I didn't see EBC Bluestuff mentioned much here, so I thought I should give my two cents on it. Like just about every Stinger owner with the crappy Brembo OEM brake pads, mine had the infamous pad material deposit. Since I normally take it really easy in everyday driving, it didn't bother me much. The only thing I noticed was a rough gritty feel whenever I had to step on the brake a bit harder than usual. Otherwise, the Brembos did just fine. Even with quite a few AutoX's last year, I knew the brakes were not worked hard enough to cause heat spotting, but I did keep a very close eye on all four rotors. Below was about as bad as it got.
View attachment 77473
Not ideal, but far from unserviceable for normal everyday commuting. That said, compared to our '21
G70 6MT Sport with the Euro-Sport pad (below), which over the same period of time had absolutely no brake pad material transfer and worked brilliantly, I knew the Stinger OEM pads had to go sooner or later.
View attachment 77472
So, when I signed up for a Track Dat at Motorsport Ranch at Cresson last year, I did my due diligence to look for a worthy replacement pad. Having had excellent experience with EBC sintered HH pads on many of my motorcycles over the years, I was a bit partial to the brand. So I chose their Bluestuff "super-sport and Track Day" pad.
Being the cheapskate that I am, and the rotors still in excellent shape with no grooving or measurable tapering, I just scrubbed off the pad material deposit and slapped on the Bluestuff.
View attachment 77474
As I was just finishing up the initial "breaking in" or seating the pad to the rotor, and starting in on stage 1 bedding in, the rear was nice and smooth, but the front started to vibrate a bit. Yeah, sometimes the Scrooge does get caught for being cheap. No biggie, I took off the front rotors and had them turned at O'Reily's for $25 a rotor. Back on they went.
View attachment 77475
O'Reily's did an excellent job and only shaved less than 0.2mm off each surface. I'm still far from the minimum rotor thickness (F 28.0mm R 20.4mm).
View attachment 77476
As expected, the front brakes complained no more, and I repeated the seating process for another 100 miles or so of really easy driving/braking. Then did my stage 1 bedding in, per EBC instructions. I decided to wait for the actual track session to do Stage 2 bedding in, because trying to do it on public road was just not practical, or safe. All there was left to prep was bleed/flush with high-temp DOT4 fluid.
So Track Day came, and I took it easy for the first session, mainly to memorized all 16 turns of the long 3.1mile course, which at my age took a while. Just as well, it gave the pad and rotor time to really know each other, consummately their marriage, and bed in (pun intended) properly.
View attachment 77477
For the other three 20-min sessions, Bluestuff performed brilliantly - zero fade, linear pedal feel, and ample braking power that's easy to modulate.
No, I don't have enough power to chase down the big guns, but not having to worry about the brakes was a big plus. The instructor that sat with me asked what mod I did and was very glad to hear what I did for brake prep.
View attachment 77478
This is what it looked like at the end of the day. The brakes got plenty toasty, enough to disintegrate the plastic hub-centric rings that TireRack included with the Enkei TFRs. Lesson learned there. All 4 rotors had that nice even color sheen that's indicative of the proper kind of micro-layer pad material transfer track-prepped brakes should look like - for optimum brake performance and rotor life.
View attachment 77480
Now... the downside. Yes, there are always compromises with everything related to engineering. Like just about all performance-oriented brake pads, the Bluestuff produces prodigious amount of brake dust. The Euro-Sport pads on our
G70 6MT are the same. That is just the nature of the beast. This is going to put off a lot of street drivers, but to me, it is a worthy price to pay for excellent track performance. This is why I buy easy-to-clean wheels. And it's why I went with the Enkei TFR.
Also, performance pads are usually on the noisy side. Some like to hiss. Others love to creak. Bluestuff tend to groan, when they are just making/breaking contact with the rotor. Not surprising, since their friction coefficient remains very very high, even when stone cold. I have to be really careful to feather the brake pedal pressure to minimize the noise, especially in crawling stop-n-go rush hour traffic. Doesn't bother me that much. I just look at it like the Bluestuff pads are complaining why I made they put up with this s***, when we should be out at the track tearing up the corners.
Thirdly, the wear rate is higher than with street pads. Again, that is just the nature of the beast. 6 months in including the track day, the pads are visibly worn. I have not taken off the pads and mic'ed them, but I would have no problem doing another track day right now. Doing a 3rd TD... that would be very iffy. Once pads are worn to the last 1/3, their wear rate accelerates. Like tires, brake pads are consumables. Their performance vs. life expectancy is also similar to tires. Thankfully, pads are nowhere near as expensive as tires.
Would I recommend them? If track days are in your plans - absolutely. If not, they still make excellent street performance pads, as long as you are okay with the compromise. Otherwise, something a bit less hard-edged, like their Yellowstuff, or even Redstuff, might be better suited.
That's it. I'll leave you with the thought that regardless of what you might think of the Stinger, it is first and foremost a really great GT car. A pure-bred sport car it is most definitely not. As long as you keep your expectations in check, much fun you'll have.
Otherwise, it's why folks bring track tools like this (taken at the same track day):
View attachment 77479
