fhp911

TraqJunk would like to talk to (communicate with) a 991 GT3 owner -- someone who actually already has the car.

We want to know if our current TraqJunk GT3 Brake Tool will work on the 991 model or would need to be redesigned; or is the design of the brakes in the 991 model such that the Brake Tool is no longer useful.

Our current GT3 Brake Tool works on 996 and 997-based GT3.

Please PM us, or send an email to info@traqjunk.com.

The TraqJunk Brake tool has greatly helped hundreds of GT3 owners

THANKS!

ExMB

And you are how sure that the 991 GT3 is already in the hands of a private individual? Or is this supposed to be an open letter to Porsche?

orthojoe

Fred, nobody has a 991 GT3 yet, but I can tell you that the brake tool will probably no longer be useful on 991s and 981s. The reason for that is that the calipers need to be removed in order to change brake pads on all of the new brembo rotors. There is no longer the easy pop in/out option by just removing a pin and spring clip.

They all look like this now:

fhp911

Orthojoe has the answer as usual! (Those long years at med school.)

Too bad for all track junkies about those Brembo calipers. One of the joys of P-car ownership has always been how easy and quick it has been to change pads.

No more, it seems.

As for exMB: we haven't been at all sure if anyone has a 991 gt3 - we just want to talk to an owner - whenever that would be. But Orthojoe's reply makes this desire moot.

Thanks all!

orthojoe

Yeah, it's kind of annoying that all the new brembo calipers are now made this way. I had an opportunity to complain about this to some of their engineers who were mingling at a track day after they noticed the type III rotors I'm running on my spyder. They tried to convince me that it wasn't a big deal to swap the pads by pulling the caliper bolts. I'm sure it's easy to do, and the 997 GT3 guys have had to do this with their rear calipers already. I just wonder about stressing the brake lines and screwing up the caliper bolt threads from repeated pad changes.

sharkster

joe I was so bummed to see cayenne calipers and rotors on the newer cars

orthojoe

Doh! Didn't realize the design started with those cars....

sharkster

Yep thank vw for that. Not only are they cheaper that way but they already had cayenne part numbers. So now the brakes are pretty much all the same

Cogito_Ergo_Zoom

At the risk of going OT here...

Having dealt with this on the 991 I understand the frustration of the more difficult pad change, but wasn't this done to increase caliper stiffness imparting more feel, among other benefits? I've been very impressed with the performance of these calipers and discs.

orthojoe

I believe you are right in that there is a reason brembo manufactures their calipers with the metal bridge that runs across the caliper now, and that is what their engineers told me during our conversation. Here is a pic of their GT-R caliper system:







Interestingly, though, the brembo GT and GT-R brake systems have the solid bar, but their RACE system has a removable bridge:

hf1

I had no idea about this with the 991 and 981. Sounds idiotic.

orthojoe

Not ideal for sure, but I know for sure they used this design on the rear calipers of the 997.2 GT3 as well. I don't know about other generation GT3s because I haven't worked on them.

Brembo had their reasons for going this route, but their race system suggests that they understand the benefit of quick pad changes without needing to dismount the caliper.

hf1

Yet another reason (besides 20" centerlocks, paddles, rear wheel steering, etc.) for me to love and cherish my 996 GT3.

Cogito_Ergo_Zoom

Good point. In a cost-no-object racing application, of course. Going with such a design on street driven cars would be cost prohibitive.

Carrera GT

Who knows what a company like Brembo (with a stranglehold on mass market brakes and the performance aftermarket) does with their R&D. The basic product hasn't improved fundamentally since the 80's. I imagine their R&D budget is almost invisible. They're spending money on sales and marketing, distribution, insurance, warranty, buildings and people, but I don't see money going into R&D. They'll wait till someone provides a way for it to be more profitable to sell monolithic carbon composite rotors than steel and aluminum alloys, then we get the first big increment in performance.

The caliper body would be the same cost, give or take. Making two different calipers would be more expensive, but still trivial compared to accessing different markets. I'm guessing Porsche (VW and others) think more about production line efficiency, shared platforms with fewer unique parts and simplified field service procedures, fewer parts in inventory, etc.

For the race stopper, the cost is probably in the pistons and materials quality, higher margins for significantly lower sales volume, higher standard of in-the-field support and service, parts availability to race teams, maybe even R&D costs into performance and feel with specific pad/rotor applications.

For easy swapping the fixed bridge calipers, aside from the plethora of small bits and springs and clips and new caliper bolts, I'd suggest the learned experience from the 997 GT3 is to go to fixed studs and nuts.