Luis A.

As seen at the Detroit Auto Show Friday night. From the Enzo. Pretty amazing...

<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/luisarisso/115-1527_IMG_2.JPG" target="_blank">Ferrari CF Rotors</a>

H20NOO

Beautiful and light but very impractical for street use. The biggest problem with carbon fibre rotors is KEEPING enough heat in them for optimal effectiveness. You'd not likely ever get them hot enough to provide much bite using them on the street and most of us wouldn't get them hot enough on the track either.

GP motorcycles have been using them for years (as has F1) and they put shrouds over the rotors to PREVENT cooling air from reaching them. From what I've learned through a friend of mine who raced MotoGP (the F1 of motorcycle racing), they feel as dead as wood until they are very hot.

Might make a nice centerpiece for my living room table though...

MC

Brett - 1996 C4

Isn't the longevity on carbon fiber rotors also, shall we say, limited? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

chris walrod

C/f rotors make great clocks as well. I bought one from speedgear about 7yrs ago. It was from a Williams F1 car.

We are allowed to use c/f rotors on Champ Cars only for big oval races. We always have to remind the driver to drag the brakes a quarter of a lap before 'pit in' to get some heat in them. Drivers have made the comment of there is a solid pedal but nothing until they heat up.

Chris

Jack Ennuste

Isn't it the same as PCCB in Porsche terms. Eg "Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes". It is standard in GT2 and option in Turbos and C4S. Ceramic composite means that carbon fiber reinforced ceramic matherial is silicated at very high temperature in vacuum. It is claimed to be 50% lighter than iron rotors.

<img src="http://www.autointell.com/news-2000-2/Porsche-PCCB-2.jpg" alt=" - " />

Robert Linton

The rotors used on the Enzo are carbon ceramic, albeit a somewhat different formulation than the Porsche system. Additionally, the manufacturers are different -- the Porsche rotors are made by SGL while the Ferrari disks are made by Brembo. The rotors used on F1 cars and on certain racing motorcycles are carbon carbon (generally produced by Hitco, Carbone Industrie or Allied Signal) -- it is this material, not carbon ceramics, that must be at a certain temperature to function effectively. Further, carbon carbon has a far more limited life span than carbon ceramics but, on the other hand, may weigh even less than carbon ceramic. Finally, the pad material used in conjunction with carbon carbon is very different from those compounds being used with carbon ceramics.

bet

There is an article on Brembo in either this past weeks or the prior weeks Autoweek. It discusses that Brembo has developed a carbon composite braking system as mentioned above for the street use. In addition the longevity is mentioned to be the life of the car. The article mentions the Ferrari Enzo and indicates that the Brembo has reached an agreement to supply the new carbon brakes to a US manufacturer (but does not mention which one). Interesting article as it ties Brembo's past and future success to its close working relationship with Ferrari and Porsche.

E. J. - 993 Alumni

Just so everyone knows, composite does not mean Carbon Fiber.

I think where people get in trouble is the term "composite"

Here is the websters definition:

1. A structure or an entity made up of distinct components. See Synonyms at mixture.

2. A complex material, such as wood or fiberglass, in which two or more distinct, structurally complementary substances, especially metals, ceramics, glasses, and polymers, combine to produce structural or functional properties not present in any individual component.

And people so easily assume composite means CF in todays terms. Really it is fiberglass, ceramic etc... So when Ferrari or Brembo calls their brake rotors composite, they are not calling them CF, just composite. If they dont specify what the composite material is, then we don't know for sure. Porsche's GT2 Ceramic brakes are technically composite too.

bet

Whereas E.J. is correct that the term "composite" does not necessarily mean carbon fiber, in the case of the brakes on the Ferrari Enzo it does mean carbon fiber.

Here is an excellent link discussing the differences between the Brembo brakes (utilizing CF) used in the Enzo and the Brembo brakes used on the Ferrari F2002 F1 car.

<a href="http://www.brembo.com/press/ccmdiscprocess.htm" target="_blank">http://www.brembo.com/press/ccmdiscprocess.htm</a>

Jack Ennuste

There was long article concerning PCCB in the "911 and Porsche world" dec 2000.

Interesting fact: service period for PCCB is 300 000 km in normal use and pads last twice as long as conventional. What is normal use???