I am at an indecisive point as to what pads to get as my OEM ones are getting to the point where I need to consider replacing them soon.

The car is my DD, typically doing about 30-40 miles a day. I also plan to run close to a full autocross season. Last year I ran my first PDX event, and I intend to do at least one this year if not two or three. My impressions of the OEM pads overall are fairly decent; I only noticed some brake fade late into the hottest of days at any given event.

I am looking for a set of pads that may offer better overall performance (equivalent initial bite, more resistant to fade) than OEM at auto-x / track events. Yet at the same time be DD friendly (most importantly won't murder the rotors). I don't care as much about brake dust or a bit of squealing, really. I realize that there is no true "dual purpose" street / track pad out there from reading the various threads; there are sacrifices one way or another (or both). If I were to say that to me the OEM pads had a 50:50 street:track "performance rating", I would probably be looking for a new pad that was maybe along the lines of 40:60 street:track. I am unfortunately not at the point where I want to get two separate sets of pads for DD and track having to swap them back and forth (I have yet to ever change pads on a car).

Recommendations would be greatly appreciated. At this point, I seem to be going back and forth between OEM and Hawk HP+ pads. I have gathered a short list of prospects in no particular order:

OEM
Hawk Performance Ceramic
Hawk HP+
Axxis Ultimates
Porterfield R4-S
MazdaSpeed

I really didn't want to start a new brake pad thread considering the flood of them that are already out there, but many of the threads often do not clearly qualify the intended driving habits/style of their respective OPs and/or they don't match what I am looking for. The wildly varying opinions over the same pads didn't help, either. :eyetwitch

I'd be very interested to see what people with some knowledge on the subject have to say as well. I am in a similar situation as far as the car's usage... Right now Im running hawk HPS pads, which seem to be pretty similar to OEM from what I can tell.

FYI, I have found this particular thread probably the most useful in pointing me in the right general direction (unfortunately, it also is one of the threads that left me the most in the air):

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=147796

There was another thread with some interesting insight by TeamRX8 as well (in regards to the Porterfields and Hawk Ceramics)... I can't seem to find that thread at the moment, though.

EDIT: found it:

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=150723

EDIT EDIT: another decent thread:

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=115017

Axxis Ulitmates are probably the best bang for the buck in terms of cost, coefficient of friction and thermal range. They're a good balance for an upgraded street performance pad but they are dusty. I had good experience with them on the street with my Acura which was hard on brakes. Based on their published thermal range the Ultimates edge out the Hawk HP plus just a bit although I've never used the Hawks. Other good street performance pads are Carbotech Bobcats, Carbotech AX6, or Cobalt GTsports.

None of the above pads are adequate for tracking a car on road courses except for novices. Experienced drivers on brake intensive road courses will get pad deposits with these street performance pads. Dedicated track pads are the way to go if you are going to be tracking the car on road courses.

I love the Hawk HPS for street. I use HP+ for track once and don't like it and been using HPS for track with brake fading so I switched to cobalt XR2/XR5 combo for track and I like it much better than Hawk HP+, however, both track pads are horrible for street due to excessive braking noise at low speed. So I have two set, HPS for street and the cobalt for track, best of both world.

Does anyone know if the mazdaspeed pads offer any noteable difference from the OEM pads? The fronts were pretty well worn when I bought this RX and now the noise is becomming intolerable.

I have EBC Redstuff, they dust a hell of a lot more but offer a little more bite, i'm happy with them, even if i do have to clean my wheels more often.

I've run Carbotech XP8 on the street with little ill effect. Dust and noise to be expected. They do take a little heat to start grabbing, but the initial bite when cold is no worse than the stock pads. I'll be running them April - September, then I'll change back to stock rotors and pads for the winter.

The XP8s will hold up on the track for most people.

Cobalt GT Sports which are now called the CSR for 2009. Awesome on the track and awesome on the street if you can handle a little noise and are willing to clean your wheels often. I use them on the street and have put 3 track days on them with plenty of life left. I disagree with justjims statement that the Cobalt GT Sports are only adequate for novices on track. I know quite a few experienced track junkies who run them.

I like stock pads better than HP+ and I like Mazdaspeed pads better than stock. I order a set of Mazdaspeed pads in the spring and it's lasts a year. Probably do 10 to 15 track days a year.
I find Mazdaspeed wears just as well as stock and is perfect for the street. With DOT 4 brake fluid I've never had an issue with fade.

To update my own thread here, I finally decided upon the Cobalt Friction GT Sports. I got them installed over the weekend (looks like I still have just about under 1/2 life left on the OEMs). I indeed notice an improved stopping power over the OEMs. There is a bit of a squeal when coming to a stop (< 5 mph) which I can live with. I am quite satisfied with them so far.

You made a very good choice. Just make sure to wash your wheels often. If you let the dust sit too long you can get some hard to remove deposits, especially on wheels with a non glossy finish.