911 silverback

Done my first track day with my 03 GT3 CS on Sunday at Silverstone had such a great time no wonder you fellas are such track addicts.
Been checking this site out now for a while but as a GT3 novice, dont really feel as though i can chip in to often, but i had the infamous RK settings done on my car last week and it now just feels sooo much sweeter, so a big thanks to you guys i never would of known anything about these and for the £/$ there cant be any better mod surely?.
Anyway, had an oil and filter done same time as the track set up and asked to check pccbs. I was advised the discs err sorry rotors? are really good and there is no need to change the pads as they look 95% new.
I got the car direct from AG with 5500 miles on it, would they of changed the pads before they shipped it to the UK? I have been following posts regarding changing pads every 5-10000 miles by some of you that are on the pccbs, my question is as iv now been bitten by the track day bug, should i change the pads anyway even if they do look only 5% worn I'm terrified of frying them cos of cost etc. Also any advice how best to look after them on a track day. I know at least 1 lap cool down lap of smooth braking is required, no hand brake leave in gear etc, also i spoke to a fella that was cooling his pccbs down by moving back and forth in the pits light breaking after about 5 mins of coming in something to do with dissipating heat under the caliper? is this necessary?.
Many thanks to all replies
...rob

DanH

Wow not enough paragraphs Rob

Anyway the sad reality is that track usage will destroy PCCB, it's just a question of how quickly. You can :

- replace with steels now.
- replace with steels when they wear out.
- hope ceramic rotors go down in price a sensible amount before they wear out.

In terms of cooling them, you'd be better off doing a proper cool down lap than noncing around in the pit lane. The only time I've done similar is after a red flag when I've not had a chance to cool down properly, and frankly its not that useful as very little air over the car.

If you are only going to do a few trackdays your ceramics should be ok, particularly if you aren't pushing the car really hard (although there is a tendancy to overbrake when learning which will put more pressure on them).

Sloth

It seems the best way to care for PCCB's at the track is to replace the brake pads often (after every event) and to make sure they are bedded in properly. I did and easy 140 track miles during a weekend DE, the rotors survived but the pads were toast. I made sure I took a nice cool down lap and then tooled around the paddock area to allow for additional cooling time. Regardless of how you care for them the track time will eventualy kill the PCCB rotors.

bora

Best to replace the PCCBs with conventional steel rotors. There
are two paths:

1) Front discs are identical to the steel discs that are used in the red caliper GT3s. There are two or three companies that make custom hats that use fairly expensive floating rotors for the rear (but last a long time). However the floaters are expensive as parts.

2) Go to your nearest Porsche parts specialist, buy rear calipers, get them painted yellow to match and use steel GT3 rear discs. You can also get matching front calipers in red if you don't want to deal with the painting.

Look for my posts on this topic from 05. I went with 4 brand new Porsche calipers and 4 discs at a cost of 2-3K which is insignificant when compared to replacement costs for PCCB discs. Mine are waiting in my garage carefully packaged in bubble wrap.

nmex

Make sure you change them to RS19 yellow. Look around here there are some people with over 1.5 years with there PCCB and change the pads every 4 events and they are still running the original PCCB.
I just change mine and the rotors look good after last weekend and plan to change pads every 4 DE events.

bora

By the way, apparently the dealers are trying to nick PCCB equipped cars on trade-in for at least 10K (based on their "inspection").

Thanks again Porsche for this answer to a question no one had ever asked.

nmex

Is funny i guess it all depends on the dealr I know here in Austin of to fellow GT3 owners that have got ther PCCB replace under warranty 20k service and yes it took the dealer 6 months to get payed by porsche but they no cost to the customer. I guess it all depends how cool your dealer is. I can tell you that here in Austin they LOVE to see the cares use right.... ON THE TRACK so if you guys have problems come on down to Texas. You might just see a new side of Porche. I had cars with UNI-Chip headers cup tires you name it driven to the dealer for service and still all stuff needed cover under warranty. I know tht if i trade my care tomorrow ( Which I probably never do) they will not take 10K for the PCCBs

DanH

Cheaper than buying 4 new callipers or messing around with paint is buying the rear calliper kit. They sell yellow ones that fit the smaller OEM steel disks.