
• 1155s need heat. If you want better feel on the road, one owner suggested going back to 1144s.

A note on standard pads

Owners called the standard pads inadequate. One said the standard pads and discs are Vectra-based on the continent (a single post, unchecked).