Lemur

I have been recently been searching about on this channel trying to figure out what is so wrong with the ceramic brakes that many here seem to either want to remove them in favor of the steel variety or do not order them to begin with and would appreciate some clarification from any and all of the resident gurus that have a strong opinion one way or the other. I have a 997 S which I ordered with the ceramic brakes and absolutely love them. The car feels more "nimble", for want of a better term, than those equipped with the steel brakes, they look great, and then there is the absence of brake dust on my wheels. They are quiet and offer what I would consider extraordinary feel and stopping power. All of this said, I still have the feeling that some here do not share my enthusiasm on this subject and I am left to wonder if I am missing something.
I have a deposit on an '08 allocation for a "base" model GT 3 and am told that should an RS become available, it will be mine (one can always hope!). Either car will be primarily street driven with a few ( OK, maybe several) track days yearly as well. So, is there really a good reason to bypass the PCCB option that I am missing or is this simply a personal taste issue?
Many thanks for your thoughts.

Bob Rouleau

DAB - ask the parts department at your dealer how much a single ceramic rotor costs if you need to replace it. You may find that the cost is <cough-cough> a bit high.

If you intend to track the car, you will wear out the rotors, they are a wear item. Compare the cost of the ceramaic rotor with a $340 conventional one. Is a ceramic rotor 10x or 20x the cost of the regular one?

Make your decision.

The conventional rotors on my RS stop the car like the hand of God. They are the same rotors as used on the Porwsche race cars including those used for the 24 hours of Daytona and Le Mans.

Rgds,

Lemur

Helo Bob,
Thanks for your thoughts. I was under the impression that the current version had solved many of the problems with the initial design. Also, I was told by what I consider a reliable source that the driver school cars at Barber all have the PCCBs and that after a year of what would seem to be hard use, there was but neglible wear observed. Assuming this to be true, it would seem to be quite a testamony in favor of the ceramics. But, again, I defer to those here who have had far more experience than I.

Thanks again.

Nordschleife

Well ask any of the people running cars in the Supercup series how many times a season they replace their PCCB rotors
or the people running in the Ferrari Challenge.

As far as I am concerned, any driving school which runs PCCBs is completely nuts

R+C

gt3cup98

I have an RS coming with PCCBs and owned a Cayman S with PCCBs that we tracked with great success. I have also read on this forum post from people that are invloved with the Super Cup and they say the PCCBs last 10 times as long and cost 10 times as much. I my mind this is a good deal since you get rid of a maintenance item and the hassle. I changed my CUP Car rotors all the time and carried two sets in the trailer. What a pain and a shame that the Cups coming here do not have them. I love the PCCBs and hope I do not change my mind with the RS.
Boyd

MarkinHouston

GT3cup98,

On your Cayman, did you use the standard pads for track days?

I have a very rare Cayman Cabriolet (some tell me it's a Boxster, but
they surely are mistaken) with PCCB's. Love the brakes. No dust (yippee!)
on street use. One DE event left lots of dust, so some pad wear must
be taking place. No apparent wear on the rotors, however (whew!).

I have read that some use Pagid 29's instead of stock, but cannot
discern if that's just someone's "opinion" or if it really is a better choice
for a track event.

It seems to me that the factory has done a pretty good job and maybe
I should just leave well enough alone.

If I may ask, what was your experience with them?

Thanks for your time and attention.

Best,

- Mark

GBGT

The ceramics are a world ahead of steel brakes. If you are tracking your car that much buy a purpose built racecar - period. Street cars are for the street. We have to 2 Porsches with PCCB and we will never go back. If you have studied the GT3 RS market, cars with ceramic brakes are CLEARLY drawing greater premiums than ones with steel.

Trj

I have the steel on the 997 gt3 and they are great no problem. The ceramics feel incredibly faster to respond. I drove them on an RS so it also had the lightweight flywheel but the car just felt nastier. Lighter and more responsive both in acceleration and stopping. I did not drive the RS on the track yet. So, steel is AWESOME and all you need but ceramic is definitly trick and if $ is no worry go for it!

Nordschleife

Of course they are - once you start paying premiums, you have entered a fools' market.

R+C

gt3cup98

Mark:
We used stock pads on the Cayman with Ceramic Breaks and had to replace them once in 8,000 miles. I was told that the track pads tore up the rotors much quicker and the car stopped so good why bother. Love the breaks.
Boyd

Nordschleife

None of them say they last 10 times as long - you have been misinformed - if they lasted 10 times as long they would last a full season, and there woiuld be no complaints.

R+C

Nordschleife

What do you mean by 'world ahead'?

They DON'T stop any better and they are more expensive to run

R+C

MarkinHouston

Boyd,

Thanks for the information. That's pretty much what I thought as well.

Pads are relatively cheap, rotors are not.

I figure for just a few DE's a year, I shouldn't hurt anything.

And I REALLY hate brake dust.

$8,000 worth?

Yes.

Works for me. Cuts car wash time by 2/3 at least. One quick wipe
with 303 and the wheels are done. Inside and out.

All the best,

- Mark

willr

I know there have been many threads on this, but has anyone gathered a reasonable sample of data, for an objective judgement?

How many people have got a 997GT3/RS with PCCB?
How many trackdays have they done so far?
How much rotor wear (if any) have they observed?

So far all the objective feedback I have heard indicates almost no rotor wear. I was also told that the Porsche UK press/demo cars are still using their first set of PCCB rotors, despite being abused by every journalist you can imagine. In comparison, the 996 models fitted with steel brakes would need replacement every two weeks...

While it would also be good to consider the Supercup statistics, if anyone has them, it's probably not directly comparable for us mere mortal trackday drivers.

Nordschleife

Most teams don't like to be too specific about this but if you worked on two, three or four races per set of rotors, you would not be far from the ball park.

I find street driving, on the German Autobahn, to be harder on brakes than racing, where everything is usually up to temperature, compared to the sudden Autobahn stop on cold brakes and involving reducing speed by up to 300 kph, something that rarely happens on the race track, not only that but one can't avoid holding the car on still hot pads as one can in a track situation.

R+C