AP Racing brake systems in development

[RYU]

Originally Posted by Matt Andrews

So looks like 5-6 track days is the limit on the stock system. A buddy cracked both front rotors and blew a front caliper seal this weekend. He's an intermediate driver, and has either 5 or 6 days on his set up with an aggressive track brake pad.

How do the rears look? Same setup (pads)?

[gmookher]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

That's more than I got out of my rotors. Mine have about 50% of the face "delaminated" (for lack of a better term) from the rest of the disc. Never saw that happen before in 12 years of tracking/racing cars. :shrug:

Any idea what his temps were? I wish I had paint on mine to get an idea He made it back to the paddock without damage I hope?

Mine is currently not being driven until the new brakes arrive

wow so the oe rotor is crap-that IS what youre refering to, right?

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by RYU

How do the rears look? Same setup (pads)?

Can't speak for his friend, but with XP8s the rears are doing just fine. Heck they don't get hot at all from what I can tell. I'm going to put temp paint on them when I replace the fronts though just out of curiousity.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by gmookher

wow so the oe rotor is crap-that IS what youre refering to, right?

They don't seem great for track use. The fronts generate a ton of heat which is hard on all the components.

[gmookher]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

They don't seem great for track use. The fronts generate a ton of heat which is hard on all the components.

would you go as far as saying if there is a stock replacement thats even worth considering- ie, is taking a set of centric blanks rotors to the track smarter than stock-given the reports of cracking? I too planed to live with fast wearing rotors and ds2500s for a hot minute while I save up bbk money. is it worth twic ethe price for a 'cryo treated powerslot', knowing its made from a centric blank and will be piss after a dozen track days no matter what?

I need to look at BBK options I suppose but it really wasnt in my budget right away, but after what I am reading here, seems I need to move it up on my timeline...

[Matt Andrews]

His failure wasn't catastrophic. But when we got home he realized his brake reservoir was almost empty and the brake indicator light was on. Its seeping through a seal. Rears are fine I think, but admittedly I haven't looked at them. I'm wondering if brake ducting would help. I don't know what temps he was seeing.

[mines13]

Originally Posted by Matt Andrews

His failure wasn't catastrophic. But when we got home he realized his brake reservoir was almost empty and the brake indicator light was on. Its seeping through a seal. Rears are fine I think, but admittedly I haven't looked at them. I'm wondering if brake ducting would help. I don't know what temps he was seeing.

You pretty much nailed it Matt, I did not have any method of determining actual rotor temps, but they were very blued and cracking as mentioned. I actually noticed after two days of running the car bone stock, before swapping in the DS2500's and new OE spec rotors that the seals were starting to get a little wet around the edges... I guess it is time to upgrade, yet again. The rears SEEM to be okay, (not leaking) but being that I was on the stock pads in the rear, the rotors/pads are toast. The Essex kit should be looked at as more then a performance upgrade, it is also a reliability upgrade if you drive your car hard on track. I think I need a set...

[track_warrior]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

AWESOME!!! Can't wait to replace stuff on mine, getting a little sketchy on my rotors

Same here man, my rotors are toast. I think i warped them the last time i was at the track.

Cant wait to get my kit as well.

BTW anybody purchase the endurance?

[mike2100]

I wore out the OE front pads in 2 track days but my rotors seem fine and there are no leaks.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by gmookher

would you go as far as saying if there is a stock replacement thats even worth considering- ie, is taking a set of centric blanks rotors to the track smarter than stock-given the reports of cracking? I too planed to live with fast wearing rotors and ds2500s for a hot minute while I save up bbk money. is it worth twic ethe price for a 'cryo treated powerslot', knowing its made from a centric blank and will be piss after a dozen track days no matter what?

I need to look at BBK options I suppose but it really wasnt in my budget right away, but after what I am reading here, seems I need to move it up on my timeline...

I don't think we have enough experience yet to say. We use centric blanks on the race car with great success, but it's not a BRZ. :shrug: I think it's worth trying, they are so cheap that it's not like you are really losing anything, just keep an eye out.

Rotors are very much a consumable, my primary concern here is the caliper seal failure. IMO that shouldn't happen. I have 160k on one of my cars where somewhere around 8-10k is track mileage and it's still on the original calipers (but double digit rotors after the first year) so it's surprising to me that a caliper failed that quickly.

Seems like quite a few of us are overheating the fronts of these cars, we either all suck at braking or the components just can't hold and dissipate enough heat. If it were just me I'd go with the suck at braking opinion

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by pcasso87

Same here man, my rotors are toast. I think i warped them the last time i was at the track.

Cant wait to get my kit as well.

BTW anybody purchase the endurance?

I'll post pics of mine once I install the essex kit. I've never seen rotors do this before.

Right now the car isn't being driven.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by mike2100

I wore out the OE front pads in 2 track days but my rotors seem fine and there are no leaks.

Good job on getting that much out of the pads.. stock fluid?

I had air in the calipers which caused my fade after a few laps at Mid Ohio. Not sure if it was a bad factory bleed or if I boiled it.. hard to believe I boiled it in 3 laps though.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Dave, are you running XP8 all around or XP10 at the front and XP8 at the rear? It's typical with Imprezas to run a higher cF rear compound for better bias. If you guys are overheating the front while the rears aren't getting hot...perhaps try a higher cF rear pad and report back?

[gmookher]

Lets hope your caliper seal failure is a one off..