We have a very different brake pad market here in Aus than what you guys have in Europe.
European OE pads are, by Australian standards, more like race pads. They have the performance necessary to do a couple of consecutive hard stops from Autobahn speeds. The trade off is that they're dirty, noisy, and wear quickly (compared to what we get instead).
Australian OE pads are built for comfort, using Japanese-style materials. They're quieter, cleaner, and less aggressive. They'll survive a fair few stops from somewhat higher than our 110km/h legal limit, but they're nowhere near the performance of European pads. There's no need, so no need for the trade-offs that come with performance.
When Jap cars are exported to Europe, they put OE Euro-spec pads on them. The same cars sold in Japan, Australia or USA get lower performance (more comfortable) OE pads.
European aftermarket pads must be E-code certified. They must be tested and confirmed to be within a few % of OE. So any aftermarket pads made for the European market will be pretty solid performers.
For the Australian aftermarket, if it looks like a brake pad and smells like a brake pad, it's a brake pad. There's no regulation. So we get all types: high performance (noisy dusty fast-wearing) Euro-spec pads, clean and comfortable Aus/Jap-spec pads, and some brakepad-shaped objects from China and India which you wouldn't put on your mother-in-law's car.
Lucas, TRW and most Ferodo pads are designed for the European market. They don't sell well in the Australian mainstream market because they're noisy and dirty. They're high in performance, by Australian standards.
Europeans taking high-performance brake pad recommendations from Australia is like the French taking cheese recommendations from an American. I'm sure you can buy some half decent cheese in America, just like you can buy some good brake pads in Australia, but we're comparing against a much lower baseline.
Lucas pads are cheap, and they perform better than the majority of what passes for brake pads in Australia. They are a fairly average Euro-style material, not much different to everything else you'll get off the shelf in Euroland.
tim
assuming, through his own ignorance, that the UK follows E-code regulations
