JRitt@essex

Hello Gents,
I hope you're all off to a great start in 2016. We had a great year in 2015 as we finally dipped our toe into the Porsche market. Thank you all for your continued support! We've been extremely busy over the winter. We launched our new website, filmed some cool technical videos on our products, and are plowing our way through a great deal of R&D underway on a variety of Porsche platforms.

As I've mentioned in the past, we're dead set on becoming a serious player in the Porsche market. For the 991 GT3, we're bringing a customer car in for evaluation late this week, with the hopes of developing a complete Essex Designed AP Racing Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit. Please read The AP Racing Radi-CAL Story to learn more about the cutting-edge technology being employed in these products.

You can follow our latest developments on our blog and on our Facebook page.

Who is Essex?

Have you ever wondered who was on the other end of the line when you call Essex for brake advice? In this video we give you a peek behind the curtain, and show you some of the tools we use to bring you the latest brake technology on the planet.



AP Racing J Hook Brake Discs

What design elements and features make our discs the most trusted choice in professional and amateur motorsports? Find out how our discs can help you lower temperatures, weight, and lap times.



Ferodo Racing Brake Pads
Founded in England in 1897, Ferodo was the first company in the world to be entirely dedicated to the design and manufacture of friction products! Ferodo is an OEM supplier to the world's leading car manufacturers, and are used by many of the top names in motorsports. The Ferodo Racing pad range includes some of the most advanced braking materials available today.



AP Racing Radi-CAL Brake Fluid
AP Racing offers the perfect brake fluid for your car, regardless of whether you're chasing groceries or lap times. Superior performance at competitive prices, and Essex always has inventory on the shelf when you need it.



Finally...here is your gratuitous brake **** pic of the day...a batch of AP Racing Radi-CAL brake calipers in for re-certification. You can click here to read more about what we do with these beauties when they arrive at our HQ.

Superman32

Will ap produce pccb replacement steel rotors?

porscheflat6

I was just going to ask the same question 410mm steel?

JRitt@essex

I've repeatedly been asked about whether or not we'll be releasing 2-piece iron AP Racing discs in the OEM PCCB sizes. Could we do it? Absolutely...not a problem. Should we do it, and do you actually want that product? Probably not. Here's why...

PCCB discs are designed to have a massive radiant disc face. The goal is to have a large surface area on the face of the disc to radiate as much heat as possible. The other goal is to have a pad with a taller radial depth, so the resulting heat from the interface of the disc and pad is spread across a greater surface area. That means the OEM disc has a much taller swept area than an aftermarket racing disc. The swept area on the discs in our BBK's are typically 51-55mm tall from ID to OD, whereas the OEM discs tend to have a swept area of 62-66mm. Sixty six mm is fine and dandy when the disc material is extremely lightweight. When you translate that tall of a disc face into iron however, you're talking about a seriously portly disc!

We currently sell a front iron disc for the Ferrari 458/F430 Scud/Lambo Aventador/AMG GT S. It's dimensions are 398x36mm, and it has 84 internal vanes. The iron itself weighs about 26 lbs. When you add the aluminum hat and hardware, you're creeping up on 30 lbs. per disc. Also keep in mind that we typically have the lightest discs vs. the competition. So all of our weights will likely be the lowest available or close to it.

Here are some comparisons...weights below include assembled hats:
AP Racing 355x32mm 72 vane disc, 54mm radial depth (D54) from our Competition BBK's= 17.6 lbs
AP Racing 372x34mm, 84 vane, D55= 21.1 lbs.
AP Racing 380x34mm, D66= 24 lbs. (this is one we use on the front of the 991 GT3 to replace the OEM iron discs)
AP Racing 398x36mm, 84 vane, D66= 30 lbs.
410x36mm iron disc to replace the OEM 991 GT3 PCCB's= 32 lbs???
OEM 410x36mm PCCB Disc= 14.8 lbs.

When you translate 410mm PCCB discs into iron, you're going to be looking at a weight of over 30 lbs. per disc. That's going to be about double what the PCCB's weigh, and roughly 30 unsprung lbs. tacked onto the nose of your car! You might as well install the biggest set of 22" chrome wheels you can find, because they will have the same impact on the car's dynamics. A simpler solution would be to tether a cinder block to each wheel. Adding that much unsprung weight essentially negates all benefits of lightweight wheels, robs HP making it to the wheels, changes steering feel, etc.

That creates a dilemma for us. We don't believe that from a technical standpoint, iron discs of that size are the proper solution on this chassis, even though we're consistently being asked about such a product.

We're hoping to tackle this issue via a different route derived from our racing experience. As mentioned in my original post, we're looking to create a complete Essex Designed AP Racing Radi-CAL Big Brake Kit for the 991 GT3. The goal with that kit will be to cure an array of issues embedded in the OEM brakes. Such a kit solves brake problems via efficiency, rather than brute size. We currently offer similar kits for the Corvette, M3, Camaro, etc., which you can see here.

The front kit we're hoping to produce will use our extremely stout 372x34mm, 84 vane J Hook disc, which weighs only 21 lbs. They will be mated to six piston calipers that weigh between 6.1-6.8 lbs. (vs. 9 lb. OEM calipers). These discs are currently kicking butt on the front of upgraded C7 z06's, and holding up great. They will be a great match for the 991 GT3.

So the breakdown in total brake corner weight (calipers, discs with mounted hats, brackets, hardware, pads) would look something like this:

Again, the weights above are per side...

I don't think most GT3 owners with PCCB's really want to ADD 30 unsprung lbs. to the nose of their car unless absolutely necessary. The kit we're working towards will essentially offer most of the weight savings of PCCB's (our kit would only add 3-4 lbs. per side vs. PCCB), while providing a huge array of other benefits:

The list of benefits with our complete system goes on and on...

410x36mm, D66 iron discs are ridiculously large for this car. The only reason the PCCB's are that large is because the factory is trying to build in a larger surface area for heat radiation due to the carbon ceramic construction. Porsche never intended an iron disc of that size to be on this chassis. A smaller, properly executed iron racing disc mated to the latest proper racing calipers is a much more compact, potent, elegant, and efficient solution.

We have a ton of experience in this arena. It's actually quite similar to the situation in NASCAR Sprint Cup. Over the past few years those cars have had 700-900hp, 3300 lbs., and only 15" wheels! As such, we've had to squeeze as much efficiency out of the brakes on those cars as humanly possible. The iron discs we typically run are only 328mm in diameter or smaller (depending on the track). Rather than just throwing a huge slab of iron at the problem, we've had to solve brake heat issues by other means via superior design and efficiency throughout the entire brake system.

We have a generous customer who is supposed to be dropping off his GT3 at some point over the next few days. Once we dig into it next week we'll have a better idea of what we can and cannot do. If we can pull the proper components together, our system will set a new benchmark in Porsche brakes, just as we have done for other platforms.

Below are some pics of the hardware I'm writing about above...a far cry from the rather pedestrian OEM bits.

CP9668 Pro5000R Radi-CAL


Ventilated, domed-back, stainless steel pistons with AKB springs


Quick change spring clip for pad change...squeeze, lift, and remove pads...no tools required.



25mm/inch thick brake pads



Below is a comparison pic of the brakes that the C6.R's and C7.R Corvettes used to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans numerous times, lined up next to our CP9668/372mm Competition Brake Kit mounted to a C7 Z06. Our kits are as close as you can possibly get to what the top race teams in the world are running.










Also of note...we're considerably further along on our 987/986 Boxster/Cayman brake system. We expect to be bolting prototypes to a car within the next 2-3 weeks.