I personally like the Axxis Ultimates. They are my pad of choice and it is a pad that I highly recommend. They will produce more dust as they are a higher performance pad. But so far, everyone that I have recommended them to have liked the pads and are planning on purchasing extra sets.

 

I've used Carbotech P+ pads and think they're pretty good, but not great. I can compare them to Mintex 1155s and Porterfield R4 pads (the actual track duty pads, not the street duty R4S).

Grip level is somewhat higher than the Mintex pads, and fade resistance is much better. With the Mintex pads I could only go for maybe 1/2 a 25min track session before I would start to get brake fade, while I had little or no fade during a full session with the Carbotechs. The Mintex pads wear much better though (last longer).

Compared to the Porterfield R4 pads the overall grip of the Carbotechs is lacking. The Porterfields had unbelievable stopping power - lots o' fun. But, the Porterfields cost about $50 more per set of pads, and the two sets of R4 pads I bought both lasted for about 5 days on track. I think the Carbotechs would last a bit longer (a couple more days) during pure track use. I used mine for both street and track use, and I didn't really keep track of the mileage, so it's tough to compare. The R4s are not really good on the street at all - very noisy and hard on the rotors when cold, not very grippy when cold. The P+ pads have good grip when cold, but probably not as good as the Mintex pads (which are excellent when cold).

They dust like crazy, and if you don't clean the dust off it will cake onto your rims and will not come off. Ask me how I know. That was the one thing I found really disappointing for what is supposed to be a street-able pad.

I've also used the Carbotech Panther XPs, which cost a bit more than the P+ pads. The XPs still didn't match the Porterfields for absolute braking power - I didn't think they felt much different than the P+ pads - but they wear a lot better. I ran the Open Track Challenge back in May (7 tracks in 7 days, averaging about 70min of track time per day) on a single set of XPs and they had plenty of material left at the end of the event.

Pat Olsen
'97 Legacy 2.5GT sedan