EBC Brake up grades

[SmartTech]

I just found out Smart center Portland got a big shipment of EBC pads and rotors in monday. Its the green stuff pads and and the gold rotors that a sloted and dimpled.
Just info for those if people are looking.

[jwight]

Good for the folks in Portland; for the rest of us - part #s, sources in the USA? Thanks for the info, BTW.

[John_H]

Just talk to any EBC authorized dealers and you may find the GD923 gold, slotted, dimpled rotors (it was a b!tch getting the USR923 Ultimax set). The pads appear to be DP21287 from the ebcbrakes.com webstore. I used perfectbrakes.com in Ohio (shipping from more than one location) for my rotors and initially got the GD923s by mistake. The slotted rotors I eventually received have less noise than the gold rotors but the gold is their highest performance product.

[Smartcarracer]

I guess I am kinda confused. The OEM braking threshold exceeds that of a Porsche GT3 997 and is almost as good as a carbon braking system.

Does your research on changing materials and braking parts have any data behind it?

Do you know something Mercedes Benz does not?

Have you experience the absolute braking threshold while conering?

Do you fully understand how the modified AMG software Smart program configuration works with the OEM setup versus something else?

And last thing, why would you put something of lesser quaility on the Smart car? You need to upgrade to Brembo, Carbon Industries or Pagid Pads.

[SmartTech]

scp bought them from competition specailties they are a wholesale only but there may be others, how ever the salesman form comp. told him he was buying ever thing ebc was bringing into the country but who knows salesmen are full of crap.
there was no data on the swap, we just went mainly of EBC's reputation and history.
you are right though (smartcarracer) the factory brakes are plenty strong. This stuff is for people who are tired of to much brake dust or just want to do something different

[smarticus]

While I've not noticed any lack of capacity on the factory brakes, I have used EBC green pads on other cars and they are really pretty good. Almost no dust and I would bet there will be a slight improvement in braking.

[putzie]

the ebc greens and the anodised rotors are a great bit of kit , much improvment over standard smart brakes , for a start they dont give off all the dust the standard ones do they have more bite and they dont corrode like the standard rotors do if its damp out side over night standard pads can stick to the standard rotors.
the only down side is they are a little noisy when braking as you can hear the pads against the grooves and dimples and they have been known to warp , saying that i have one set on my 450 smart that are 6 years old and still going strong !!!

[John_H]

My own choice to go with the EBC was the reduced dust from the EBC pads and the difference in performance from the slots. One safety issue with brakes in general occurs when the rotors get drenched by water. While I've gotten into the habit of pumping my brakes a little at-speed after running through a huge puddle, I like the added advantage the slots bring to scraping the water off the pad/rotor interface. Slotted rotors will also wear the pads more evenly that flat rotors which tend to develop quite a groved surface over time!

I also have Kleen Wheel dust guards (with turbo venting!) that changes the airflow through and around the rotors. While the venting adds something that other dust shields may not, there is some added benefit to the slotted design for cooling, moreso with the gold GD923s. Since the car is so light, the heat buildup shouldn't be great but there's no sense in making things significantly worse (or better) overall than the factory setup.

Not everyone needs a change in brakes. There's nothing wrong with the factory setup under normal use. I'd suggest also that there's nothing wrong with the other brakes and rotors under normal use.