I'm in process of ordering. This car will see quite a few DE events. Should I spend the money on Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes? Any idea as to how many track days the pads will last?
Hal,
Despite some postings to the contrary that I've seen on PPBB, the new 2nd generation
PCCB
's really are much improved over the 1st generation. There was an extensive technical write-up on the 2nd generation in one of the magazines I subscribe to about 6 months back, it got into the number of carbon fibers and winding/molding process, etc. in some detail. The painful issue with the 1st gen product was the cracking of rotors which made them worthless and expensive to replace especially if the car had been tracked and Porsche disclaimed the warranty based on that fact. I won't go into the oxymoron of that statement.
The cars that I am familiar with that have2nd gen
PCCB
's have not cracked a rotor and don't show any abnormal pad wear. I'm willing to bet you could go an entire year or more on pads without needing replacment. While pads did wear more on the 1st gen
PCCB
's, the 2nd gen also seems improved in this area.
Without question if I had an extra 8K to spend I would get the
PCCB
's on the Cayman because I too plan to track it a great deal. I am really stretching to get the car as it is, so I think another 8K would just blow that out of the water (unless someone wants to donate? /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/kiss2.giffor testing purposes!). I am hopeful that in a few years the price will come down and I can buy a set and retrofit on the car. What I don't know is whether or not that would simply be a rotor/caliper replacement or whether there is something different about the brake controller, master cylinder, etc. that would also have to be swapped out.
Some people are concerned about getting $$$ out of PCCB on resale and honestly I doubt you'd get much out of them unless you sold to someone who really wanted and was looking for PCCB.
The only 'gamble' I see is that if a rotor has to be replaced and isn't covered by warranty it will be expensive in the near term. Hopefully by the our warranties are up in 4 years the rotors will have dropped in price. The 1st gens were 12K, 2nd gens down to 8K, hopefully that will continue to drop in the new few years and lower the risk of $$ for replacing PCCB rotors.
No question that they weigh 1/2 as much and stop the car better than their steel counterparts, both of which are a benefit on the track.
In a side note I was actually a little disappointed in the braking of my 2005 987S (steel rotors) vs. my old 2000 Boxster S, but I realized later that my 2000 model had been flushed and replaced with super blue. I suspect my brake lines have a little air in them from the factory and need to be bled for maximum performance.
