CSG Spec C2 Brake Pads Review

Before I dive into this, I want to take a little bit of time to quickly explain my background. I’m not a professional driver by any means and my review is strictly based on driver observations comparing my setups in the past.

I probably followed the same path as many other HPDE drivers to get to where I’m at today. I started out as just a normal car enthusiast with my 420 whp 07 Subaru Legacy GT slammed on BC coilovers and ended up slowly making way over to the track side of the world after purchasing my current E46 M3.

In 2013 on my 2nd track day, I got into a pretty bad accident at ACS and ended up crashing my car into a barrier going about 45 mph head on. My car was destroyed and I was not able to track anymore because I was in a lot of pain from the accident. I dealt with rehab for about a year and had no desire to get back on the track. I still wanted to be around cars though, so that’s when I focused more on posting photos on Instagram and started this website, Buildjournal.

Fast forward to just early last year, my friends and girlfriend convinced me to get back on track. So I did. In less than 2 years, I’ve done 25 track events and my car turned into an absolute track day beast. I’ve shattered my own personal best lap times by seconds every track day. Buildjournal now has 400+ B-Spec Tune customers and growing. I couldn’t have predicted where I’d be in just a few years. Life is short, so make it happen fast.

Okay. Now let’s dive in to the review…

I really enjoy comparing braking performance at Streets of Willow CCW because the configuration has an easy way to compare stopping performance – apples to apples. Listen to what I’m about to say because if you are running this track you will know how to analyze your setup rather easily.

You have about 430 ft from the start/finish line to the start of T1. What does that mean? You don’t have much room to be on the brake pedal after the start/finish especially if you’re in a high horsepower car.

In my car I reach a top speed of 115 mph on the downhill front straight and I’m on the gas all the way to the start/finish. I lift off the gas right after I cross the start/finish and I’m left with only a few hundred feed to slow down to mid 30 mph for the T1 skid pad. This means the braking point is very consistent every time and if I overshoot T1 or don’t slow down enough, I can make that observation rather easily.

In this video below, you can see how it looks when I have caliper knock back going into T1. Luckily I didn’t crash into my friend.

Every single time I went into T1, I felt like I could delay the braking point just a little bit than my usual and it gave me confidence to stop in time. As soon as you build up heat on the rotors and pads, the car just grips more and more as it gets hotter. It felt really good.

I honestly felt that the previous setup on the Endless ME20 felt better in terms of initial bite. Keep in mind however, this is the first time out on track and I may need to do a few more days before I can make a 100% assessment on the bite. However, the brake pedal feels very linear and allows me to apply the desired amount of brake pressure every time.

Because the brake pedal pressure was consistent, I felt pretty comfortable trail braking through T1, T6 (bowl) and T8. You can see this in my video at the very bottom.

It wasn’t a scorcher, but the day was pretty hot at around 91° and I was intentionally running 12 consecutive hot laps at times to test the brake fade. I really tried to burn the pads up with what the flow of traffic allowed. Streets of Willow is pretty demanding on the brakes because it is a very technical track with lots of tight turns and braking points. During the hottest session of the day, I did not feel any brake fade.