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A popular package among those not ready to change their calipers would be our AP Racing discs, mated to some Ferodo Racing pads, and our Spiegler Stainless Steel Brake Line Kit. The lines give you some flexibility with pad changes if you want to move to caliper studs instead of bolts, and the Ferodo pads are a perfect match with the AP iron. For track use, I'd suggest either the DS1.11 for DS3.12. For autoX and general sport use, the DS2500 is perfect. The great thing about the Ferodo compounds is that they all play nice together on the disc face, and you don't get the typical vibrations and judder you see with a lot of other brands. You also don't have to constantly re-bed the discs. Please shoot me a PM if you're interested in learning more.
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'09 Carrera 2S, '08 Boxster LE (orange), '91 Acura NSX, Tesla Model 3 Performance, Fiesta ST
Jeff Ritter
Mgr. High Performance Division, Essex Parts Services Essex Designed AP Racing Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kits & 2-piece J Hook Discs Ferodo Racing Brake Pads Spiegler Stainless Steel Brake Lines
704-824-6030 jeff.ritter@essexparts.com
Thanks! Our system saves 33 unsprung lbs. vs. the OEM iron brakes. That's considerably more weight savings than the Weissach Package, for a lot less money.
Where does the weight saving come from? Calipers and rotors and what proportion? Very little point in taking mass out of rotors given the limited range in specific heat capacity (of steelies)
Where does the weight saving come from? Calipers and rotors and what proportion? Very little point in taking mass out of rotors given the limited range in specific heat capacity (of steelies)
Below are the corner weights of our setup vs. the OEM PCCB and Iron systems. When considering disc mass, it's not just a matter of overall mass. It's a matter of where the mass is located, and all of the disc design features play a role. Overall diameter, thickness, swept area/radial depth, the number of internal vanes, wall thickness, etc. all play a role in how much heat the discs can store and shed. With brakes one needs to think of heat capacity from two different angles, sledge vs. scalpel. The sledge hammer route to cool-running brakes is to squeeze the most mass possible under the wheels. That means huge discs, giant calipers, and correspondingly giant pads. That is the brute force manner of providing enough mass for heat soak. It allows the parts to be simplified a bit, while still being able to get the job done. It's definitely not the most efficient solution, and the penalty is high unsprung weight. That's the method employed on OEM street cars because of cost reasons. The racing-derived solution is the scalpel method. All extraneous weight is stripped away, with only the bare essentials remaining. In pro racing, if the car crosses the finish line and the brakes melt on the victory lap, they were designed perfectly for the task at hand. Winning is the only goal, and other factors don't play as great of a role (cost, long-term durability, etc.) That's our mindset when we design the products used in NASCAR Cup, IMSA, etc. Rather than just throwing mass at heat, we are thinking efficiency via clever design...lighter, stiffer, faster.
For the aftermarket, we DO take cost, long-term durability, etc. into account, but we don't dilute the product anywhere close to the extent you see in competing products (which technically start out as road products from the beginning). When we look at a platform for development, we create an owner profile...how will this person modify their car? How much power will they add? What tires will they use? How many laps and on what track will they be running? Then we sketch out some basic disc parameters based on thermal requirements. You can get a better feel for this mindset in this video:
I'm proud to say that we've been selling these kits for well over a year and have sold almost no spare discs! While that isn't helping our bottom line, it's making for a lot of satisfied Porsche track junkies. Many of our customers have been beating the hell out of their kits many weekends out of the year. If you go back and look at my earlier posts in this thread, you'll see my prediction that the discs we're employing are more than ample for long disc life based on their thermal capacity. The only reason we went bigger than 380mm on the front diameter is because we need to move the disc out a bit to allow for a caliper adapter bracket. If I was designing a setup from scratch and didn't have to work around the existing spindles, something like our 372x345mm Front / 365x30mm rear setup would have been more than ample on this platform. We have 800+ HP ZR1 Corvettes pounding our system of that size all over the world without issue. My C6 Corvette track car puts down about 475 WHP and weighs 3300 lbs. I can run all day on my 372mm front / 340mm rear brake kit, and the Corvette is considerably more biased towards the front brakes vs. the GT3.
In summary, our system achieves the lightness demanded by racers, but also provides the long-term durability demanded by a budget-conscious track enthusiast.
Front OEM PCCB
Caliper= 9.3
Pads= 7.7
Discs= 15.2 Total brake corner weight= 32.2
Essex/AP Racing Radi-CAL BBK
CP9661 caliper= 6.1
Caliper bracket= 1.0
Pads= 5.2
Assembled discs= 21.5 Total brake corner weight= 33.8
OEM Iron
Caliper= 9.3
Pads= 7.7
Discs= 24.2 Total brake corner weight= 41.2
Essex Parts Services has been a loyal supporter of this forum for quite some time. We've been advertising this job via more traditional channels, but haven't had much luck. We'd therefore like to offer this great opportunity to forum members! Please let us know if the description below sounds like you or a friend of yours.
Essex Parts Services is seeking an experienced digital marketing expert, who also happens to be a rabid automotive enthusiast. Your goal at Essex will be to develop and implement the company’s digital strategy to achieve sales, profitability, and website traffic objectives. To be successful in this role you will need to be an outstanding communicator via all mediums, possess in-depth knowledge of a wide range of the latest digital marketing tools, be extremely creative, and have intimate familiarity with a hardcore auto enthusiast’s mindset.
Core responsibilities include but are not limited to:
· Digital Marketing Strategy Development: Analyze customer behavior and motivations and leverage those insights to develop the company’s overall digital marketing strategy. Define success metrics, determine optimal media mix, and create and maintain a robust marketing calendar across all channels.
· Creative: Create photos, videos, emails, social media posts, articles, graphics, and banners to properly convey our brand image and intended message to potential customers.
· Execution: Build, develop, and implement the current and emerging digital platforms necessary to reach potential customers, while creating deliverables that resonate with our target audience.
· Measurement: Monitor campaign performance, report findings, and perpetually adjust plans to maximize reach. Thoroughly leverage data to drive future initiatives.
· SEO: Perpetually refine our website, social media properties, and all other digital presentations with the objective of increasing awareness and keeping Essex at the top of relevant search rankings.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
· At least several years of digital marketing experience
· Proven ability to manage complex projects
· Demonstrated proficiency with SEO and Analytics
· Expertise at crafting impactful emails
· eCommerce and web administration experience
· Deep knowledge of social media platforms, and the ability to skillfully interact with customers on them
· Photography, photo editing, video editing
Are You A Good Fit?
In a time when corporate loyalty is nearly a thing of the past, the Essex team remains a tight-knit unit working towards a unified goal. Many of our staff members have been with us for over a decade, and our company has a familial feel. We are looking for someone who shares our values and wants to find a long-term home in their daily work life. Our business has grown steadily for years and will continue to do so based on a wide range of initiatives we are currently developing. Whomever fills this role will have the opportunity to grow with us, but they will need to wear many hats. Our culture is not one of hand-holding and micromanagement. To succeed in this role, you will need to think and act independently, and you will need to perpetually produce results. The more versatile, motivated, and capable you are, the more opportunity you will have to achieve your professional goals during your tenure with us. Finally, if you aren’t a real ‘car person’ to the core, please don’t waste your time and ours by trying to fake it. You won’t have much fun here, and we will know within two minutes of meeting you. If you think 2JZ is a rapper, this isn’t the job for you!
Please send a cover letter and resume to support at essexparts.com
Any track reports or pictures gents? We've had quite a few of our Radi-CAL brake systems go out the door during the summer months. Thanks for your continued support!
Here's a nice GT2RS sporting our AP Racing J Hook PCCB Replacement Discs.
Last edited by JRitt@essex; 08-12-2019 at 10:45 AM.
FWIW, I recently told another Rennlister, who has your AP kit (and was originally a Steel brake car) who was having some overly aggressive ABS intrusion, about the tip/trick to have his ECU switched from Steel to PCCB brakes, to take advantage of the more relaxed ABS setting, and he said it was a "night and day" difference on track in terms of being able to slow the car without such ABS interference, when using DS1.11 pads. He was very happy with the result.
I think this may be another tool in the shed to allow all OE-steel customers to get slightly more performance out of their setup, perhaps especially while using Essex brake components and high bite Ferodo pads. I learned about this from PCA Club racing rules, in which they allowed SPEC987 to switch to PCCB settings using a PIWIS to help them get around an overly intrusive ABS program, on stock and aftermarket steel setups.
This is also inline with my experience while tracking my 997.1 RS. It had PCCB (converted to steel) and I rarely dealt with the issues that other OE-steel cars had, such as Ice-mode and ABS kicking in to soon, and while some was due to bigger rotors, it most certainly was helped via the less aggressive PCCB program, which accounts for much higher OE bite and consistent, linear braking performance over steel equipped cars.
My dealer didn't even know about this, but they are track friendly and was able to quickly figure it out, though it does require a PIWIS.
Anyway, thought I would share that tidbit with you in an effort to share positive data, and increase awareness (and hopefully increase consumer happiness!). Your support and communication regarding our ongoing chat about the ABS intervention has been great, so hopefully this info is beneficial to you as well.
I'm still on your Ferodo DS1.11, and will report back on my track experience with the updated PCCB setting as well. I expect it similar positive results, as at my local track, NCM, ABS is virtually unavoidable at threshold braking in a few tricky corners. I love how little these pads wear, so will be great if I can continue using them with even less ABS intrusion. Will keep you posted!
You know I just read my post and...yeah I have no idea what I’m talking about....I think I had a moment...LOL maybe trying to reply to another thread...LOL...sorry. ;-)
This is very interesting...learn something new everyday here on Rennlist! My GT3 is a PCCB car. I’m going to do a few DE on them and see how they do. If I feel I’m too worried about wearing PCCB out I will install some steel rotors, probably AP. I was wondering if I’d have any issues being a PCCB car with braking issues with steel rotors and it looks like I won’t and would be set up great with steels.
Originally Posted by Mvez
Hey Jeff,
FWIW, I recently told another Rennlister, who has your AP kit (and was originally a Steel brake car) who was having some overly aggressive ABS intrusion, about the tip/trick to have his ECU switched from Steel to PCCB brakes, to take advantage of the more relaxed ABS setting, and he said it was a "night and day" difference on track in terms of being able to slow the car without such ABS interference, when using DS1.11 pads. He was very happy with the result.
I think this may be another tool in the shed to allow all OE-steel customers to get slightly more performance out of their setup, perhaps especially while using Essex brake components and high bite Ferodo pads. I learned about this from PCA Club racing rules, in which they allowed SPEC987 to switch to PCCB settings using a PIWIS to help them get around an overly intrusive ABS program, on stock and aftermarket steel setups.
This is also inline with my experience while tracking my 997.1 RS. It had PCCB (converted to steel) and I rarely dealt with the issues that other OE-steel cars had, such as Ice-mode and ABS kicking in to soon, and while some was due to bigger rotors, it most certainly was helped via the less aggressive PCCB program, which accounts for much higher OE bite and consistent, linear braking performance over steel equipped cars.
My dealer didn't even know about this, but they are track friendly and was able to quickly figure it out, though it does require a PIWIS.
Anyway, thought I would share that tidbit with you in an effort to share positive data, and increase awareness (and hopefully increase consumer happiness!). Your support and communication regarding our ongoing chat about the ABS intervention has been great, so hopefully this info is beneficial to you as well.
I'm still on your Ferodo DS1.11, and will report back on my track experience with the updated PCCB setting as well. I expect it similar positive results, as at my local track, NCM, ABS is virtually unavoidable at threshold braking in a few tricky corners. I love how little these pads wear, so will be great if I can continue using them with even less ABS intrusion. Will keep you posted!
This is very interesting...learn something new everyday here on Rennlist! My GT3 is a PCCB car. I’m going to do a few DE on them and see how they do. If I feel I’m too worried about wearing PCCB out I will install some steel rotors, probably AP. I was wondering if I’d have any issues being a PCCB car with braking issues with steel rotors and it looks like I won’t and would be set up great with steels.
Will let you know in a few weeks when I get my set of AP calipers and rotors installed on the RS. My car was apexes with the PCCB brakes but I bought the complete kit from Essex for it. After seeing the parts that come with the kit in person this is top notch stuff!
Last edited by Seth Thomas; 08-20-2019 at 07:44 AM.
Hi Jeff, I'm looking for steel for my GT2 RS. Choices seem to come down to AP and Girodisc. The price difference is considerable, so I'm hoping to learn more about the differences between the two on track. I know the AP heritage, but are there other advantages?
07-10-2019, 09:26 AM
