Not enough time tonight to give Molly a proper mini Detail before our club run tomorrow, Molly has Zimmermann Brake Rotors and Akebono Euro Ceramic Pads. I took Griot's Garage Speed Shine and Blue Towels to clean all 4 wheels, one towel per wheel. You can see by the pics. below which set of pads and rotors have been replaced already, the Top Pics. are the Towels used on the Rear Wheels, the Bottom Pics. are the Towels used on the Front Wheels...

 

More impressive when you consider the front brakes always create more dust than the rear, given all 4 corners are running the same pads.

Put Hawk ceramic on my CR Cooper and it reduced dust by... hmmmm..... about 40%.

 

By choosing a pad with less dust, you're giving up some braking performance. I can guarantee you that no ceramic pad will out brake the standard equipment counterpart. That's why I kept my dusty pads on my car...so I clean the wheels more often...no big deal for me!

 

Easy for you to say ! If the wheels in your sig pic are still on your MINI, you're running one of the easiest to clean wheels out there. Try some 16-spoke white wheels and see if you still agree. :-)

And I never noticed any appreciable difference in stopping after swapping over to ceramic.

 

Winter wheels are in the pic, the summer wheels were R112's, which are quite the b!tch to clean. Consider this - most racing pads are notorious for giving off tremendous amounts of dust...why do you think that is? Because they stop better! Not saying Ceramic pads are bad, I'm sure they will do just fine on the streets. I'm more concerned about that extra 12 inches of braking distance you wouldn't want in an "oh *****!" Situation if it ever happens.

 

I'm curious about the track performance of the ceramic pads where heat is the major issue. Will the ceramic pads perform better under that high heat environment?

I personally don't give a rip about the dust, but I need a pad that will perform under repeated stress on the track.

 

Its been my experience that ceramic pads tend to not offer as much bite as the carbon based alternatives. That being said, pads are composite of many elements and usually will have some part of both elements in them.

I also think of ceramic pads as being excellent insulators. This does force a great deal of heat into your rotors. The effect on braking potential can be debated.