Wanted ~ Good cold bite brake pads for 2001 Elise

[MGJohn]

Wanted ~ Good cold bite brake pads for 2001 Elise.

After driving Power Assisted Brakes on my daily driver cars for over thirty years now, when driving my son's Elise you really need to apply pressure on that brake pedal to get decent retardation...even then, it's not good enough... for my tastes.

Even my drums all round cars of far bygone years had better initial cold bite braking.

So, can anyone recommend a grade/brand of pads which would give the more desirable better cold bite for daily driver road use?

[Black Sport 160]

Pagid RS 4-2.

Clean fluid is a must as well, though.

[S Works]

Black Sport 160 said:

Pagid RS 4-2.

Clean fluid is a must as well, though.

Seconded. I also had good service from SBS ProTrack's and Carbon Lorraine RC5 and RC6's are highly regarded on SELOC.

This is a useful resource if you're not familiar with it already http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Category:Brakes

[Scuffers]

in an old car, don't overlook the flexible hoses either, putting new(braided) ones on make a huge difference to pedal feel/travel.

Std pads are shockingly bad, for a road car, Mintex 1144's are more than adequate on a budget.

[21TonyK]

Another vote for Mintex 1144 for road use. Good bite from cold and better than OEM stopping power. Not up to CL or Pagid standard for track use but half the price. Some people moan about them being dusty but at least Mintex dust washes off easily and they are gentle on your discs.

[The Bandit]

As above it depends on your budget really but Carbon Lorraine RC5+(£200 full set) or Pagid RS-42(£240 full set)are the 'best' of the bunch.
I'd avoid EBC Yellowstuffs personally.

[21TonyK]

The Bandit said:

As above it depends on your budget really but Carbon Lorraine RC5+(£200 full set) or Pagid RS-42(£240 full set)are the 'best' of the bunch.
I'd avoid EBC Yellowstuffs personally.

Although better than Padigs the CLs can still be a bit iffy first thing on a cold morning. I'd still say 1144 for road use. I use CLs 5+ but my car is 75% track use now. I also find the CLs a bit wooden compared to things like Performance Friction (phenomenal stopping power but horrendous wear).

When you factor in the disc wear CLs, Pagid and all the other track pads (and there are plenty more) they start getting very expensive. And, unless you are going from 100+ to 20 mph two to three times a minute for 20 minutes, just not worth it.

[MGJohn]

Thanks to all for the advices. My son will have some decisions to make when he gets back from the Bierfest/Oktoberfest or whatever it's called.
....

[Chris_S]

Another vote for Carbon Lorraine RC5+. I'm very happy with them "cold" on the road, great after a few dabs and far, far superior to OEM. I found my Elise SC under braked with OEM pads and now just right with CL.

[TIPPER]

I'd support the Mintex choice for your requirements - don't need to spoend any more on pads for a daily driver.
I personally found they could be a bit 'grabby' and preferred yellowstuffs once they'd warmed up but cold bite on the yellows isn't as good as that of the Mintex 1144.

[Beachbum]

The Bandit said:

As above it depends on your budget really but Carbon Lorraine RC5+(£200 full set) or Pagid RS-42(£240 full set)are the 'best' of the bunch.
I'd avoid EBC Yellowstuffs personally.

Not sure why you would say to avoid EBC Yeollows.

There was a thread started about 18months ago, maybe longer where a number of people were bemoaning the EBC brand in general and the Owner of the company joined the discussion and pointed out that whilst certain pads were not necessarily appropriate for the Elise, others maybe
He put his money where his mouth was and offered a number of free sets to the first X people that contacted him. Can not remember how many in all, but I was one of them and I was very impressed £100 for a ful set, massivley better than OEM and good from cold. I know others also commented on how good they were. Granted Pagids were/are considered better and Carbon Lorraines werent even known about at the time. They are also twice the price.

[Scuffers]

Beachbum said:

The Bandit said:

As above it depends on your budget really but Carbon Lorraine RC5+(£200 full set) or Pagid RS-42(£240 full set)are the 'best' of the bunch.
I'd avoid EBC Yellowstuffs personally.

Not sure why you would say to avoid EBC Yeollows.

There was a thread started about 18months ago, maybe longer where a number of people were bemoaning the EBC brand in general and the Owner of the company joined the discussion and pointed out that whilst certain pads were not necessarily appropriate for the Elise, others maybe
He put his money where his mouth was and offered a number of free sets to the first X people that contacted him. Can not remember how many in all, but I was one of them and I was very impressed £100 for a ful set, massivley better than OEM and good from cold. I know others also commented on how good they were. Granted Pagids were/are considered better and Carbon Lorraines werent even known about at the time. They are also twice the price.

well, all I can say is I have tried them (and I paid for them) along with several other EBC pads, and my overall view is I would not put them on a car I drive period.

there is no such thing as the perfect pad, each type has it's good/bad points, it's all about striking a balance based on the intended use.

now, personally, I would have no issues running Mintex 1144's on a road car, I cannot say the same for EBC, I would also hesitate to use Padgid's on a 100% road only car as in everyday use I think the 1144's would be easier to live with an perform better (in the context of everyday road use), and at ~£50 a set, they are not exactly going to cripple you cost wise.

[The Bandit]

Beachbum said:

The Bandit said:

As above it depends on your budget really but Carbon Lorraine RC5+(£200 full set) or Pagid RS-42(£240 full set)are the 'best' of the bunch.
I'd avoid EBC Yellowstuffs personally.

Not sure why you would say to avoid EBC Yeollows.

There was a thread started about 18months ago, maybe longer where a number of people were bemoaning the EBC brand in general and the Owner of the company joined the discussion and pointed out that whilst certain pads were not necessarily appropriate for the Elise, others maybe
He put his money where his mouth was and offered a number of free sets to the first X people that contacted him. Can not remember how many in all, but I was one of them and I was very impressed £100 for a ful set, massivley better than OEM and good from cold. I know others also commented on how good they were. Granted Pagids were/are considered better and Carbon Lorraines werent even known about at the time. They are also twice the price.

Same as scuffers, I bought a set and ran them on my S2 and found them to be poor from cold,braking efficiency decreased,not durable(lasted <8k miles)and had issues with the quality.
They would regularly stick on to the front discs(car garaged with handbrake always off)and i almost missed a trackday due to the n/s/f pads welding themselves to the disc so badly i needed to dismantle the brakes completely just to get the wheel to turn.
On top of that they scored my front discs so badly that they needed replacing at 18k miles.
I could not wait to get them off my car and to be honest found OEMs to be miles better.

Of course these are personal experiences and others may have got on fine with them, personally i will never try to save money on brakes again and will stick with CLs or Pagids(not tried Mintex tbh)as i do a lot of Euro mountain trips and a few trackdays.

[MGJohn]

Thanks for this additional feedback. Lots of food for thought there.

MY EBC pad experience:~

During the past ten years, I used EBC pads on my Rover 220 and Rover 620 Turbos. Both cars with servo brake assist unlike the Elise.

I replaced both sets with bog standard OE pads on those Rovers and found them better from all aspects. Not used for track days though.

So, what is the benefit of the EBC pads ? Track days where repeated heavy application from higher speeds in quick succession over the laps is maybe where EBCs come into their own. However, for daily driver stuff I did not like EBCs at all.
..

[TIPPER]

Scuffers said:

Beachbum said:

The Bandit said:

As above it depends on your budget really but Carbon Lorraine RC5+(£200 full set) or Pagid RS-42(£240 full set)are the 'best' of the bunch.
I'd avoid EBC Yellowstuffs personally.

Not sure why you would say to avoid EBC Yeollows.

There was a thread started about 18months ago, maybe longer where a number of people were bemoaning the EBC brand in general and the Owner of the company joined the discussion and pointed out that whilst certain pads were not necessarily appropriate for the Elise, others maybe
He put his money where his mouth was and offered a number of free sets to the first X people that contacted him. Can not remember how many in all, but I was one of them and I was very impressed £100 for a ful set, massivley better than OEM and good from cold. I know others also commented on how good they were. Granted Pagids were/are considered better and Carbon Lorraines werent even known about at the time. They are also twice the price.

well, all I can say is I have tried them (and I paid for them) along with several other EBC pads, and my overall view is I would not put them on a car I drive period.

there is no such thing as the perfect pad, each type has it's good/bad points, it's all about striking a balance based on the intended use.

now, personally, I would have no issues running Mintex 1144's on a road car, I cannot say the same for EBC, I would also hesitate to use Padgid's on a 100% road only car as in everyday use I think the 1144's would be easier to live with an perform better (in the context of everyday road use), and at ~£50 a set, they are not exactly going to cripple you cost wise.

Was that the newer compound Scuffers?
Greenstuffs are truly awful but I found the yellows fine in the context of my use (raod/occasional track day). Sure, they're no Pagid but I thought they performed well when warmed up and could live without the apparant lack of bite from cold. The cold bite thing is real though: I could feel the pads improving through the pedal if you came off a Mway ramp a bit quickish and needed to shed speed quickly. However I never had any problems pulling up sharply from stone cold - just very little feel but that improved greatly with heat. I let someone with a similiar car to mine drive my car around Llandow to appreciate the difference Nitrons made. He came back full of praise for the Nitrons but reckoned the brakes weren't up to his Pagids.
They were good enough for my use and I honestly preferred them on the road to the Mintex 1144 which, as I said above, I felt could be a bit 'grabby' sometimes. I didn't suffer any of the problems others have described with the yellows and I certainly wasn't a fair weather driver.
I'd intended to upgrade to Pagids/CL when the yellows where done but that was due to the car becoming more track focused and getting less and less road use. So I believe there is a place for them and reckon them better than OEM. Are they better than Mintex 1144? I reckon its down to personal preferance.