Brakes review — Ferodo vs EBC vs ProjectMu
Having already gone through almost 10 sets of brake pads on the Colt Ralliart race car, it is time to review what works for us and what doesn’t. Here is our experience with different brands and our honest opinion.
update:
EBC BlueStuff
Needs to be properly bedded in to attain full potential. Bedding process is approx 100KM of hard driving spaced with cooling intervals. Pads perform better than OEM once warmed up. Cold bite is diminished and not advisable on the street especially in cold or wet conditions. Cons are, significant brake dust and wear(often times uneven) with a tendency to overheat when ran consistently hard on track. In our opinion, only worth considering if Ferodo DS2500 is not available or for cost savings.
Mitsubishi Genuine brakes
The standard Mitsubishi Genuine brake pads work very well from cold. They are progressive throughout the braking range and stop the little Colt quite well indeed. We were impressed with how good they were for standard brakes. Mitsubishi definitely did their homework on this.
The downside however is their short life for track/race application. They are also are prone to brake fade after a long punishing session. Ours lasted only 2 full track days before having to be replaced.
EBC Yellow Stuff
These pads are rated best for sporty road and track use. They perform slightly better than OEM pads while maintaining the same braking characteristics. They are also similarly priced or lower than OEM for what are considered “performance pads”. They do not suffer from brake fade, easily handling long punishing track sessions.
It is not a worthy buy in our opinion.
ProjectMu Gymkhana Comp B
A highly rated Japanese brand, they perform exactly as advertised. Fit for purpose for short course racing with lots of braking. Fade resistant and slightly better stopping power than OE. They also have good pad life at twice that of OEM pads.
Only con for us is availability. We could only find these from Japan and shipping costs as much as the pads themselves. Shipping non-withstanding, they’re good value for money.
Ferodo DS2500
Only one thing to say about them — PERFECT!!
They are substantially better that OEM pads in braking, perform consistently lap after punishing lap with zero fade, last for eons(compared to OEM pads). Though rated same as EBC yellow stuff for sporty road and track use Ferodo pads are much much better. Definitely worth having these for any track use short of full on racing.
They are the most expensive of the three but not by much. Since they’re sourced from Europe, it is important to get the sizing correct for your JDM models lest you end up with wrong pad fitment.
*OEM — Original Equipment Manufacturer
Ralliart (a side note)
We bought a set of these from Japan but ended up being the wrong fitment for the Colt Version R so we have no opinion on their performance at the moment. If you have a Colt Plus with rear disc brakes, these will fit your application — do get in touch.
