Brembo 'floating' brake for GT3

[s3am]

Anyone tried the Brembo 'floating' front brake upgrade for GT3 (2).

http://www.parr-uk.co.uk/road/tuning/brake_upgrade.html

Am thinking of getting Parr to do it as a replacement for my front ceramics before my next trackday, it seems I can keep the calipers and exchange the disc, and pads for something Pagid. I think the rears will be fine as PCCB.

Anyone tried this? I am led to believe Parr are pretty damn good -right?

Bit worried am going to get sucked in to lots of expensive Geo/airfilter/ramspoiler malarkey!

Sam

[johnfm]

Is there something wrong with your stock brakes??
How much are these 'floating cash munchers'??

>> Edited by johnfm on Wednesday 1st June 19:57

[s3am]

No problem with the PCCB as yet, but I do a fair bit of track work and have 'heard' they can degrade and crack and that it may be better to replace and wrap the originals in cotton wool until resale time.

They are not cheap! the disk with 'bell' is 450, thereafter the disk without 'bell' is 250. Pads, who knows!

>> Edited by s3am on Wednesday 1st June 20:09

[johnny senna]

Sam,

A lot of the titanic fellas have had this done, eg Andy B (who runs Fastrakdays) and Steve Rance. They swear by this upgrade. They use Pagid Yellows with it I believe. One of the chaps I was at Spa with )Ian Griffiths) had them put on his GT3 RS by Parr at the track. I didn't get chance to ask him how they were.

To be honest, it makes sense. Cross drilled discs crack after a few track days (in my experience) and this seems to be the limitig factor in disc life, as opposed to the discs wearing thin. Crazy. Some say Porsche use cross drilled brakes discs because it helps initial bite, others because it aids cooling and dispersal of heat/dust. However, what I do know is that the Parr solution works and should last longer (much longer they say) than cross drilled brakes. I would go for it.

[Paulburrell]

Sam

I reckon you should use the PCCB's til they wear out and then change to the steel floating units. Given all the bad press about the cost of replacing PCCB it seems likely to me that future buyers will actually want a discount because the car has got PCCB.

Steve

[DanH]

Sam bear in mind that floating discs are a bit noisy.

[gt3rs]

I have the alcon floating disks fitted and did 2 days at Spa with virtually no wear to the disks and minimal wear to the Pagid Yellow pads. I know Andy B has done 5 or 6 days on the Bremdo disk with the yellow pads. Almost everyone I know who has run the Ceramics on track has had them degrade rapidly once you need to change the pads. If you are looking to track the car more than once or twice a year, I think the upgrade is a good investment. They help you reduce the braking distance and cost less to run than standard steels that last 4 days or so and then need replacing. It is early days for them so far, but they are looking good

[Glenn McMenamin]

DanH said:

Sam bear in mind that floating discs are a bit noisy.

I have the Alcon floating discs aswell, and they make no noise at all.

Must admit though, after 2x good days at Spa, they have started to groove around the disc, i think this is due to the agresive Carbon metalic pads that i'm running, so not sure if the Pagids will be any different.

In this case, i'm not sure if they are going to last much, if any longer than the Porsche ones !!

G.

>> Edited by Glenn McMenamin on Thursday 2nd June 09:44

>> Edited by Glenn McMenamin on Thursday 2nd June 09:55

[steve rance]

I have now done 2 full days at Bedford, 300 miles at the ring and two full days at Spa on the same set of Brembo discs and Pagid RS29 pads. There are only minor signs of wear on the discs and the pads are half worn. If i were using Standard discs and pagid oranges (my prior prefferd option) I would now be changing for my third set of discs and pads. The conversion is incredible, it's paid for itself already. not only that, The initial bite of the RS29 is fantastic and drops the nose instantly even at the very stiff rate that my car is set up. This means no more driving around the dreaded ABS which means we can put more negative camber on the front, which gives me more turn in and a second a lap..

If you are serious about trackday driving, this conversion is an absolute no brainer..

Steve R

[911nutter]

i was looking into this last week. it does seem like the sesible way to go forward. there's an initial £1100 cost to it, but then replacement discs are something like £300 compared to the cross drilled steeels at £500 a set.

I for one will be changing to them when my discs need replacing......

[seandudding]

If you track your car. This is a no brainer. Andrew, Steve and I were the first three to use the Brembos and none of us have seen any wear or problems. The Pagid Yellow is also an excellent pad. I know about 10 cars using the Brembo and Alcon discs and apart from the guys using the performance friction pads, nobody has and wear on their cars. Plus the braking distances are shorter and the brakes don;t fade, even after 10 laps of Spa.

[Glenn McMenamin]

seandudding said:

If you track your car. This is a no brainer. Andrew, Steve and I were the first three to use the Brembos and none of us have seen any wear or problems. The Pagid Yellow is also an excellent pad. I know about 10 cars using the Brembo and Alcon discs and apart from the guys using the performance friction pads, nobody has and wear on their cars. Plus the braking distances are shorter and the brakes don;t fade, even after 10 laps of Spa.

Sean,

Are these these same Pagid Yellows that would have been standard on my car when i got it, or different ones ??

[s3am]

Thanks for the replies guys. As you say it is increasingly looking like a 'no brainer' if I'm going to continue doing a few trackdays.

The only slight concern is whether the noise is excessive during road use. This being a dual purpose vehicle!

I'm going down to Parr next week to have a chat and a look round the place. Sounds pretty tech!

Sam

[DanH]

s3am said:

Thanks for the replies guys. As you say it is increasingly looking like a 'no brainer' if I'm going to continue doing a few trackdays. The only slight concern is whether the noise is excessive during road use. This being a dual purpose vehicle! I'm going down to Parr next week to have a chat and a look round the place. Sounds pretty tech! Sam

Sam have a look on rennlist too. There have been comments about noise from the brembos there. Reportedly they are initially quiet but after a bit of hard use start to rattle, which isn't surprising given the nature of floating discs.

Dunno if the alcon ones are better in this respect. Hard to see how they could be given the discs is floating and its this movement that makes the noise.

[Fatboy]

DanH said:

s3am said: Thanks for the replies guys. As you say it is increasingly looking like a 'no brainer' if I'm going to continue doing a few trackdays. The only slight concern is whether the noise is excessive during road use. This being a dual purpose vehicle! I'm going down to Parr next week to have a chat and a look round the place. Sounds pretty tech! Sam Sam have a look on rennlist too. There have been comments about noise from the brembos there. Reportedly they are initially quiet but after a bit of hard use start to rattle, which isn't surprising given the nature of floating discs. Dunno if the alcon ones are better in this respect. Hard to see how they could be given the discs is floating and its this movement that makes the noise.

I saw in the PH news section that AP had come up with a new type of floating disc, which looked pretty interesting (no metal-on-meatl sliding to make noise for a start). Don't think they're in production yet, but they'd be interesting....

[m12_nathan]

Not on a porsche but I can say Pagid Yellows are awesome (I've got RS19 which are not quite as good as the RS29)

The Team schwedenkreuz E46 M3 ran in the Nurburgring 24hours and during the whole race used 1 set of front pads (RS29) and 2 sets of rears (RS19), last year they used 3 times as many Performance Friction pads.

The Pagid Pads also won le Mans GT class for the last couple of years.

[PaulRothwell]

I have the Alcon gen 2 floating Discs now on my GT2 after the PCCBs failed in only 15,000 miles..they are much better...all 4 corners approx £3,000 with Pagid pads (JZMachtech fitted them and I cannot recommend them too highly).

Porsche quoted over £10,000 for just replacing the front ceramics ..they will not budge so far on the responsibility aspect....ie its all my fault!!!

I have pictures if anyone's interested e-mail me: [e-mail]

[andy tims]

johnny senna said:

Sam,


Cross drilled discs crack after a few track days (in my experience) and this seems to be the limitig factor in disc life

Well I've done 8 trackdays this year in the GT3 - Standard Mk1 Discs, Pagid Yellows, Castrol SRF & I've had the standard radiator vent holes (in front of the wheels) blocked off. The discs gain very small cracks coming from the vent holes up to about 4mm long & well less than 1mm deep about 4 t/days ago. They are not noticeably worse now & I fully intend to use the dics for another 2 or more track days.

I do clean out the vent holes after every track day which takes a few minutes, but it seems a small price to pay. The pads for the 4 pot set up are about half the cost of those for the 6 pots.

[polarexpress]

The Alcon generation 2 brake upgrade (360mm anti-rattle solid floaters) is one of the best upgrades for the GT3. If your brake discs need replacing due to the cracks joining up/reaching the edge of the disc, it is a no brainer to go for the Alcon/Brembo setup and the cost to upgrade is worth every penny if the car is used on track. The performance is genuinely superlative compared to the original brakes (especially if yours is a Mk1 with original 4pot calipers).

Other than suspension, it would be the first upgrade I'd recommend to any GT3er wanting to improve the performance of their car.

[s3am]

polarexpress said:

The Alcon generation 2 brake upgrade (360mm anti-rattle solid floaters) is one of the best upgrades for the GT3. If your brake discs need replacing due to the cracks joining up/reaching the edge of the disc, it is a no brainer to go for the Alcon/Brembo setup and the cost to upgrade is worth every penny if the car is used on track. The performance is genuinely superlative compared to the original brakes (especially if yours is a Mk1 with original 4pot calipers).

Other than suspension, it would be the first upgrade I'd recommend to any GT3er wanting to improve the performance of their car.

I now have the Alcon brake upgrade: they have been a revelation.