cster

Anyone tried these?
I have a set on recommendation from Godspeed and am well impressed.
MY06 STI with Brembo and 2 piece discs. They have been fitted without using any backing plates.
Usually do half a dozen track days a year where most problems seem to show up.
I have tried DS2500, Performance friction and EBC bluestuff.
These seem better in pretty much all aspects.
I have had the RC5+ for a couple of weeks now and have done about 600 miles including a trackday at Bedford (wet) using them. Bedford IMO provides a fairly good test of brake pads.

DS 2500 and EBC blues seem to cause major shuddering that seems like warped discs in first few track sessions. As this wears off, I assume it is due to pad material deposition on the discs.

Performance friction I enjoyed using, but were pretty useless from cold, not a problem except when driving the Missus car which has good bite from cold. The RC5+ work pretty much as well from cold as when warm.

EBC blues I found useless to the point of danger when bedding in. The experience of warm brakes providing negligible stopping irrespective of pedal pressure during bedding in is not good, but the RC5+ were pretty much bang on the money on discs that have gone through two sets of bluestuff. (ie worn discs)

Brake dust seems to be about the same for all of these.
Disc/Pad wear I don't know about yet.
RC5+ seem to knock when going from reverse to forward (braking) as do PF, not a problem.
RC5+ squeal a (tiny) bit. Doesn't bother me at all.

All in all, I would say these pads are the best I have used considering my setup and needs.
Big thumbs up to Ian at Godspeed for listening to my experiences with other pads (as above) and coming up trumps with the RC5+ recommendation, which I would warmly endorse for anyone with STI Brembo calipers who is into fast road/occasional track use.

Hope this is helpful to anyone considering trying out some new pads.

stonejedi

iTrader: (51)

Nice reviewit should help out a few who are in the market for some pads,i have been a Performance Friction brakes set up convert for years now,but it seems i have to give the CL pads another try i use to use them before but could not take all the brake dust and the PF pads sorted this out,the CL were good pads though and a good buy if you did track days.SJ.

kevfawcett

iTrader: (7)

I also have these pads and agree that they are good in all conditions, however the 'ring in August will be my first proper test of them.

A couple of things I dislike are the squeeling, which is very loud on light braking and the amount of brake dust they give off. Having white wheels is not ideal with these pads, they are worse than any of the EBC pads i've used in the past

cster

Personally I am not too bothered with the noise/dust, but this could change with time
I can see that with white wheels, they may not be ideal.

mark@wrx

Two others to throw into the mix are Pagid and Carbotech. I went from XP10's to Pagid RS15's recently, following advice from Alyn at AS Performance. Very similar temperature curves and real life performance, but the Pagids are much cleaner dust wise.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Good review mate
I've not tried the RC5s, but I have had 2500s and old style red stuff before I settled on PF-Zs.
I found the PFs to be the best by a long way on my brembos.
I have now fitted a set of K sports which came with a set of blue stuff which I find really disappointing - dusty and lacking feed back. I now have a set of PFs waiting to be fitted.

AS Performance

iTrader: (4)

cster, which compound PFC ???

cster

Z compound.
Would have stuck with them if I only drove one car, but the Missus MR2 is a bit "over-servo'd" by comparison.

AS Performance

iTrader: (4)

hardly a "fair" comparsion then - RC5+ more like the 01 type material

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Lol at the irony of some of your post (not aimed at you)

I had the rc6 which is better on a heavier car, the rc5+ would be good on a lighter car but still good (find it odd that you was recomended the rc5+ and not the rc6) what car do you have? Classic or newage?
My took some real abuse, a good 45 mins on a track like cadwell with heavy breaking and still performed well Throughout
Less pedal effort to get a reaction too.

Thanks for that review, you've Confirmed my querys from other threads of this nature.

downfalls
Bit dusty and hard to keep clean if not cleaned regularly, squeaky at stop/start traffic speed but above that ok, but IMO worth it for brakes I could rely on if given death or emergency braking

How much did you pay if you don't mind me asking?

AS Performance

iTrader: (4)

irony in mine??

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

No Alan not you fella

cster

I paid £130 for the fronts (happy) and £120 (not so sure) for the rears.
I haven't tried to provide a definitive comparison as I am not an expert or anything.
It is just that I notice a lot of people seem to push whatever set up they have on their own car.
I have tried the four types out in similar circumstances and would be interested to hear what other people have to say in comparison.
It depends a bit what your order of priorities is.
For me it is
1 Suited to road and track-day
2 Good bite from cold
3 Price
4 Dust
5 Noise
With this order I find the RC5+ good for me, but obviously this order will be different for different people.
I don't know how these pads will wear or how they will effect wear on my rotors - this will effect my third priority once I have had them a bit longer. I would guess that a lot of dust may well equate with a degree of pad wear (unless it is the rotors )
I do now keep records and my last set of Bluestuff lasted 15K miles including four track days.
Like I say, it was the guys at Godspeed who took the time to listen to my requirements and I am happy to say they appear to have come up trumps.
I haven't used AS Performance, but if I had, I'm sure they would have provided a similar level of service

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Pad life is no so bad really (rc6) the rotors may see a bit of wear as they will sand them down so to speak, not sure if the rc5+ is a softer compound, but the rc6 lasted me ages with a couple of trackdays, but I replaced rotors and for the sake of new rotors I replaced pads prior to selling car as the discs were worn, but there was still plenty life in pads

P.s I thought Ian woudnt recomend these after the conversations on here.

fpan

iTrader: (11)

Nice review.

Interesting what you say about the shuddering with DS2500 (haven't tried them in the Subaru but in my previous 205 they were awesome but ate discs - not a problem as discs were cheap) and EBC Bluestuff and this wearing off as this is exactly what I had experienced.

Don't you have any juddering at all with the CL RC5+ and are they better in performance than DS2500?

I found DS2500 to be great in my 205 GTi.

Is there any reason why you are not using backing plates? Advantages/disadvantages?
Maybe that's why they squeak.

I also don't like the brake dust of EBC Bluestuff and DS2500 but you can't have friction without brake dust

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

We had conversations about the RC6 and 8's , which are a harsher pad for day to day use , albeit good pads , the RC5's are a fast road/ track pad so are milder , but still a very good pad , one that has impressed me and its better than blue , orange and ds2500's.
They are easy on discs , are hard wearing and good for dust , only downside to them is some squeal at low pressure low speed braking , they are also very well priced

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Pmsl, you wasn't so keen on them before though was you? And are you sure they do a 8 as I don't think they do

What was it you said about the 5 that you tried ages ago, your review wasn't that good iirc.

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

What are you on about ?? I have used them on my rally car and found them good , but my preference not as good as ferodo DS3000's.

Yes they do an RC8 , see you don't know as much as you think ou do , check it out for yourself

http://www.carbonelorrainebraking.co.uk/

We have never discussed the RC5's before , we were talking about the 6 & 8's , how you were telling everybody how good they were and much better than EBC , well yes they would be as they are a much harder higher performing pad that is very hard on discs an paintwork on both body and wheels , the two makes cannot be compared as they are miles apart in there intended use.

Please don't turn this thread into one of your vendettas like you have with other threads .

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

I meant they don't do them for Subaru afaik

I can't be arsed searching for the post, but you said that you didn't like them and wouldn't recomend them and there's no demand for them either and they damage wheels and bodywork (this was the rc5 that you had and tried that you spoke about) please remember will you.
The rc6 iirc you have never tried, if I'm correct. I said that the ebc,ferrado etc was crap and all you said its something wrong with my set up etc.

I'm not wanting to turn this but i just laughed at the irony of it all, but hey ho you now seem to recommending them.

So sorry if I spoke out of order but I remember what was said, I'll not bring it up again as I'm happy now.

Kind regards.

fpan

iTrader: (11)

cster, any reason for not using backing plates?

The Pink Ninja

iTrader: (23)

Out of interest what are the prices for the rc5+ for a Newage brembo fitment...Front and rear compared to PF Z's?

cster

Not really.
The EBC worked well without them - Their present whereabouts are something of a mystery to me. Maybe my mechanic is of the C A B C school of thought and decided to "add some lightness" when he changed them a while back.
The car has 120K on it and my plan is to track it to death.
Hence not worried about the dust and paintwork etc.
The car has a goodly amount of transmission noise, to the point where I just drive around with the stereo on loud, so that is why I am not too bothered by any squealing either.
TBF, there is not much squeal anyways, just a little on light pressure and is therefore just a symptom of poor driving technique IMO.

ps play nice boys!

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

The fronts retail at £103.50 + vat and the rears retail at £104.53 + vat a set , don't understand why the rears retail more for half the size of pad ?? I guess they have their reasons.

Don't compare the performance of these against the PF Z rated pads though , the CL are better , and would compere against the 01 pads i'd say

Cheers Ian

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

I always like to run without the pad shims , I find they give a spongier pedal feel , I would rather apply a circle of copper slip where the pistons touch the pads , and along the ends or the pads where they slide into the caliper and this should enough to dampen them down to reduce or stop squeel on most pads , some pads you can't stop.

I found that having the pads directly on the pistons it firms up the pedal feel

Cheers Ian

-Nic-

iTrader: (4)

Ian, what Performance Friction pad compound would you recommend as a step up from the Z compound?
Car is driven on road & track. (For Brembo's)

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

The next step up is the 01 , then the 08
Cheers Ian

cster

I haven't had any juddering with the RC5+, so on the back of that aspect alone, I would rate the RC5+ better.
As I recall, the DS2500 performance was OK for my needs otherwise.
The juddering (DS2500 and EBC Blue) was severe enough to bring in the ABS on significantly less than full pedal pressure. This characteristic was noted on OEM discs, PF (2 piece) discs and Godspeed 2 piece discs.

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

As far as I am aware none of the CL pads will have issues with uneven pad deposits , it only seems to happen with a certain spec of pad , the Bluestuff and DS2500 are a very similar performing pad , and its at this sort of level its seems to be a problem people using these pads to there limits , the higher spec pads you don't seem to get it , or if you do its a very small amount

AS Performance

iTrader: (4)

the pad deposit is caused when you run the pad at or above its upper temp ability.............

you wont get it with "race" type or metallic based materials due to their inherently better temp spec

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

Ffs, you had tried the rc5 (old ones) and gave your crap review, I told you about the + version, we also discussed the 6 and all you did was mock end of.
I did read your replys properly as to why I remember!
You getting old that you don't even remember what you said.
And THAT'S the irony.


And guys it dosent damage paintwork as I had the rc6 on for over a year and never spotted owt, but however they do squeal at low speeds and are dusty, but clean the wheels regularly and it won't be a problem too much, unless giving it death on track and using your best wheels, may be hard to get the metallic dust off if not used good cleaning stuff.
No bedding in process for pads only discs and work straight away to the end, can't comment on the rc5+ as I never used them but my suspect is milder and less neck breaking lol.