warrior08

iTrader: (1)

Hi all,

I know that EBC Brakes have been hard at work in the last few months tweaking their already very succesful Bluestuff pads as well as their very new Orangestuff pads so I thought I would throw my two pennies worth in, in the hope it might be of use to some of you.

Firstly, my car is a 2004 WRX Stage 1 currently running at 282bhp and uses the oem WRX 4 POT calipers. The car is not tracked and is only used for fast road use.

I started using the EBC BlueStuff NDX pads a year ago and this is what I thought -

Bedding In - This was minimal and after a few braking cycles the pads felt sharp and were alot quieter than I had imagined.

Initial Bite - Very good, even from cold there were never any hairy moments and dont appear to have to be warmed up before heavy use.

Brake Dust - I expected these to be quite dusty but was very suprised at how little dust was produced. Now had they been used on track aggressively then this might have increased, but for day to day fast road use no more than most.

Overall Bite - This was the bit I was most impressed with, at the time I still had oem calipers and discs and couldnt believe the difference these pads made. There was always a predictable and even force during heavy braking.

Brake Fade - I experienced a bit of fade once during a very spirited drive around some highly enjoyable bends but after lifting off the power for a couple of minutes this had all dissapeared and the pads were up to the job once again.

Now I know other people are far more qualified than myself to review brake pads but this is an account of how I found the pads to be in a car in a similar position to alot of others ( at Stage 1 with too much attention paid to power and not enough to braking!)

I have to say though that I can't reccommend the BlueStuff pads enough and whilst I have had them fitted how amazed I have been at the transformation they made to my car.

I have now agreed to run some tests and review the new EBC OrangeStuff pads and also their latest development the EBC High Carbon front discs. (which from reading there website are British made)

Luckily I think that the Impreza is one of the first cars for these to be made available to in the new High Carbon material, I will be using the new Blade design discs (Below) and will keep this thread updated as I go along and will post my thoughts on both. (Good or Bad!!)



The benefits over my oem discs look to be a reduction in brake judder due to high running temps, noise and possible cracking.
For more info this is a link to their webpage - http://www.ebcbrakes.com/automotive/...sc/index.shtml

My review will be completely unbiased and I have agreed to do this to try and help people making a decision on what brakes to purchase as I found it very confusing when I was looking.

I look forward to updating this thread as soon as I have them fitted.

Mark.

warrior08

iTrader: (1)

Just to add to the above I have found this about the new High Carbon discs on their website -

"
EBC Brakes are pleased to announce a September 2011 launch of its large range of EBC High Carbon/Hi Silicone GG15HC performance brake discs. The advantages of High Carbon brake discs or brake rotors is well documented and in fact most high performance cars come with HIGH CARBON discs as standard.

In a nutshell this specification of brake disc material GG15HC is very well adapted to performance and race use, whilst being perfectly safe for highway driving due to its

1) Higher Carbon content DOUBLE THE NORMAL CARBON LEVELS which improves the thermal stability and reduces:

A) Thermal Brake judder in performance driving

B) Possible heat cracking of discs in performance driving

C) Brake noise by dampening vibrations

2) Higher Silicone content, the addition of which acts as a “Graphite Stabiliser” in the iron.

The combination of these higher element contents in GG15HC creates a performance an aftermarket automotive brake rotor that is at this time unbeaten in its ability to perform under heat and load.
As soon as the High Carbon range is launched EBC Brakes will only sell these references in High Carbon and discontinue standard low carbon offerings for these references.

EBC Brakes will also be using these new High Carbon rotors in its new BLADE pattern TGD series image Sport discs and it's popular USR and GD sport disc series.
The new Blade Discs will be corrosion resistant coated with a NEW Geomet DRY powder coat finish to aid fast pad break in to the disc surface and protect the discs for tens of thousands of miles from corrosion. For more information on Blade discs click here.

It is still important to remember that new discs need some time to stabilise and bed in and driving in normal urban use of 500 miles minimum with light braking application will extend life and performance of your new discs. If you are unable to do this, the life of the discs will be shortened considerably. The initial launch range of EBC discs for the European market in 2011 is shown below and comprises the top 29 selling performance discs in Europe

fastboyslim

iTrader: (2)

Nice, love my blue stuff. Still going strong. Andy promised me a set of test High Carbon discs too. Hope i hear from him soon.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

.....just for balance I'm running Carbotech XP8 pads on my bug and they stop me going forward pretty well

Shaun

Andy Freeman

We did our baseline test for the Orangestuff using XP8 and it looks VERY similar in its curve so I would say our Orange is a dead equivalent to XP8.

We also baselined numerous other competitor pads,some had VERY high friction but were unstable and varied a lot from one stop to another but overall we feel Orange is a good first STEP UP TO THE PLATE for our Track material.

We are monitoring all feedback and only Pre Production batches of Orange have been released in case feedback points to a tweak involved.

On the HIGH CARBON discs/rotors we have all the disc blanks now in our new Pineham factory and will start machining in volume in two weeks after the move in, only markest test samples have been made so far and that is it. We will have all the FRONTS for the Impreza available in HIGH CARBON but all REARS will be standard British Made Iron that we have always sold and NOT High carbon (at this time)

We are also Launching HIGH CARBON in the USA later this year with an additional range for all the big US model cars.

Thanks to all

Andy Freeman
Owner EBC Brakes