brake pad opinions---carbotech AX 6 or Ferodo DS2500

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 11:21 am

The StopTechs on the S2000 have worn out, and I am looking at these two as possibilities. Any opinions from folks who have used them or other choices that work better (Project Mu, Carbon-Loraine etc) are welcome. Noise and dusting are minor issues relative to braking performance, initial bite and modulation as the car is not daily driven.

There are numerous opinions on various online forums already, but would rather hear from people I know.

Thanks in advance!
Steve

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:32 pm

DS2500's are used by a lot of the top autocrossers. Not to say that makes them great, but they get very solid reviews for autocrossers. - AB

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:36 pm

Just an FYI, the DS-2500 is NOT a good combo street/track pad in my experience. I had a set on the Z-24 when I was tracking it and they were gone pretty quick.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:04 pm

Thanks, Aaron and Vincent! The car will not be tracked, so that is not a big concern.

Eric Peterson · **Joined:** Mon Sep 01, 2003 10:24 am **Posts:** 494

We've got AX6s on the rear of the Spyder. I like them. I believe they are similar to the old Bobcat compound that we ran on Karl's S2000 and liked them a lot.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:04 pm

I've autocrossed a set of Hawk HP+ and they seemed pretty good for autocross. They bite pretty good when cold and had good friction compared to my stop techs. They were just really noisy on street and tend to eat up rotors on the street which is why I didn't leave them on. I've been autocrossing my Stop Tech street performance and they bite pretty good once warmed up a bit.

I feel like the HP+ would make a pretty good autocross pad for a non-street driven car though.

Haven't tried any of the others though.

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:40 pm

We ran AX6's on the duff civic for years. I cannot speak to their "street" qualifications as that thing is rarely a daily driver. They work fine and take a moderate amount of abuse.

(We use XP8's now, because we're all beyond "moderate" on brakes these days. Robert always was -- he'll incinerate XP8's, too.)

JasonWatts · **Posted:** Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:53 am

ive been streeting the ds2500's on the STI for a little over a month now. They seem fine street wise. I notice very little difference between them and the stock brembo pads. I have not done an AX on them so cant speak about that yet. What others have said about life and not good for track is what I have read on them as well.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:50 pm

I replaced Hawk HPS (not HP+ which were too aggressive for the FF) with DS2500's on the CM FF. They seemed very similar with the DS2500's possibly having a little more bite. Both were very good feel with low dust and no apparent squeal. Obviously not a street car since FF but seemed civilized. As stated reviews are excellent.

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:04 pm

Ferrodo had some of the lowest quality pads I'd seen in awhile as of 7 years ago. I'd look at the PFC Zrated or Akebono.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:30 pm

Eric Peterson wrote:

We've got AX6s on the rear of the Spyder. I like them. I believe they are similar to the old Bobcat compound that we ran on Karl's S2000 and liked them a lot.

If they're anything like the pads I had on my S2000, they're excellent. They'll dust like a son of a gun but it'll clean up pretty easily.

They weren't Carbotech Bobcats though, they were Mintex 1166. How I found them is a long, probably uninteresting story. When the first set wore out, I ordered more from some place in the UK. They If you can lay your hands on a set, do so. Or steal Ram's.

Anyway, I liked Carbotechs Bobcats a lot when I had them on street cars. I can't figure out the naming convention Carbotech uses today, but the Panther and Panther Plus were streetable track day pads back a million years ago. I liked how linear they felt. It's probably all different now and I'm one of those old codgers who's been doing this for too long.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2015 3:57 pm

We loved the modulation of the AX6's, especially on street tires. If they could take more heat/abuse, then I'd still buy them. For Autocross they should be fine though, we only destroyed them by 8-hour/day endurance racing on them. Even then, if we took it a little easy, then they would last for a couple of days, but then Robert got in the car.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2015 5:58 pm

Roger McDaniels wrote:

We loved the modulation of the AX6's, especially on street tires. If they could take more heat/abuse, then I'd still buy them. For Autocross they should be fine though, we only destroyed them by 8-hour/day endurance racing on them. Even then, if we took it a little easy, then they would last for a couple of days, but then Robert got in the car.

The fact you can even make something like that work on track makes me jealous. To slow the Camaro down everybody just told me DTC70s, the more heat they can take the better, lol. Apparently 3800 some pounds is hard to slow down even with 4 piston brembos and a 14"+ rotor.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2015 8:55 pm

Yeah, we're 2350 lbs, and I don't know if the car ever exceeds 100 MPH, although we got pretty close on the long back straight at Sebring. We only use 10.3" stock rotors, but with 3" ducts, they hold up well.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:15 pm

I feel like I am channeling my inner George Bright by posting this, but here is someone performance testing a new and unique brake pad material...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9vO30n_Hq0

Richard

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brake pad opinions---carbotech AX 6 or Ferodo DS2500

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