Hi All,
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Christmas came early at my house. Yes, these are Racing Brake 380 mm Carbon Ceramic rotors.
First look how beautiful they are and how nicely packaged they come in the Styrofoam case. I’m so geeked about these. Almost too nice to get dirty.
You’re thinking CCM rotors on a Focus RS really? I know I can hear you now. Does it make sense to spend that much money on CCM brake rotors? Now hear me out on why I went to RB CCM.
The RS community is spending $3K+ on suspension up grades, but may draw the line at a $5K+ suspension system that is now out there. So, there may be a limit to what Focus RS owners are willing to spend but there are a few that are putting big money into their RS to achieve the performance they are looking for. Just read the Builds threads and see what many owners are doing with engine builds, suspension, accessories to complete track builds.
I’m now 100% happy with the mods I made to achieve the track performance I have (see mods listed in my signature) and read: http://www.focusrs.org/forum/33-foc...cing/83482-watkins-glen-track-days-report-rs-mods-performance-improvements.html
Here is why I went to RB CCM rotors. Icing on the cake, in short weight reduction and durability.
For serious tracking you need to upgrade the brakes anyway. Many agree the OE brake rotors and calipers are not up for the task. They cannot dissipate the heat and the 2 piece rotor will save the heat from destroying the wheel bearings. Upgrades are a matter of degrees and at the top of the heap is CCM rotors. Once you make the decision to upgrade to 2 piece, larger and wider rotor to handle the heat, then the decision is to go for iron or CCM.
Performance: Reduced weight. For a track car weight is the killer. This is a 3450 # car. The CCM rotors weigh less than half the weight of OE rotor OE 23#, CCM 11#. And its unspung weight off the front of the car.
Braking performance with durability (which gets into economic). Although I haven’t testing these on the RS yet but reading and talking to others about their experience using CCM rotors (on other cars) have convinced me to give it a go.
As you may know from reading my posts I have my RS performing at a level of other cars 2x $$ and more of the RS. And some of these cars have optional OE carbon ceramic rotors (Corvettes, Camaros, GT3s, M4s…). This is bargain performance even with the cost of CCM rotors.
Economical?: Perhaps in the long run if you track your car often, I estimate a break even around 18-20 events. Assumes: Initial Iron BBK cost $3500 (front only) and typical iron rotor last 6 events (conservatively) (replacement cost is $750) and pad life is 4 days (2 events) per set of pads (replacement cost is $250) Then after 24 track days (12 events) is total cost $6500.
The CCM BBK kit cost $6800. rotors and pads should last 24 track days (12 events) and cost is $6850. Add pad replacement $736 total cost with brakes ready to go is $7586.
After the initial investment I think the CCM system will be lower cost overall to maintain.
This is just an estimate from my limited experience and others that I have reviewed, however I don’t have total track time on these systems (yet) to validate the assumptions. Of course my pay back is longer since I purchased both rotors (same calipers will work).
This coming season I will be running the RB CCM rotors and XC-40 pads. I’ll be reporting on the experience.
For now its off to the garage to install them..
Christmas came early at my house. Yes, these are Racing Brake 380 mm Carbon Ceramic rotors.
First look how beautiful they are and how nicely packaged they come in the Styrofoam case. I’m so geeked about these. Almost too nice to get dirty.
You’re thinking CCM rotors on a Focus RS really? I know I can hear you now. Does it make sense to spend that much money on CCM brake rotors? Now hear me out on why I went to RB CCM.
The RS community is spending $3K+ on suspension up grades, but may draw the line at a $5K+ suspension system that is now out there. So, there may be a limit to what Focus RS owners are willing to spend but there are a few that are putting big money into their RS to achieve the performance they are looking for. Just read the Builds threads and see what many owners are doing with engine builds, suspension, accessories to complete track builds.
I’m now 100% happy with the mods I made to achieve the track performance I have (see mods listed in my signature) and read: http://www.focusrs.org/forum/33-foc...cing/83482-watkins-glen-track-days-report-rs-mods-performance-improvements.html
Here is why I went to RB CCM rotors. Icing on the cake, in short weight reduction and durability.
For serious tracking you need to upgrade the brakes anyway. Many agree the OE brake rotors and calipers are not up for the task. They cannot dissipate the heat and the 2 piece rotor will save the heat from destroying the wheel bearings. Upgrades are a matter of degrees and at the top of the heap is CCM rotors. Once you make the decision to upgrade to 2 piece, larger and wider rotor to handle the heat, then the decision is to go for iron or CCM.
Performance: Reduced weight. For a track car weight is the killer. This is a 3450 # car. The CCM rotors weigh less than half the weight of OE rotor OE 23#, CCM 11#. And its unspung weight off the front of the car.
Braking performance with durability (which gets into economic). Although I haven’t testing these on the RS yet but reading and talking to others about their experience using CCM rotors (on other cars) have convinced me to give it a go.
As you may know from reading my posts I have my RS performing at a level of other cars 2x $$ and more of the RS. And some of these cars have optional OE carbon ceramic rotors (Corvettes, Camaros, GT3s, M4s…). This is bargain performance even with the cost of CCM rotors.
Economical?: Perhaps in the long run if you track your car often, I estimate a break even around 18-20 events. Assumes: Initial Iron BBK cost $3500 (front only) and typical iron rotor last 6 events (conservatively) (replacement cost is $750) and pad life is 4 days (2 events) per set of pads (replacement cost is $250) Then after 24 track days (12 events) is total cost $6500.
The CCM BBK kit cost $6800. rotors and pads should last 24 track days (12 events) and cost is $6850. Add pad replacement $736 total cost with brakes ready to go is $7586.
After the initial investment I think the CCM system will be lower cost overall to maintain.
This is just an estimate from my limited experience and others that I have reviewed, however I don’t have total track time on these systems (yet) to validate the assumptions. Of course my pay back is longer since I purchased both rotors (same calipers will work).
This coming season I will be running the RB CCM rotors and XC-40 pads. I’ll be reporting on the experience.
For now its off to the garage to install them..
