I tried to understand a basics of the Mintex pad but give up. I saw a blue and red, I have and can get a red one. Never purchased a blue one, so I'm guessing that is for racing... I'd never use a racing pad on street because those are very bad when they are cold or medium hot. Specially if you have a manual trans. car and driving carefully, your brakes are barely reaching the temp. of the medium hot. The Mintex has worked very well on my Range Rover and fair pricing. Made in UK. Oke it isn't german but close. I'd never use a Made In china or Taiwan brake pad ... also has anbybody used a Carbon Metallic brake pad ? I sold a few set already for US made cars and they perform really good. I saw the BMW PGT team using the racing version of the Carbon Metallic also... they must be good.... I'll try and get those for the 8 series also !