PFBZ - you may feel a difference but the base brakes are very good. On public roads I haven't been wanting for more. I came to the T from an '18 GT3 with Carbon Ceramics and while I feel a difference I'm never disappointed in the brakes in the T. I haven't tracked the T yet so we'll see how they hold up on track.

 

Well no, that is not what I meant for your test drive. However, you should be able to do some aggressive braking on a decent test drive to get a feel for their strength. Let's be realistic, no test drive or even a full weekend with any car is going reveal its' full performance characteristics.

 

^ While I wouldn't say I overheated the base brakes in Tenerife or, more recently, in the mountains of the south of France, I will say that I smelled them in two different cars on spirited but not stupid runs over taxing sections. Interestingly, no such problems more recently on a press launch around Northern California for the T, or over 800~ miles in the same T on very demanding sections. Again, spirited but not stupid—about as quick as I am comfortable on public roads in the middle of nowhere. And the T's standard brakes were just fine. Not as nice as PCCB, but certainly adequate. A 718 GTS on the same trip, meanwhile started to get smelly brakes. Speaking with some Porsche engineers, I am left with the impression that the difference is some of the press cars aren't getting their pads bedded in properly.

With all that said, I'd speak to Mike with the GTS here...he runs out of brakes at Sebring in his GTS, and I think the car is largely stock.

 

No disrespect to Mike, but I'm pretty sure there was some user error e.g. if you read the thread it looks like he warped the rotors and then tried to run new pads on warped rotors. Then new rotors with worn pads.

If you do cool down laps, bleed and flush, change pads and rotors regularly (e.g. don't track with pads that have 50% or less left) - there is no issue with the brakes on the S/GTS. The brakes on the "base" and T are fine for road use (in fact more than fine) but are only good for light track duty - which again is fine for most users needs.

Brakes and smell - new brake pads will always smell if a car is driven hard - particularly if they haven't been bedded in.

 

In any of the current generation 991, the brakes are much "stronger" than the tire grip (at least for street performance tires). Yes, with enough hard braking, the calipers could get hot enough to begin to boil the brake fluid, but at that point what counts is cooling, not number of pistons. The slightly larger discs on higher models might delay overheating, and provide a bit more capacity, but again, the tires are the limit.

 

Yup. About 11-12 track hrs on my base 991.2, and I've never "run out of brake". Car is running ATE typ200 fluid but otherwise stock. I keep a close eye on the pads, rotors, etc. I am no superstar driver, but I'm not doing Sunday drives out there either...YMMV.

 

^ Good feedback. Thanks J!