Why You Should Upgrade Your Brake Pads
Whether you love to hit the tracks or just strive for enhanced road performance, upgrading the brake pads on your Mitsubishi Evo X could make a world of difference.
Each time you apply the brakes, they generate heat. This heat can rapidly cause brake fade, reducing their efficiency over time, particularly during aggressive driving or racing.
High-performance brake pads, like the ones mentioned later in this guide, are crafted to enable better heat dissipation.
This prevents the pads overheating, ensuring that your brakes remain consistent and reliable even in the most demanding conditions.
Road vs Track Pads
There are various aftermarket brake pads available for different uses. Some are solely focused towards fast road driving, others are focused primarily for the track and then there are some pads that cater to both.
Consider how you drive and use your Evo X when upgrading your pads.
While it may be tempting to instantly go for the most aggressive and high performance brake pads you can find, they do have their drawbacks. Especially if you daily drive your Evo X.
Some of the high performance track-focused pads are made from aggressive friction compounds that can generate more noise and brake dust than road brake pads.
This noise increase might be tolerable during races or track events but can be bothersome during daily driving. The same goes for dust, not so much an issue on track but will lead to increased wheel cleaning and maintenance for street driving.
Just keep all this in mind when selecting the right brake pads for your use.
Now we’ve covered all that, let’s get into it and start looking at the different brake pads options on the market!
Ferodo DS2500 Pads
If you are planning doing track days or rallycross events in your Evo X, then you can’t go wrong with Ferodo DS2500 pads. While one of the pricier options on this list, they offer superior braking performance over the standard pads.
They also work very effectively from cold unlike many track focused pads.
While offering fantastic braking performance on the track, they are also generally easy to live with for daily driving and don’t tend to produce too much noise or dust either.
An excellent option if you have the budget for them!
EBC Redstuff Pads
EBC Redstuff brake pads are a very popular and affordable street pad upgrade.
These pads prevent brake fade at high temperature, ensuring consistent and reliable braking performance.
Redstuff brake pads are known for producing less dust than many heavy duty pads, making them ideal for daily driving.
The material and design of these pads shouldn’t generate too much noise once they have bedded in, so you shouldn’t get too much of annoying squeal either.
Stoptech Street Pads
These are very popular pads for US owners of the Evo X.
These are very affordable and good value street pads that offer an upgrade over the standard pads.
While engineered for increased braking performance, they have also been made to ensure minimal brake dust and quiet operation for daily driving.
If you’re in the US and looking for a low cost and effective upgrade for street driving, these are the ones for you.
Hawk HPS Pads
The Hawk HPS brake pads are another fantastic option for street use.
While slightly pricier than some of the other street pads on this list, they do offer very effective braking performance with the ability to endure high temperatures with minimal fade.
These pads will do the job for daily driving however you will want something like the Ferodo pads for track use.
Ferodo DS3000 Pads
We covered the DS2500 pads earlier which are created for recreational track use, but what if you are looking for a more extreme compromise?
This is where the DS3000 race pads come in.
These are engineered for heavy track and racing use, ensuring your Evo X’s brakes can sustain even the hardest and most demanding braking challenges on circuit.
Due to their race nature, these pads do require a fair amount of heat in them to get them up to optimal temperature. As such, braking performance isn’t great until that point. Not the best for daily driving but ideal for track use.
The Verdict
Upgrading your Evo X’s brake pads is a critical aspect of maximising performance.
However, it’s important to consider upgrading other components of the brake system such as the brake discs and brake lines too.
Uprated brake pads generate higher friction, demanding that the brake discs efficiently dissipate heat and resist warping.
Likewise, upgrading your brake lines to stainless steel braided lines can minimise the potential for line expansion under pressure, thus ensuring a more responsive and firm brake pedal feel.
With that said, we hope you found this guide useful at helping you decide your next brake pad purchase.
All the products mentioned in this article are an upgrade over OEM and are of high quality, so you can’t go wrong. It will come down to your budget and how you use your Evo X.
Happy modding!
