Ceramic vs Steel?
 

As I look to either find an allocation or available Z06 on the market now, I come across a dilemma, ceramic or steels? I plan to mainly use the car for tracking, so for those who have tracked a lot, what are the pros/cons? I asked this question at Ron Fellows, the head instructor stated go with the CC, they bite better, don't overheat and last longer! But id guess price for replacing pads are expensive??

You got garbage feedback at RF. You want iron rotors.

No, he got legit feedback. They are a better. They just cost more and for most of us that don't want that additional cost after X amount of track days it doesn't make financial sense to get them.

While the feedback was legit, I don't think it helped the OP in context.. If OP had FU money he wouldn't be posting up here asking, he would have simply went with CC's and carried on.
I'm also guessing that OP is new to tracking street cars? if so, buy with iron brakes and then upgrade to an AP BBK when you feel like spending $$$$.

They don't last longer.... they wear at the same rate when driven hard and cost 8X what steel costs. My OEM pads were $350 an axle from GMPD. OEM steel 2-piece rotors are about $500 a corner (similar to Girodiscs) but OEM carbons are $4K a corner list pice!

I was able to get two full VIR weekends out of my OEM fronts (rotors are totally fine) and rears have another hard weekend if not two. This is driving 8/10ths in the instructor group FWIW.

Carbon brakes are for flexing at Cars & Coffee.

For the track what you say makes perfect sense. Buy the AP racing setup or put on the much heavier Girodisc rotors if you only want to replace the rotors and pads. But for the street as far as I can tell every Ferrari, Mclaren and most Lamborghini and Maserati all come standard with CCBs. Even the Eray. So for the ultimate street car, maybe CCBs are best – they seem to be widely used in all of the pricey exotics.

I agree.... CCBs will last the life of the car and make little dust, but OP didn't ask about street "I plan to mainly use the car for tracking". If you're a novice doing a couple weekends a year CCBs will be fine, but if you do more than that "everyone" ditches the CCBs.

If mainly tracking, Iron.

correct, I will use 90% for tracking and I drive my Gt4/gt3 pretty hard, so guess irons it is. Thx

You have a GT4/GT3 and asking about CCB's vs Iron for track usage?

I'll offer my opinion - again. I track my Z06/7 on slicks with CCBs. I have 2 other cars with CCBs.. One is a Viper ACR-E that I have tracked for almost 8 years, and still on the original rotors at 9600 miles. I religiously swap pads at 1/2 life to keep from taking a chance on damaging the rotors. Yes, the pads are a little expensive. I properly burnish the pads with each change - no short-cuts. I am also a fan of AP brakes, and have a set on another dedicated track car. But, the new, big APs for the C8Z are actually heavier than the factory CCBs. Iron rotors in CCB-equivalent diameters are off-the-chart heavy. Smaller rotors have less swept area and less mechanical leverage. The OP asked about tracking, not street driving so I will respond accordingly. When properly burnished I seriously doubt you will find another combination (short of REAL carbon-carbon brakes) that will out-brake them. You have to get used to them being a little "touchy" at slower speeds after they are well broken in, but not a problem. When you can get into ABS at high speed, it is the tires that are giving up - not the brakes. I would not swap to iron rotors unless I could find empirical data that supported them outperforming (stopping distance and fade resistance) the CCBs - at any price. This car went 3 years on the same rotors running Global Time Attach events with never a brake issue - and he's not easy on the brakes. JMHO

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...4bd3941230.jpg

yes, a while ago, but only went few times and didn’t pay attention, just gonna got in and stomped around the tracks, lol. So not familiar with CC at all.

very good info man, really appreciate it!!!

what price did you pay for the ceramic pads vs steel pads? Just so many Z06 spec’d with CCB, and if I want Z07 package, it’s also CCB

Maybe the price will become more reasonable. There are a lot of Z06s with them, all Z07s and all Erays. Just hoping.

I spec'd my Z06 with full Z07 aero and CCB brakes, but standard Z06 suspension and tires. If I start to track my Z06 a lot, then either the CCB price comes down or it will be an AP setup.

I had a TurboS P car for 1 track season and CCBs are standard. AFTER 2 track days I put the ceramic rotors in the box my AP replacement rotors came in and swapped them back before I sold the car. Once the steels warmed up my braking zones were unchanged. Unsprung weight et al the turbos are porkers and overall didn't feel a whole lot of difference. 718 GT4 I sold after I bought the Z had the full AP setup and they are hard to beat once you swallow the upfront cost. I change the rotors on the Z to girodisc and upgraded pads and I have no issues with how the brakes work on track. At my age I'm not doing competitive events anymore as heads up against the youngin' with overabundance of testosterone dive bombing into corners is not anything I want to deal with anymore. For DE or time trial events the steels are more than adequate.

Or $2,500 online. Pads are $750 front. I think you'd have to be doing some serious consistent tracking to get to a point where you needed new CCB rotors.

Where? I’ve seen C7 rotors at that price but not C8 Z07. Carbons wear really fast if you overheat them.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...5bf778cda.jpeg

Pretty easy to find around that price.

https://www.gmpartscenter.net/oem-pa...bC12OC1nYXM%3D