JRitt@essex

Hi guys,
I wanted to introduce our company as a new forum vendor: Essex Parts Services, Inc. Essex's primary business has been serving professional racing for the past 26 years, but we're now moving into the aftermarket side of things as well. We are the exclusive US importer and distributor of AP Racing competition parts, Ferodo Racing brake pads, and Mintex Racing brake pads. We also carry Lifeline Fire & Safety Systems, are one of Hawk Performance's oldest customers in the USA, and carry a number of specialty tools related to racing. We're also working on a few other deals that you'll be hearing about soon.

Our facility is in Charlotte, NC, and we work with most of the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams on a daily basis. We have a full-time AP Racing engineer with 30+ years experience on staff and working out of our office. At our facilities we have 2 brake dyno's, a pad/rotor burnishing machine, caliper and master cylinder rebuilding/re-certification equipment, etc...basically everything you'd need to keep the brake and hydraulic systems on a wide range of professional race cars running at peak condition.

On the personal side, I've been involved in motorsports for about ten years now, participating and instructing at autoX, HPDE, time trials, etc. I own an '03 Z06, and I've been a member of this forum for a number of years now. I was the Sales Mgr. at StopTech for 4-5 years before moving to Essex Parts Services. My specialty is obviously brakes. I hope my experience can help forum members with brake problems, product guidance, etc.

I wanted to introduce myself as an official presence, but I also wanted to point the track guys towards a special we created for our corvette forum introduction. We're offering a free brake bleeder bottle ($20 value) with the purchase of three or more bottles of AP Racing PRF or Super 600 brake fluid. AP fluids are one of the most popular in professional motorsports globally, and are all DOT approved for road use.

So, if you need some of the best brake fluid available for an upcoming track day, now's a good time to buy. Most of you track rats probably already have a bleeder bottle, but if it's like my old one, it's nasty as all get out, falling apart, or being held hostage in one of your friends' race trailer. So it probably wouldn't hurt to have another one on hand!

To take advantage of this offer, you just have to put the three bottles of fluid and the bleeder bottle in your shopping cart and enter the word, "bleeder" as the coupon code. You can mix and match PRF and Super 600 as well, as long as you have 3 or more total in your cart. You can see the details of the promotion just below the main banner on our home page. http://www.essexparts.com/

We only have a limited quantity of these, so get 'em while we do. Thanks guys. I'm looking forward to getting back into this forum more deeply, and having you all get me excited about my Z again.

froggy47

Welcome

ssdeuce

Welcome

waddisme

Welcome. It is always nice to have another resource. A lot of us are big Carbotech and ATE fans. What do you use on your Z when you track it? What is a brake dyno btw?

JRitt@essex

Well, that's a tough one. Since I've worked for brake manufacturers and distributors for the past 7 years or so, I rarely use the same pads. I've tried a whole slew of pads from many manufacturers...probably 25 different compounds. I like to try as many firsthand as possible so I can see their characteristics and recommend them properly to customers.

Thinking back, Hawk DTC-70 and PFC01 are two compounds that stick out in my head as ones I've enjoyed. That said, we're working on some new compounds with a few manufacturers that are going to blow people away. More news to follow on those.

A brake dyno is a big machine used to test brake components. The most common use is to evaluate the coefficient of friction of brake pads, temps at which they fade, some have NVH evaluation, etc. You can run racetrack simulations on them (see how a particular setup would hold up under race-like conditions), burnish pads and rotors...all sorts of fun stuff.

davidfarmer

I need to get down to see you......glad you are finally settled in and hard at work.

AU N EGL

SO jeff

you going to put together a few APRacing brake kits for corvette? hint hint

trackboss

So what seems to be the caliper of choice on the dyno when its time to evaluate pads?

JRitt@essex

Hi David. You're welcome down here anytime. Maybe we'll have to get together for a trackday or something this coming spring?

Where do you think Gary Hoffman got those ridiculous AP Racing Radi-cals for his BBK? I'm unfortunately a bit hamstrung on developing AP BBK's for road cars. Stillen has a contract with AP for road car BBK's, while we have competition parts/BBK's. Otherwise a more cost-effective road solution would already be done!

We primarily use various AP Racing calipers on our dyno's when testing pads and rotors. We can however bolt up competitors' calipers for caliper testing as well. The dyno's are versatile enough where we can throw just about any pad shape on them for testing.

blkz

Welcome .

Z06Fix

Welcome back

gkmccready

No, no. You're developing for the SCCA T1 guys because you hear the Corvettes are getting better brakes soon... it just happens they also work for the road guys...

ERND IT

WELCOME to the forum

fatbillybob

I'm in!

Chris_B

Please excuse me jumping in here Jeff, but I wanted to clear up any potential confusion that could be read into this post. AP Racing road kits are definitely available now for C5 and C6 Corvettes. And they have been for years from Stillen distributors. The two who currently support this forum are MTI Racing and Zip Performance.

At the time of this post, AP Racing's Radi-Cal caliper line, the most technically advanced in the world to date and sold in the USA by Essex, has not been offered in a street version. If it ever is, it will be a very costly solution. A competent automotive engineer would advise strongly against running race calipers on street cars for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is safety. Yes, I've seen and heard of people doing this, but unless you have a crew in your garage that will maintain and occasionally rebuild them, they are better left to professional race teams.

Top-shelf road car AP Racing BBK's have received rave reviews, especially from those who participate in the occasional track day. In fact, I know Stillen was the first to offer a kit to maximize the rotor size in the OE C6 Z06 18” front wheel. A more “cost-effective road solution” is already done and has been for quite some time.

Chris

AU N EGL

There may be a bit of confusion as to "Street" version vs "Race" version for C5s and C6s

Most of the members in this section want a 'race' version.

froggy47

Aside from there being more knock back of pistons (vs sliding caliper) is there anything else?

Don't the GT3 & 430 have pretty much race brakes?

Is there something Porsche & Ferrari do to make them streetable?

Just askin.

Chris_B

Knock-back is not necessarily more than with sliders. In fact, with some designs, it is a lot less. It depends on piston design, seal design and a few other factors. Some brands struggle with this issue. AP Racing does not, which is one of the reasons it is preferred among the most serious enthusiasts.

The GT3 and F430 have street brakes. Fancy ones, but still street brakes. The F430 Challenge Stradale has race calipers, if I recall correctly. These are available in both low knock-back and low drag versions, depending on which type of track the car will be competing on. The difference is mainly in the way the seal grooves are machined.

Street calipers can be made (and many are) from opposed-piston race caliper designs. They are usually just a little bit heavier and have different seals, different piston materials, dust seals or boots, anti-rattle clips and multiple layers of corrosion protection. Sometimes there are more differences. The high-end street calipers can be tracked with only minor changes such as removing the anti-rattle clip and, in a few cases, changing to higher temperature seals and/or pistons. For a typical track day guy (or gal), these changes wouldn't usually be necessary.

Using race calipers on daily drivers can lead to all sorts of issues. The first is usually seal failure as there is only one pressure seal per piston and no dust seal. Road grime, water and salt can get in pretty deep and start causing trouble. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I have help bail out quite a few people over the years when it all goes wrong. They all wished they never did it. Your mileage may vary...

Chris

froggy47

Thank you.