Powerbrake™ Product News

Powerbrake develops GT-Series 2-piece discs for the Ferrari F40

During December, we were approached by a good customer of ours and asked to develop our 2-piece GT Series brake discs (front & rear) for fitment to a Ferrari F40. This particular car was fitted with the upgraded LM spec brake system from the factory but the OEM cross-drilled rotors were severely worn. The customer requested that we supply heavy duty replacement rotor assemblies that would offer improved thermal capacity and cooling, resulting improved durability over the OEM units. The brief was that the car would mainly be used on-road but that the pad compound supplied should also be able to handle one or two track day events per year if required.

The project was completed within 3 weeks from date of order and involved the measuring of the car using our 3D co-ordinate measuring equipment (accurate to 20 micron), 3D modeling of the brake system as well as the design and manufacture of the custom rotor assemblies. Powerbrake GT-Series 2-piece full-floating rotor assemblies have been proven at the highest levels of motor sport both in our domestic market and export markets. The rotors feature our staggered cooling vane technology, proprietary cast-iron alloy, max temp recording tabs (4-levels), visual wear indicators and unique dry surface coating. As with all Powerbrake GT rotors, machining tolerances are up to three times tighter than the industry norm and all rotors undergo multiple stress-relieving processes during manufacture, resulting in maximum resistance to distortion or cracking.

Our aerospace grade billet aluminium mounting bells are type-3 mil-spec hard-anodized for maximum durability and the rotors & hats are assembled using full-floating high-tensile drive bobbins manufactured in-house in our factory. The rotors can expand and contract up to 3mm in diameter, independent of the mounting bells, which eliminates stresses caused by thermal expansion in non-floating rotors. The amount of axial float was carefully selected to offer optimum performance while limiting noise.

The customer specifically requested that the pad compound supplied would run quiet under street driving conditions but be able to handle entry-level track days on occasion. Based on these requirements as well as taking into consideration the performance potential of the F40, Powerbrake engineers opted to supply Endless MX72 pads front and rear. MX72 is a ceramic-carbon-metal compound manufactured by Endless Japan, who’s race pads are used at the very highest levels of international motor sport, including a number of Le Mans GT teams (including GT2 class winners Risi Competizione and many others), Endurance teams (including Manthey Racing), BTCC & WTCC teams, WRC teams (including BP Ford Abu Dhabi and Fiat S2000 / Kimi Raikonen) and Dakar teams (including 2009 winners VW).

MX72 is a crossover street / light track day compound developed for high-performance street cars that are used for high speed driving with repeated braking and acceleration. MX72 has a class-leading heat range of 50-700 deg C, which makes it suitable for entry-level track day use as well. The initial bite is moderate/smooth, which is ideal for use with street tyres and particularly well suited to the F40 that is not fitted with ABS. Brake performance is very good even at very high speeds in excess of 250kph. The MX72 pads are particularly disc friendly and will not wear the rotors excessively or cause heat checking even at very high operating temperatures. Pad life is class leading, which helps to contain long term running costs. MX72 will run quiet for street use.

Finally the brake fluid was flushed and replaced with Endless RF-650, which in Powerbrake’s opinion is currently the very best high-temperature brake fluid available on the world market. RF-650 is used by current F1 champs - Brawn GP, The Dakar winning VW Team, Team BP Ford Abu Dhabi in WRC, Porsche Cup Series, ALMS and FIA GT teams as well as numerous other rally, touring car and endurance race teams world-wide.