although they are mandated to use them by ALMS GT2 rules....the guys at Farnbacher-Loles and Flying Lizard seem to be stopping pretty well with steel brakes.

The reason is to control costs so that privateer teams can be competitive in this class....so if it's good enough for them, you can be sure it's good enough for anyone on this board.

All you need is a set of slotted, steel rotors and they will hold up to all the track-abuse you can dish out....and be 1/10th the replacment cost.

 

Not qualified to talk about brakes if I can get more than 1,000 miles out of an iron rotor ???

In my region, the fastest PCA DE instructors do 8,000 track miles on average with their cast iron rotors (in GT3 and GT3 RS). I don't know what you do with your brakes but I would be curious to hear from other people on this forum how much track miles they get from their iron rotors to know who is off his shoes here...

 

Me too. I'm lucky to get 800 miles.

 

In my experience, the life of the rotor depends on a few variables such as type of car driven, what the track layout is like (does it require heavy, frequent braking), and the type of brake pads used as well. I'm sure there are other variables I missing here as well.

So, in my personal case, I was tracking a heavy 996TT cab (with hardtop), on a track known to be hard on brakes and tires (Carolina Motorsports Park), and I was using Peformance Friction 01 compound, which bite and brake like no other pad I've used.

This combination, even with just five or six 20 minute run sessions per track day with a cool down lap, I could only get about 5-6 track days out of a set of front rotors before the cracks got so big I got too nervous. The rear rotors will last at least twice as long. I was using OEM 997TT rotors from Suncoast.

Hope this helps.


Dan

 

So should I get ceramics for agressive road racing and some track events or not ???

If yes...which brakes and may be some other things should I get ???

What is the weight diff btw ceramics an steel brakes ???

 

The answer is NO, steel/iron rotors works just as well, are more robust when it comes to overheating, cost 1/10th the price, and you have more brake pad options. I'm not saying PCCB's are not good, I'm just saying that brakes are one of the main consumables....so why pay 10x more for something that offers no real performance advantage on the track? Every GT3 in my area runs steel rotors at the track.

I'll make it very simple for you.....Flying Lizard Motorsports, who races a 911 GT3 RSR uses STEEL brakes. So, if it's good enough for this year's championship winning American Lemans GT2 racing team, it's safe to say that steel brakes are more than enough for anyone on this board.

So once again, for those who have any doubt....the ALMS is the world's premiere sports car racing series....GT2 cars RACE with steel/iron brakes.

Use the 10 grand you save to buy a trailer, or tires, or brake pads, or roll bars, or seats or any other options that will add real value at the track.

Does this help

 

As required by the rules, not by choice.

 

PCCBs are awesome. It's a question of money, at least for me. If you dricve in the street and track it ocassionally, they will last a long time. As long asa you arre ok with the money, I'd go for it. If you are going to track the car, like I do, I would go for steel (although you can always order the car with PCCBs and change to steel later as I did. I think PCCBs improve re-sale value...my theory, not that I did a study of this)

 

does anyone have a picture of the "wear indicators" on PCCB's?

i keep reading about these dime/nickel sized markers that start to show once the ceramic coating is wearing away...

can someone post up some pics of these?

thanks!

 

See the attached pictures taken from the rotors of a 997 GT2 with less than 3,200 miles. You can see the dots and even the rotors starting to fall apart...

 

Thanks for previous info...

What is the weight diff btw steel and PCCBs and can you feel the diff while diriving the car ???

Does it have some effects of acceleration and braking ???

 

no and no

 

Does GT3 PCCBs brakes fit 997 TT ???

 

Personally, I disagree about the feeling. I can feel the diff in the suspension when driving.

Theoretically, it should help with acceleration since you're taking all that weight off the car, but probably no numerical difference. Maybe on the butt dyno.

 

That's awesome! You are one of the few people for whom PCCBs make sense. I wanted to keep my answer simple though, the guy asking seemed to have little experience.