EBC Bluestuff NDX Super-Street & Trackday Brake Pads, Rear (2017-2025 Audi S4 & S5)

The Club Level Racers Choice

Bluestuff serves dual purposes as an exceptional fast street pad for premium fast street use and an entry-level trackday (lapping) pad. Its remarkable characteristics make it stand out. Firstly, it beds in swiftly. With just 5 stops from 70 mph to 20 mph during street use, followed by a cooldown period, then 5 more stops from 80 mph to 20 mph, the process is complete. In fact, this bedding process is so efficient that it might not even require those steps; the pads self-bed during the first few miles of driving, feeling robust right from installation.

During this initial period, the brakes operate silently-no hissing, squealing, or grinding noises typically associated with many high-performance semi-metallic pads. It's truly a pleasure to drive with them. After just a few miles, these pads demonstrate their pedigree as the most advanced blend and highest-performing street blend ever produced by EBC. Comparisons to past products or old blogs are irrelevant; Bluestuff represents a new standard. It's a genuine high-end fast street and track pad.

However, due to Bluestuff having excellent cold friction and being very controllable, this compound has quickly become the brake pad of choice for performance road car drivers in USA and Asia markets where R90 homologation does not apply. More recently, EBC is pleased to announce that Bluestuff has passed extensive road-focused testing and gained R90 approval on most E.U. fitments, making it unique in being the first truly track-focused pad which is also perfectly legal for use on the public roads across Europe. There is no requirement for E.U. customers to inform their insurance company following the fitment of R90-approved pads.

For customers with experience of EBC's widely acclaimed Yellowstuff material, Bluestuff boasts a similar friction profile but with a usefully higher friction coefficient across the now larger working range, feeling much like you'd imagine Yellowstuff to feel after a double hit of espresso. Bluestuff has the added benefit of much faster bed in time and has a high friction coefficient without feeling grabby, taking things up a notch from EBC's Yellowstuff material by bringing superb pedal modulation to a track pad with even greater fade resistance.

When planning a track day, even bedding in of the Bluestuff and Yellowstuff grades is essential that you bed your pads incorrectly. As we tweak compounds to further gain performance this advice changes, our latest advice on bedding in these two Hybrid grades for track use is here.

For customers seeking the ultimate road/track pad with even greater levels of performance, check out EBC's range of RP-1 and RP-X race brake pads which deliver faster bed in and higher temperature fade resistance.

EBC's track and race materials are exceptionally kind on brake discs, making them especially desirable for modern performance cars that feature complex and hugely expensive 2-piece brake disc systems from the factory. Customers report that EBC track and race pads are far kinder to brake discs than comparable granite-like semi-metallic pads, which may last longer but take the rotors with them.

Product Information
When we say "Trackday" don't underestimate this fantastic material.

The reason we draw users' attention to the words Trackday ( also known in the USA as lapping ) is because of this material's fantastic ability to bed in quickly. Weekend fit and go drivers do not want to spend their laps bedding in brake pads.

Yet when used on more serious race track drivers this material delights and up to rotor temps of 0-550°C (Ambient – 1000°F) Bluestuff is the way to go. This material has been used by numerous spec series cup car racing groups in Europe.

The NDX pad material is bonded to the steel backing plates using the patented NUCAP NRS hook system which raises shear and bond strength by a factor of five and prevents pad to plate separation. The pads are then baked and ground and feature high-volume Vee grooves to catch the larger amount of debris from track use.

Target use is all types of fast and heavier cars in performance and race driving with a much enhanced lifetime over our previous Yellowstuff grade pads.

Made with Nucap NRS hooks on backplates to totally eliminate the chance of pad debond.

Bluestuff is available in NDX high friction version at 0.52 Mu and a lower B version for many rear applications on lighter cars with a lower 0.42 Mu.

Performance
EBC Bluestuff are heat scorched which helps bedding times but you still need to take care especially on the highway and when using on part worn rotors. Use the brakes gently for 200 miles, gradually increasing demand on the brakes in a SAFE ROAD ENVIRONMENT until you feel totally confident and can evaluate their stopping distances in all traffic conditions.

Remember, it's down to you and your bedding-in process. If you do feel brake fade a couple of times and even smell the brakes, this is totally normal and once achieved and the brakes are allowed to cool, they will have improved a lot.

There are several ways of surface scorching pads and EBC has chosen an infra red lamp tunnel for surface preparation of its pad ranges. The furnace is now scorching all pads for resale including the Bluestuff NDX range.

Bedding Performance
The curve shows that friction builds quickly during bedding in even after 2-3 stops but in a real world TRACK USE where rotors may not be perfect and calipers not serviced weekly (like our lab dyno ones) the bedding in process with Blue may exhibit 20-25mm contact bands in the centre of the discs after 4-5 laps and on some standard street calipers some vibration.

This is simply the pad telling you "I cannot hold onto the disc at these torques until I am fully bedded in". If vibration happens you should continue driving whilst BRAKING EARLIER TO BE SAFE until the contact band widens to almost entire disc/rotor sweep at which point the vibration will stop. In street use the torques will not normally be enough to generate vibration during bed in but drive safely for 200 miles gentle brake use to bed in your new brakes and test them to performance in a safe and quiet road environment until you have total confidence that they are bedded. Hitting the brakes too hard, too soon can not only shorten pad life it may cause loss of brakes and an accident. Bed brakes in progressively.

Pre-bedding burns off a lot of the volatile organics in the brake pad surface by passing the pads under an apparatus similar to a toaster after manufacture for a few seconds; this chars the surface and the paint around the pad surface but the result is a major reduction in bed in time which all drivers will appreciate.

More information

Rotor condition
Is important, an off-flat or ribbed and grooved rotor will treble bed in times for street or track use, this is a harder and more durable pad and rotors should be in almost dead flat condition. If you need to have your rotors skimmed we recommend ONLY the very praiseworthy ON CAR brake lathes from Pro Cut.

Lifetime
ALWAYS inspect pads every 30 laps and discard when friction material is down to one eighth of an inch or 3mm to avoid fade. In street use the lifetime is considerable - 20,000 miles and upwards can be expected, even when driving hard.

Ducting and caliper drag
When using a street car brake system for racing, the mere insertion of a race formula pad does not transform your car into a track beast. Some cooling ducts often need to be added to give the brake system and pads a chance to survive race use.

Using Bluestuff NDX as a Street only pad
In Europe, the ECE R90 brake safety regulations require brake pads to have R90 certification when used on the road and with Bluestuff, this is not available for all cars. To find out if Bluestuff is R90 approved for your car, contact technical@ebcbrakesuk.com.