All posts in “brakes”

Don’t Get Carbon Ceramic Brakes If You Plan to Track Drive Your Porsche

Save Some Money and Don’t Go Carbon Ceramic

Carbon ceramics, Porsche cars, and racetracks go together, right? Well, apparently not. According to Paul Watson, a technical representative for Porsche Australia, you actually want the regular brakes, not the carbon ceramic ones. Watson said to Wheels Magazine that the heat build up from track use will actually degrade the carbon fibers in the rotors.

“When we first launched the discs we told people they’d last virtually for the life of the car and people were doing a number of track days and coming back to us saying ‘I’ve worn them out,’” Watson told the publication.

He went on to say that if you buy the carbon ceramic brakes and the only street-drive your car, they will last a very long time. They could even last the lifetime of the car, depending on the type of driving you do and how hard or easy you are on your brakes.

That’s actually good news for anyone who takes their Porsche to the racetrack, honestly. According to CarBuzz, the carbon ceramic brakes on the latest 992 Carrera S actually cost $8,970. So, that means you’ll save about $9,000 when you buy the car by not bothering with the carbon ceramics. You can instead put that money towards new pads and rotors after you wear out the ones on the car.

Bugatti speeds up testing on its 3D-printed titanium brake caliper

There are only a few manufacturers on that planet that are so important and so specialized that their production of a brake caliper would warrant any amount of attention. Bugatti is one of those few. After premiering a 3D-printed titanium caliper early in 2018, Volkswagen Group released a video of engineers putting the new design to extreme speed and heat testing. Spoiler alert: flames and sparks are involved.

Bugatti had a lot of claims and planted a lot of flags when it first showed this caliper. “World’s first brake caliper to be produced by a 3D printer. Largest brake caliper in the automotive industry as a whole. First series manufacturer to use titanium. Largest titanium functional component produced by 3D printing in the world.” Long story short, it’s a big deal, but it is not yet stamped as ready for production. That’s what the testing seen here is for.

The video, which was brought to our attention by Motor1, shows the brake caliper in action, not on a car but in a lab. VW claims it’s one of the most powerful brake test benches on the market, which we’re inclined to believe considering the groundbreaking technology that has come from its Veyron, Chiron and Divo supercars.

The test is exactly what you’d expect. They put the caliper onto a rotor, which is attached to a machine that spins the rotor and has all sorts of sensors that show the engineers the specs of the test. The video shows it spinning up to speeds in excess of 230 mph multiple times. The disc temperature skyrockets to 1,877 degrees Fahrenheit on the third spin, which elicits a light show of thermal heat, sparks, and flames. The engineers then take off the caliper and show the camera that everything is still in place and intact.

The video does not clear the caliper for production, but it certainly looks like its getting close to that point. The package will likely debut for the Chiron, the Divo, or both and will most definitely cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

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