Has anyone tried Brembo's new ceramic "Sport Pads", type HP2000 for OEM calipers (not big brake kits)? They started showing up for sale at various sites like Tirerack, Way Motor Works, and Bavarian Autosport recently. So far pads are only available for the front brakes for the R55, R56, etc, however rear pads are available for convertible Minis.

Page 7 of Brembo's sport pad catalog shows that these pads have some very desirable characteristics, but no information on dust levels. I would like to know how these compare to EBC Redstuffs and OE pads in terms of performance; mostly bite, mean friction, consistency, heat fade, and dust.

PS: I assume these pads are new because I only recently see retailers selling them, however the catalog is dated 2011.

Part numbers:
Front non-JCW: 07.B314.47 (or P06051N?)
Rear non-JCW: 07.B315.33

Added photo of Brembo ceramic brake pads from Way Motor Works website.

 

You can check these out, the DS Performance Ferodo, I've got them on my Mini since a couple of months, I'm totally satisfy.

http://www.ferodo.com/en-global/Prod...rformance.aspx

The DS Performance are not extreme like DS 2500 or 3000 but they are SO much better than EBC that unless you go for the yellow can't be compare. The Brembo HP2000 cost half of DS2500, that are still prob one of the best pads available

 

The pads have peaked my interest as well, wonder how they compare to Akebono pads. We need a guinea pig.

 

I just ordered a set of front Brembo ceramic Sport Pads from Bavarian Auto sports (is that you guys, bavmotors?). They were on sale for $45. So I guess I'll be a guinea pig.

My biggest complaint with "performance street" pads like Hawk HPS is they don't work well cold, on the street, which is 95% of my usage. I actually like the OEM Mini pads a lot for their cold bite and pedal feel, except they are very dusty.

I wish more people would review/rate brake pads with a distinction between hot and cold performance. Better yet, pads that perform the same when hot and cold, which many do: OEM, Greenstuff, Stop tech semi-metallic.

 

Not me. Let us know how they perform, I put akebonos on the front yesterday but I need rears soon.

 

Plus 1 on the Akebono's!!!!

 

hey do you have an update for us on the brake pads.

 

I have the Brembo HP2000 front pads for my R55 Clubman S in the garage but haven't installed them yet. I think about it everytime I drive though. Sorry. :(

 

Get them on there ! Someone has to have used these before.

 

Well, I just installed the Brembo HP2000 ceramic sport pads on my stock 2009 Clubman S front brakes. Eventually I would like to post a full review to help others. The pads are beautifully packaged, each pair is wrapped in thick paper and wrapped with a rubber band. Four new guide clips (?) and a small tube of lube with a screw-on cap is provided.

The appearance of the friction material is unusual. It has a light sort of beige color with metallic specs in it. When I rubbed two pads together the friction material got fuzzy and started turning to dust. I think these pads are a bit soft and have less metal in them than other types of pads. I've never used ceramic pads before so I don't know if this is normal for this type of pad.

So I just drove a couple miles afterwards because it was dark and I wasn't ready to bed them in. Plus I put them on used rotors, which I've never done before (always used new or turned rotors in the past) so I think it might be beneficial to run them gently for a while to get rid of the old transfer layer on the rotor before bedding them in. Not really sure.

Anyway, they bite quick. You can feel them acting even when pressing the brake pedal only a little way down. The overall feel is sort of soft but not really in a bad way. It's not like the brake pedal goes down further than normal, but it seems easy to modulate the brake pressure due to the softer feel. If I was to rate the stopping power at gentle, mid, and high brake pedal pressures it would be like 6, 5, 5 if that makes sense. It's not like they're going to stop your car faster at gentle brake pedal pressure, I am just saying that in comparison to a very gradual, normal pad the "tempo" or feel of the stopping power is 6, 5, 5.

They are quiet so far. The temperature was about 50 degrees F and the pads work fine. I don't have anything negative to say about them except maybe I was hoping for more stopping force at higher pedal pressures, but since the pads are not bedded in and I am using used rotors it is way too early to make a judgment.

Check out page 5 of Brembo's product catalog for a graphic showing the characteristics of the HP2000 brake pads: 2014 High Performance Sport Pads

I will update this thread when I get more time on them. I haven't been driving much lately.

Edit/addition: The finish work on the pads is excellent. The edges of the backing plate are super clean and the powder coating or paint work is really nice other than a few small chips. These are the prettiest brake pads I've ever seen and they were packaged with lots of care. Being given the lube with a cap was a really nice touch. Everything fit my car fine, including my brake sensor.

 

Thanks for the feedback, typically ceramic pads have a softer feel as they are softer than a semi metallic pad. Only time will tell how they hold up, with a quality name I hope they perform ok.

 

So far I really like these Brembo HP2000 pads. I've only used them around town and urban areas, freeway off ramps, etc, but they have a very secure feeling. You know the car is not going to move on a hill, and you don't have to push the pedal very hard. You know the car is going to stop as quickly as your tires are capable of. They have a nice velvety pedal feel; soft and smooth at first then nice and grippy, with a very linear feel. They communicate in a way that you can always feel that there is more available grip if you want to push the pedal harder. They are extremely quiet, smooth, and overall a joy to use.

I am so happy that these pads work well without being warmed up first, unlike Hawk HPS pads I had an my G35. I couldn't stand those pads. I really want to bed in these Brembo pads properly, get into some twisties, and get some heat into them, but I've always got my daughter with me 24/7.

 

Nice, keep the reviews coming as you rack up the miles...

You must be confusing Hawk HP+ with HPS pads.
The former is a performance oriented pad, and frequently put to autoX duty.
HPS are low dusting street pads (S for street). I had them on E36M3 and didn't like the feel (binary on/off the application), and the fact that I could fade them during autoX. Otherwise they were quiet, and very low dusting, as advertised.

HP+, on the other hand, are noisy and dirty, but very linear in application, and hard to fade during autoX run (they will fade on track, where Hawk Blue pads are required).

For what it's worth, I didn't particularly like the OEM pads due to near binary on/off feel (even minor brake applications were rough on the passengers), and their lifespan. Both first and second OEM set lasted me <25K miles. So when the time came for the third set, I rolled the dice with StopTech Street Performance Pads:
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/resul...odClar=Hardtop

So far, I like them a lot.
Identical feel in the heat of the summer, and single digit F weather in the winter. Perfectly quiet, and relatively low dusting. Linear brake torque, gentle on initial application (unlike OEM pads), and with 16K miles on them, they are less than 1/2 done.

a

 

I just double checked what pads I ordered and installed on my G35. It was Hawk HPS street/sport pads. They were so bad in 40-50 degree weather when new that I could hardly prevent the car from creeping forward just from the engine idling with the automatic transmission in Drive. And the first couple of brake applications were scary also. Almost no stopping force, like the brakes were wet. They did get noticeably better after they broke in, but they never inspired confidence on the street. It was hard to get the ABS to engage, and in testing hard/panic stops it always felt like the first maybe 40 feet weren't slowing you down much, just warming up the pads. You could feel the change in braking force while slowing down just from the pads warming up. And then after 1 or 2 hard brake applications they got a bit grabby.

Prior to the HP2000 pads I had StopTech PosiQuiet Semi-Metallic pads on the front of my Mini. They are low dusting (the fronts about the same as the rear OEM pads), long lasting, have a linear feel both when hot and cold, held up to canyon carving except when I had a passenger in my car I started to get some burning smell once, but they didn't have enough initial bite for me. I felt like they wouldn't stop me quite as fast as I wanted in a panic stop. Also they always groaned the last few inches of a stop, but that could be because I used this liquid plastic stuff on the backing plates rather than brake grease. It's "Noise Free Brake Squeal Silencer" sold by Bavarian Autosport.

The brake feel has firmed up a little bit with the Brembo HP2000 pads as they are bedding in, but they still feel velvety smooth and start working practically as soon as you start pushing the brake pedal which I like.

 

I recently received Bavaria Autosport's beautiful Spring 2015 catalog in the mail and it had some info on the pads and a chart comparing them to other pads. See attachment.

I still haven't pushed the Brembo HP2000 front pads hard, but they are still great around town. Brake dust seems to be very low but I've driven very little since the pads were installed; not really enough to make a lot of dust.

 

yea I saw this, gonna try them on my rears

 

Question is how do the Brembo HP2000 compare with the Akebonos performance and dust wise? I hate the dust my OEM pads put out, my wheels are covered in ash like dust one one full tank of gas. Mostly freeway driving, I'll sacrifice a little less performance to get virtually no dust!

 

We should have a documented comparison early this spring. It's been to cold here for testing in the mid-west.

 

That would be awesome Alex. I spend hours looking at tires and other parts on the Tire Rack site. With brake pads it always confused and concerned me how grip/friction/stopping power is rated because operating temperature is never mentioned, especially in simplified charts. Track and high performance pads have higher friction levels when warmed up than street pads but have less friction than street pads when cold such as during first application of brake pedal and subsequent applications when the pad and rotors have cooled which is common in a street environment. This is a critical distinction and it seems ideal if there could be 2 friction ratings (hot and cold) or if at least the operating temperature could be mentioned alongside the friction rating. And let's not confuse air temperature with operating temperature of the pad. I hate buying a pad rated with a friction rating only to find it has less stopping power on the street than OEM pads. Is my concern valid or do today's pads have the same stopping power when cold and hot? If my memory serves, Tire Rack only rates stopping power, low noise, and low dust with no distinction in operating temperature.

 

Interested to see how they compare to my current akebonos, be nice to have a cheaper equivalent.

 

I just got Tire Rack's Spring 2015 Inside Track catalog. I like the Brake Pad Performance Categories and how each model pad fits into a category.

Brembo Ceramic fits into the Premium category: "Use this pad type if you desire a minimum amount of brake dust and noise with a similar-to-moderate increase in stopping power and fade resistance versus your Original Equipment brake pads."

I also like how they've defined Stopping Power: "The reassuring feeling a driver gets when applying the brakes from moderate to high speeds is the drivers measure of stopping power. Higher scores equal greater than O.E. stopping power."

This is just a little unclear to me though. What score denotes higher than O.E. stopping power? Is a 3 higher than O.E., or a 4?

There is still no mention of operating temperature. I guess one could assume that the stopping power is determined by the environment the pad will be used in based on the pad's category. In other words an Autocross/Track pad's stopping power is rated during an autocross or track event, meaning the pads will be warmed up. But when one looks at the dual-use Performance Street pad which theoretically is intended for both hot and cold use, the Stopping Power rating is not very meaningful. And I've felt big differences in a pad's stopping power after just 1 or 2 moderate applications of the brakes; so not super hot like when Canyon carving or racing on a track.

I am not complaining about Tire Rack; I see this stopping power rating problem with other companies as well. In fact I am a big fan of Tire Rack and have purchased many tires from them. I am just trying to understand. Maybe I've completely missed something here. Thanks.

 

The Stopping Power score is intended to compare products within the given brake pad category, not versus the OE pad. Because of the wide variety of vehicle platforms (100’s) that the pads are available for, it’s nearly impossible to rate them for each individual vehicle application they may be used on. A Mini OE pad as an example will have more initial bite and stopping power than a Camry. Within the brake pad category a 3 rated product will have more stopping power than a 2 rated product under the intended normal operating conditions.

 

Just ordered a set for my r56s conversion, I'll get them on this weekend and report my opinion.

 

Looking forward to hearing your opinion of the Brembo HP2000 pads. What is an R56S conversion? You converted a non-S into an S?

 

Alex, I'll be a little picky and point out that according to the Tire Rack catalog, for the Stopping Power rating "Higher scores equal greater than O.E. stopping power." But your explanation makes more sense that the Stopping Power rating is a comparison of pads within a given category, not versus the OE pad. Maybe they ought to consider rewording the explanation in the catalog.