[Socal2fast]

The Brake dust on the 2021 GT500 is crazy LOL. What are the best pads for front and rear for low to no brake dust?

A friend told me the Carbotech 1521's and they have them for front and rear.

What do you guys think and use?

 

[SnakeCollector]

As much as I hate the brake dust (and I do) I'm sticking with the OEM pads. Not worth chancing it IMHO. Everything I'm hearing there is at least some degree of reduction in braking performance / feel with all the current non-OEM offerings.

Hell the brakes were a big selling point to me to begin with, lol. I'll have the wheels ceramic coated soon so that should help with the cleaning at least.

 

[Goose17]

As much as I hate the brake dust (and I do) I'm sticking with the OEM pads. Not worth chancing it IMHO. Everything I'm hearing there is at least some degree of reduction in braking performance / feel with all the current non-OEM offerings.

Hell the brakes were a big selling point to me to begin with, lol. I'll have the wheels ceramic coated soon so that should help with the cleaning at least.

 

[NerdyStats]

There's a pretty direct correlation between noisy, dusty brake pads and high performance. All of the track rated or race brake pads I've seen have a disclaimer about being both squeaky and dirty. This is the description of some G-LOC brake pads I will run at my next track day.

The street rated pads often use compounds that create less dust and noise, but will also melt straight off of the car at the track. Here's my personal evidence. These are Powerstop Extreme (ceramic "high performance" but not track rated) pads on my '13 after half of a track day. Keep in mind that these had around 2,000 street miles on them before the track day, so there was easily a 1/4" of pad showing on both sides of the rotor. I wasn't able to finish the last session of the day because I was literally metal to metal.

But hey, they were clean and quiet. 🤣

Because of the nutty nature of the 2020+ brakes, I would assume they are probably closer to the track pad family than the daily driver street variety, hence all of the dust. But I don't own one, so I don't know for sure. I do believe that @Goose17 has put several track days on the factory pads without a single hiccup.

 

[Evolvd]

Therein lies the question. Are you going to track your car? If the answer is no, street pads will work just fine for you with minimal degradation in performance. We can “what if” accident scenarios all day long but the percentage of accidents solely caused by a slight reduction in braking performance has got to be microscopically low.
If you are going to track your car you’ll be doing pad swaps anyways so get the Caliperfexion kit and run street pads on the street and stock/track pads on the track. Problem solved.
As for options, Powerstop has their Z26 high performance street pads for the front that many people on here and other forums use with no reports of reduced feel or concerns of engagement and stopping distance. The rear pads are not available yet from Powerstop but they are coming. The only other option I’m aware of is Carbotech and they are expensive.

 

[2008GT500]

Very happy with the Z26 pads on my Jeep which replaced the factory Brembo dust makers. The Z26 are clean and quiet with no noticeable loss of stopping power (first time I can say that with a "clean" pad). I've been running them for years with no issues, but I don't track the Jeep either.

 

[SnakeCollector]

No right or wrong answer on this one either (as with most things). Purely a personal choice. As Jeff points out there isn't a low-dust street pad in the world that performs EQUALLY well as a more track-oriented (read: dusty) pad. You can't have the best of both worlds. Only potential exception being carbon ceramic brakes - I don't have personal experience with those.

I paid for the absolute best brakes I could have on a GT500 so I'm going to use the best performing pads also. Then I'll clean the wheels.

 

[Berk]

I mentioned this in another thread. You may not have to change pads at all. I use Armor All Brake Dust Repellant, and it works incredibly well. I have deliberately gone several weeks without washing the wheels and the dust is less than it used to be after a day.

 

[mavisky]

Therein lies the question. Are you going to track your car? If the answer is no, street pads will work just fine for you with minimal degradation in performance. We can “what if” accident scenarios all day long but the percentage of accidents solely caused by a slight reduction in braking performance has got to be microscopically low.
If you are going to track your car you’ll be doing pad swaps anyways so get the Caliperfexion kit and run street pads on the street and stock/track pads on the track. Problem solved.
As for options, Powerstop has their Z26 high performance street pads for the front that many people on here and other forums use with no reports of reduced feel or concerns of engagement and stopping distance. The rear pads are not available yet from Powerstop but they are coming. The only other option I’m aware of is Carbotech and they are expensive.

I ran Powerstop Z26 pads on my GT350. Amazing pads for the street and running uphill on mountain runs they even held up to some seriously quick driving. However when I turned around and began running hard down hill the pads quickly began having heat issues. I couldn't trust the pads downhill and went back to stock

 

[Evolvd]

I ran Powerstop Z26 pads on my GT350. Amazing pads for the street and running uphill on mountain runs they even held up to some seriously quick driving. However when I turned around and began running hard down hill the pads quickly began having heat issues. I couldn't trust the pads downhill and went back to stock

By “running hard” do you mean “max performing” your brakes (something most of us never do)? Thankfully I have no mountains around me 🤣

 

[mavisky]

I wouldn't say max performance, but touching 3800lbs downhill at 80mph into 2nd gear corners puts a lot of heat into the pads when it's one after another for miles.

If you don't intend to use your car like that or only intend to make one or two hard stops after a quick pull the Z26 pads will be great. If you intend to use the brakes more then you may run into the issues I ran into. Like I said they worked great going uphill where gravity was on my side, but downhill proved to be just a little too much.

 

[Goose17]

I do believe that @Goose17 has put several track days on the factory pads without a single hiccup.

Yes! I absolutely STAND on the OEM brakes all day long at the track… zero issues. 🤟

 

[Socal2fast]

What do you guys think on the Carbotech VS Powerstop pads ? ? ? ?

 

[Aeneas137]

The Brake dust on the 2021 GT500 is crazy LOL. What are the best pads for front and rear for low to no brake dust?

A friend told me the Carbotech 1521's and they have them for front and rear.

What do you guys think and use?

I don't own an S550 but don't sweat the brake dust, it's a sign that you have good brakes. Ever looked closely at a Z06? The last few I've seen in person wore their brake dust with pride. That's what I suggest fwiw: Eliminate dust = eliminate performance. Kind of like wishing your car had better gas mileage: do you really want less performance? Take it to a car show COVERED in brake dust, that's my opinion.

 

[jd-hart]

I bought Racing Brakes pad option for front and rear and have been very happy with them. Significant improvement over dust from factory and haven't noticed any decease performance on the street.

 

[Socal2fast]

So it looks like we have right now to pick form on our cars is the Carbotech VS Powerstop VS Race Brakes?

Anyone know what ones are best for dust? Looks like people are still waiting for the Powerstop rear pads to come out?

 

[Evolvd]

So it looks like we have right now to pick form on our cars is the Carbotech VS Powerstop VS Race Brakes?

Anyone know what ones are best for dust? Looks like people are still waiting for the Powerstop rear pads to come out?

The Z26 pads aren’t too dusty but you will have some.

 

[jsg1518]

I had the carbotech on my grandsport and it eliminated the dust and I felt no difference. I do not track so cant speak for that but I think I will be putting them on the GT500 as well.