That's a key point. What is "max performance" in an ML?

I've flogged my 430 down a mountain canyons on high temp days to the point that there was smoke pouring from all for wheel wells when I stopped at the bottom. There was some fade, but it was far from catastrophic and it was quite manageable.

I've flogged my 55 even harder and haven't had any braking issues on the street (but it has been in cooler temps).

I know I could get serious fade at the track but like you mentioned a set of track specific pads would be an easy, quick, fix (along with some Super Blue) if I wanted to track a 5,000 lb truck.

Bottom line: I would recommend stock pads, or for less noisy brake pads than stockers, the pagids that germanstar sells as oem replacements.