snugglesftw

2 questions.
1. Does ceramic brake only come for the fronts only?
2. Is it worth it even though you're not tracking the car but you drive aggressivly ??

GrimTango42

1. Front only
2. I would say, no. The maintenance for the ceramics is quite high compared to that of the steel set up. You will pay a lot more for pads and service than you would with the base setup. The 8-pot steel breaks are plenty big and strong enough for most driving situations, even hard driving. Ceramic is designed more for endurance track braking. They fade less after hard track use and very hard constant use. You will likely not see much if any fading at all in normal hard driving conditions.

immanental

FWIW I just tracked my RS3 at Atlanta Motorsports Park, which has 16 turns and is extremely hard on the brakes. The steel brakes were great, although I could tell at the end of my runs they were starting to fade just a little bit. I plan on replacing my pads with endurance pads pretty soon. I hear ceramics are better on the track, but I can't give any personal experience about that.

epiloggts

Did you get the brakes hot enough to scorch the paint on the calipers?

I have a dedicated track car so track days aren't the purpose of my RS3 but I'll probably take it out just to see what it can do. I'm a little tentative however as I've seen the red calipers on quite a few performance cars turn to a faded red, then kind of a red-umber color after a few hard laps at the track.

Many Evo owners I know ended up with brown-bo's after a day at the track...

I'm curious how the RS3 brakes hold up, especially if you swap in a more aggressive pad.

It's generally just cosmetic but for a driver I'm slightly nervous about smoking the calipers and having to explain to the next buyer.

immanental

Didn't know that was a thing ... I just took a look at my calipers, from what I can tell they still look brand new.

BaltimoreCaesar

I had a Evo IX (OEM 4-piston red brembos), and although I never took it to the track I did beat the **** out of it, and consequently had a couple dark splotches on the calipers from getting them so hot.

RS3URQ

I have them on mine, I really like them, for street use they will last a very long time,they stop awesome, for track you will want to change to steel rotors unless you have extra cash laying around to replace rotors often, IMO

Tariel Khajishvili

Hi! Can please someone clarify if the ceramic disks can easily be changed to the steel disks and normal pads? Has actually someone done this on the RS3? Very curious to know for sure, as I bough my car wit CCB - and want to swap to steel for track days, and my dealer here in the Ukraine said its impossible. If yes, should I just go to set of disks and pads from RS3 without CCB option? Very looking forward for smone to reply. Thanx in advance

Mdshep1

Easily- no. You would need different calipers, I have yet to see a kit available with the same size pads and rotors for a quick switch. I have CCB, i bought mu RS3 used, i would not have got them otherwise. The brake groan is terrible with light breaking when cold and the replacement cost is awful. Dealer in Texas wanted $2700 to change the pads!! $16k if i needed rotors. I can buy a complete Brembo system for half that.