Brembo joint-venture to bring ceramic brakes to masses
June 4, 2009 by George Skentzos
Once a highly-priced performance option found on only the world’s fastest and most expensive supercars, Brembo is now helping to bring carbon ceramic brakes to the masses with the help of a new joint-venture with carbon-fibre specialists SGL Group.
The team in Milan is working on a formula to mass produce the fade-resistant compound as well as bring costs down so that it may eventually find its way into regular passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
Brembo already has an exclusive clientele list for its carbon ceramic brake packages to the tune of more than A$122 million a year with sports car companies such as Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Daimler, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.
Although adapting the technology for a more mainstream application promises to be even more lucrative, which is where the new joint-venture will find its niche.
Cracking the carbon conundrum will focus largely on the manufacturing process that currently requires the completion of several manual and semi-automated tasks.
Modifying the product to be built on a completely automated production line is where the ‘holy grail’ lies, resulting in increased production volume that should inevitably see the cost of the ceramic brake package come down.
While the thought of a carbon ceramic brake package on a Corolla may seem like overkill, they are certainly a worthy inclusion for most pseudo-sports cars and especially heavy commercial vehicles, such as buses, which are highly susceptible to brake fade.
Print it: 
awesome!!! what if it stops me too fast though
Pffft – if brembo cared about the masses, they would make their “ordinary” brake packages affordable….
No need for ceramics on my car but I would be very pleased with some Brembos, even though I have far better than average brakes on the GTI.
Great that is all we need, a $2000+ ceramic brake service bill at 30,000km to go with our $1200 tyre bill every 30,000km for our standard 17inch tyres on the Mazda 3.
All these advanced feature on slightly upmarket models of normal cars send running costs through the roof.
the point of this article is to try and make carbon ceramic brakes more affordable not as expensive as SamR makes them out to be. Still would actually last longer as they are virtually fade free.
Brembo need to maintain their exclusivity to continue to prosper IMO. Otherwise they will loose this market and lets face it there are others out their that can offer similiar for less.
Shak, when was the last time your brakes faded in normal or even spirited driving on the road? Never! Brakes now are more then adequate.
Sure for sports models taken on track days ceramic brakes will be fantastic. I just can’t see how they will be worth the huge expense on normal cars.
The Europeans already formulate their braking packages with very soft pads and soft rotors which BOTH need to be changed at rather short intervals compared to other cars. This can get expensive. Again great on sports models very bad on shopping cars.
I agree we will probably move to ceramic brakes at some stage but only when they are cheap, very cheap. At the moment they add $20,000 to the cost of a car.
I know the Brembo’s in the STI Libertys don’t last all that long. That was someone from the dealpership telling me that, so I would think it is fairly accurate.
I can also remember having the brakes in my old twin cam Corolla going completely after a very ’spirited’ mountain run.
samr, what kind of hack driver r u? in 30 000kms u went through a set of tyres. i drive pretty aggresivly n i atleast get 80 000km out of cheap chinese 17ich low profiles that my rims came with.
Mark, I drive normally very normally and NEVER get more then 35,000km out of my tyres and they are smaller then 17inch.
Never. The soft OEM Dunlops on my car lasted me 25,000km.
You must do lots of highway miles.
SamR – you complain about the costs of these brakes but mate this is the entire point of the article, ofcourse they are currently too expensive for “normal” cars but this article is about brembo working to make these products affordable. This is called technological advancement. There was a time when disc brakes where only for high end sports cars and everyone else had to deal with drum brakes, now discs are standard everywhere… advancement!
SamR also with regard to your tyres, 30,000 does seem mighty quick to be going through them, how frequently do you have your tyres balanced, rotated and aligned? You need to do this at least every 10,000k’s if not every 5,000k’s. Yes it costs a few bucks to get it done but given how expensive you say your tyres are then surely the alignment balance and rotation would pay for itself fairly quickly…
by doing this i’ve seen the 18″ original equipment yokohama’s on my wifes lancer currently do 20,000k’s since new and the tyres are only just starting to look like they are not brand new anymore, still heaps and heaps and heaps and heaps of life left in them.
What brand of tyre are you using out of interest? $300 a tyre for 17″ wheels seems bloody expensive!
Mark, tyre longevity and grip are inversely related. The harder the tyre the less the tyre beds into the road surface, giving you longer lasting tyres but a lot less grip. Chinese tyres usually do last a long time because they are made of really hard rubber compound, the downside is they are usually rubbish as a result.
also what tyre pressures are you running? Never under estimate the effects of incorrect tyre pressures on tyre wear rates! particularly on low profile tyres
There is a reason F1 cars can pull 4G turns, the tyres are extremely soft (even the ‘hard’ compound ones) which gives fantastic grip, but they are finished after 50km of racing.
Tom – tyres are the only thing holding you on the road! Good tyres pay for themselfs the very first time you have to swerve to avoid something!
Richo, I know, thats why I have $1200 worth of tyres on my car and why I said those Chinese tyres are typically rubbish. Personally, for that very reason, tyres are the last place I’d try and save money. People just don’t realise how much difference good tyres can make when it comes to braking performance and crash avoidance.
To those people asking I had Yokohama C drive tyres in 195/55/15 size and before that other Yokahama. Not 17inch which are FAR more expensive. They were about $180 each. Yes I rotate at 10,000km and align at first purchase.
Tyres these days don’t last. Maybe for highway use but in the city with roundabouts and lots of reverse parks they wear. Wear evenly but wear.
I am currently trying out Falken tyres with better wear index, seem to be going OK.
SamR – you need to have the tyres aligned every 10,000k’s, not just rotated. The biggest thing which will wear tyres is incorrect alignment, if you only align your wheels when you change tyres, then no wonder your only getting 30,000k’s out of them! Depending on the kind of driving your doing your wheels will barely hold their alignment for 10,000k’s, if you hit one big pothole or hig one gutter then thats your alignment basically gone right there.
If you get your already rotating your tyres every 10,000k’s then thats good, but have them aligned at the same time and you’ll definetly get better wear out of them
Richo Says:
June 5th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
“.. you need to have the tyres aligned every 10,000k’s..”
Richo, maybe that’s just a reflection on certain makes.
I have never had to do interim WHEEL alignments on Falcons or Libertys with 60,000 – 90,000 km tyre life.
You are quoting from you experience with Lancers and Commodores – yes.
People here quoting 80-90klm tyre life really need to learn how to read their odometers.LOL
In my experience across many makes of tyres and cars if u get 50-60klms out of a set of car tyres u are doing well.
Alignment every 10klms is overkill and waste of money.A bit like changing engine oil every 5000klms.Might get a bit more life but end up paying for a replacement before time anyway.
If your last set wore evenly the alignment will be fine.
Agree with you Realcars………..do they drive on dead straight roads ?
Wheel alignments or balances are we talking about ? If your tyres are wearing evenly then what are you freaking out about.
Realcars,
1992 Subaru Liberty once did 110,000 km on one pair of Firestones, about 45,000 on front the moved to rear, and rotated L/R.
My Falcon usually does better than 65,000 km on 235/45/17 Dunlops.
You guys clearly arent driving anything Sporty are you ?
Hope u are right about the Dunlops as I have them on my BF.
The insightful first owner optioned sports suspension and 17 inch alloys from the factory on my Egas BF.
Sort of like an XR6 for tightarses.LOL.
DesignEngr – experience with a Lancer, magna’s, expresss vans, hiaces vans, nissan patrols, and an astra. Never owned a commodore, surprised?
here’s something of interest richo,
holden has made the 245/45 x 18 bridgestone the next big tyre size(60th,international,sv6,ss)at $350 ea,one would hope they last a while(and now they wear flat for a change,remember vt,vx etc).i understand there has been a few warrenty claims out there(rear toe changes).holden claim that they should be worn out at 30,000kms,so that would be the benchmark.it also should be mentioned that heat build up is a big wearer of tyres.big speeds,big corners,big wear…
Realcars, yeah the same as the OE XR6 fit Dunlops. SP3000 I think, Asymetric, but not Directional tread. Rotate them to avoid excessive feathering of the shoulders if you travel through lots of rounabouts or med-high speed corners (as I do).