The very best pads are made from compressed Kudzu from Joel's back lot.
Since these are proprietary with Joel's friends and only work south of the
MD line us older car owners gotta use other stuff.

Pads and brakes 102:  The pad is an insulator and friction device.  The disk
is the heat dissipator.  The pad material can either last a looong time and
wear out the disk or last a short time and not wear the disk as much.

With mountain driving I would expect to replace the pads at 15-20Kmi.  Job
is simple, messy, satisfying and inexpensive.

ATE and Brembo make pads that are OE on vanagons.

For braking efficiency/fade resistance on a racetrack, metallic pads are the
answer as they conduct more heat to the disk.  They also have the highest
abrasion factor and wear the disks quickly.

For braking efficiency/fade resistance in mountain driving, semi-metallic
pads may be better than standard.

Toodling around town with the dog eating the groceries in the back, standard
pads will work fine.

Pick your environment, select the type of pad you want/need and live with
the disk life it provides.

MUCH easier than chopping, drying, shaping, bonding Kudzu to those backing
plates, isn't it Unca Joel.

cheers,

Pensioner