Z356

Because of the high cost ($8150) or other concerns, most dealers & early adopters who initially ordered Spyders did NOT specified Ceramic brakes on their cars. Now that you (Spyder owners) have driven your cars for many miles and months, any of you regret not having the PCCB's? If you had to do it over again, would you have wanted (or ordered) PCCBs rather than the standard steel brakes on your Spyder? z356

Frank Courts

Brake(steel) are great. Better stopping than my 996 or 997 4s. I would not change.

n2cars

I like the feel of PCCBs even on the street. It would have been a tough call ... PCCBs or steel.

Alan Smithee

I have experienced some pedal softness during hard driving on hot (100F) days, and of course a lot of brake dust on a regular basis, both of which would not be issues with PCCB. But I also like having $9k (with tax) in my pocket, red brakes to match the rest of the red trim, and easy pedal placement for heel/toe when driven casually. No regrets here...

Polarporsche

Steel and fine as far as I'm concerned, no regrets. PCCB are a $12000 option in Canada, not worth the price IMO.

I also have steel on my 2011 GT3, they are very impressive, althought the GT3 needs new pads after 6 tracks days. (1200 miles on the clock)

Z356

I appreciate all of your comments to date. I am just trying to be informed on this subject before I purchase a Spyder. When Car & Driver recently selected the Spyder as the best handling car for under $100K sold in America, it had this to say about the Spyder brakes:

"We had a small beef with the brakes. The Porsche had the longest-stroke pedal, which allowed for unmatched exactness on the street, but it doesn’t have quite enough bite. And on the track, things got a bit too soft."

I have also heard some complaints about the standard brakes from at least two current Spyder owners. Here is what one wrote to me recently:

"If I had to do it over again I probably would splurge for the PCCBs. The feel (and bite) of the PCCBs is unbelievable. Plus, the brake dust that accumulates on the wheels (with the steels) is pretty bad -- with PCCBs, not a problem."

I know that the PCCB's on the Spyder will not be the same as those on the gt3's. Besides being smaller (350mm), they have a different brake booster and a different feel. Not as much 'bite' as the PCCB's of the gt3 cars. But one owner that I know here at Rennlist that has both a PCCB equipped Spyder and a PCCB equipped .2 RS, while telling me the difference between the two brake systems, still recommends PCCB's on the Spyder...even though he has destroy his set from constant hard use on the track (something I will not do since I will not be doing many track events as he does).

So, I am still debating whether to have ceramics or not on my Spyder. So far, the majority of you have said Steels are perfectly fine. If anyone else has experience with brake issues on a Spyder, I would love to hear from you. z356

mooty

the soft pedal... flush and bleed again and again. it will fix it.
dust.... no fix sorry ;-) other than pccb.

mooty

Z, talk to pete and pete, pete R has steel and peter H has pccb.
on street, the stopping power won't make a difference really.
you will feel lightness with pccb, rotationally, i felt it on my RS previous.
the most important thing is feel. they feel different. regardless of price, i prefer steel feel. if pccb was 10k LESS, i would still get steel. just like bicycle brakes, i dont like strong initial bite, i like "drag". same reason why i dont like pagid RS14 but prefer RS29, 19, 4-4. i think once you drive a pccb vs steel you will make up your mind. you can try those brakes on any porsche not just on spyder. you just want to figure out the feel of the pedal.

Z356

Thanks Mooty. I did talk to both Pete's. They are the ones I am referring to in the post above. And I have heard from many other Spyder owners say that they like the Steel brakes on their Spyders. But here is the thing, hardly anyone has ordered PCCB's on Spyders. I know of only four ceramic brakes Spyders owned by members in all forums I frequent - Rennlist , 6speed, Planet 9 and Teamspeed! So some of this 'I like Steels' could be a a form of rationalization for not choosing PCCB's in the first place. After all, they are 10% or more (depending on your MSRP) of the price of a Spyder.

But here is something interesting. I was really surprised to hear from Cass Whitehead, head driver at the Porsche Performance Driving School in Alabama, that he has never seen or driven a Spyder with PCCB's since its introduction. You would have thought that Porsche would have supplied their premier US driving school with a few Spyders with PCCB's at the very least, if nothing else but to show off their advantages over Steel (less unsprung weight). So I find this odd, and leads me to believe that Porsche itself is NOT really 'marketing' PCCB's on the Spyders, doesn't expect many customers to order this option, and perhaps even feels that PCCB's are totally unnecessary in this model.

So that is why I am asking fellow forum members here about this subject of brakes on a Spyder. I am just trying to do my homework before I purchase one and make sure I am ordering the right specs for it. Saludos, z356 (Carmel)

batty

I would like a little more bite than the steels seem to offer (at least on my car) but not as much bite as the PCCB's on the carreras that I've driven that had them. I guess I would have to try them out on the spyder and see before I'd be willing to part with $ for the upgrade. I do think there is room for improvement over the stock brakes, after a long day at the track my brakes get softer than I expected, and the feel certainly becomes mushier and than I'd like. But I'm a track noob, running street pads, so factor that in to my review. When you really the step on it, the steels still stop you on the front side of the dime.

mooty

OT: but if your pedals go soft, it's not the brake system per se. you may need to bleed it again. i track the living hell out of my cars and i have never had soft pedal, i bleed often and i only run steel on track.