Hey what are those green things?
They are the EBC Green brake pads I bought and installed a month or so ago. I bought them from Tire Rack, who had limited data on-line for them, but they sounded like what I was after. I wanted a pad
for the street, not the track. These pads have a much higher friction coefficient than the stock pads - in fact they have a higher friction coefficient than most (if not all) of the track pads I'm aware of. What they don't have is high-temp fade resistance. I'm not sure how they stack up to the stock pads in this area - clearly the stock pads aren't very fade resistant either. These may even be better, but the specs are very clear that they don't have the super-high temp abilities that true track (or even "street/track") pads have. I don't have any plans to track my car again, but if I do, I will simply put in different pads.
Break-in instructions were "be gentle for 500 miles" which I was.
These pads are awesome for the street! At extremely light braking pressures, such as those you'd use to slow from 25mph w/ Gramma in the car - they are pretty much like the stock pads. But from light-moderate all the way up to threshold braking, these puppies
bite!. They do this well when cold, but they're even more impressive once they're warmed up a bit (which, in an aggressive stop from much over 35mph they will be, before you reach a stop.) In this condition, moderate braking requires
much less pedal pressure than stock. This is particularly good in the M5, because the M5's brake pedal feel with the stock pads
sucks - it is very squishy. Squish comes from things stretching and bending - the lines, the pedal mount, the calipers, everything that is involved in translating foot pressure to brake pressure.
When you only have to press the pedal with, say, 20lbs of force instead of 60lbs for the same braking action, there is far less stretching and bending. You can modulate over a wider range of braking force with less pedal movement. The difference is so dramatic that it takes a little getting used to. In testing them I decided to do a sort of "75% effort" decel from about 80mph getting off the freeway. The brakes grabbed so hard and so instantly it really surprised me - I backed off and re-applied, noticing how much better I could feel them.
As a side benefit, they are nearly dustless. Huge improvement over the stock pads.
SO - thumbs up for these pads - with the caveat that I don't know how much abuse they'll take. They are absolutely, positively not recommended for the track for a 4000lb sedan, and I haven't gone on an extended "personal wine country tour" to see how they would hold up under those conditions, which, next to the track, are much harder on the brakes than anything that could be considered (even remotely) street driving. Also, although I don't expect that these pads will be particularly harsh on rotors, I don't have enough miles to pass judgement on that.
EBC Green Report - Great street pads
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