Carbon ceramic brakes
 

Wasn’t there a thread on here where Mark said unless you have ABS carbon rotors are not a good idea because they are like an on off switch out of no where when they get to temp?

Looking at brakes for my car and was thinking about picking up a set and have been searching for negatives other than the cost or replacement rotors. I can pick up a set of steel rotors for track days though. I’m planning on C5Z stand alone ABS, but I’m not 100% yet if I’m going to do it.

page 16 post number 154 talks about what your looking for on jackass 2.0.

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthr...brakes&page=16

I avoided the carbon brakes because of Mark warning about them if you don't have abs. It's not mentioned in the above post by Mark himself but I also do remember Mark speaking about it but can't remember which build.

I think Mario (Doom) struggled with them as well, but it may have been something other than the fact they were ceramics. I don’t believe he did ABS either. Hopefully he’s been able to put some miles on the car and provide some insights.

I thought it was in that thread too, but didn’t see it. I seem to remember someone having an off track experience when they got hot and locked up into a corner out of no where.

Hopefully someone with some track experience with them will chime in.

Here's a great little write up from Vorshlag about the carbon brakes. It's post #8. I think they made me also change my mind. I hope this one helps you decide. They give so many good reasons not to use Carbon Brakes.

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=52992

Thank you, that’s a good read. So at this point what I’m thinking is depending on the deal I can find on Baer Brakes I’ll go with those. If it’s not much more than the carbon brakes I’ll get them. If it’s considerably more I’ll go with the carbon brakes and get iron rotors when the car gets tracked. There is a company selling brand new front and back ZR1 calipers, pads, and iron rotors for $5k though which I think is about the same price as Baer. In any case I won’t run carbon brakes on the track.

No problem. I've heard a lot of bad things about Baer brakes as well. I don't think those are really performance brakes for any real tough driving. I can find the negative articles on those to if you like.

Is there a reason you want carbon brakes? When I was considering them my reason was the performance (which after reading wasn't any) and the wow factor for people to see them on my 68 camaro.

From what I've seen Stoptech , Brembo or wilwood are the go to in that order.

I had Baer on my ‘67 and liked them. It just seems that what everyone runs.

I like the light weight of the carbon rotors vs. size compared to iron and I like the OEM part factor that I can get at any dealer. I feel wilwood calipers don’t meet performance aspects. That seem more bling than function and flex quite a bit.

I’ll look more into stoptech and ap racing before I make a decision.

I think you got it backwards about Wilwood. There are plenty of fast people running Wilwood brakes. Mike Maier, Brian Hobaugh, Ken Thwaits. I know for me, when I lunched a front hub on my C4 the wheel got into the caliper and ground a hole in it. I called Baer so I could order a replacement. They couldn't answer simple questions like have they ever changed piston sizes in the calipers over the years or what the piston sizes were in their calipers so I could check. They don't give out that information regarding piston sizes. I would have hated to pay $775 for 1 caliper only to find out caliper pistons were different sizes. I would have had to either return the new caliper at a financial loss due to shipping and restocking fees or buy another $775 caliper in order to match.
Where as I called Wilwood, ordered a complete kit. Rotors, calipers, lines, pads all in a well packaged box. Saved 7lbs in the front alone. Ordered a rear kit as well because we needed more rear brake than we were getting from the stock calipers. Saved another 8lbs there. The nice thing with Wilwood is if your out tracking the car and feel you need more rear brake or front brake, you can order a new caliper with larger or smaller pistons for $250. They have a tech department that'll listen to what you need and they support the community.

Searching the autocross and road racing section of corvette forum is where I read about wilwood flexing. They don’t really have favorable reviews about wilwood there.