Surface Transform CCST brakes for 488, Pista and F8 will start production very soon

The pads you need from Pagid. Shoot me a PM and I'll get you the info. You need pad shape 4580 for front and 4581 for rear.

If you PM me, I will also get you the direct UK ST contact. This is probably too new for the US guys to have much info.

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Hi all

So I think it is time for a bit of an update on this saga.

The brakes have now been on the Pista Spider for 2400 km which includes three track days on Sturup Raceway in Sweden. Not a very fast track, but a twisty mess of a technical track that demolishes tyres and brakes like there's no tomorrow. What is there to say. For starters, it has simply been great. They have been so impressive compared to the OE discs, and during a back to back three hour track session this last Tuesday where we ran the Pista and the 488, it really became apparent how different these are. While the cars are not entirely identical, it is important to stress that the 488 Spider and Pista Spider shares the EXACT same discs, pads, brake lines, master cylinder, pedal and all the rest of it. The part numbers are a complete match, and I confirmed this with my local Ferrari chief tech just to be sure. It is also important to remember that while the Pista has an additional cooling duct for the brakes, this is not for the rotor, but rather for the caliper, so again they run fairly identical disc temps all things considered. So while one was a regular 488 and the other a Pista, for this comparison, they were good. Additionally both cars ran MPSC2 K2 rubber, and the 488 was fresh out of the service department ready for battle, brakes bled, bedded and all the rest of it. On this track with the same driver, these two cars run very close as it is not a track that favours power very much.

But lets start with some of the "normal" stuff first.

How has they been in terms of noise? My initial impressions were completely silent brakes. They are still very silent, but the rears can on a rare occasion squeal a bit until you get a few stops in them Here I don't mean track stuff, just getting the car warmed up by normal driving. After that, noting. Now that the stock brakes are back on, all the howling is back, just as it is on the 488 with normal brakes. Is there a difference? Yes and it is significant.

They have stayed as smooth as when first tested after bedding in. No surprises during these 2400 km. Nothing else to report than they keep doing great as a comfortable street disc. When cold, they are very OEM like, but once you get a bit of heat in them, they definitely run smoother.

Modulation. Let's divide this into street and track.
When it comes to street driving, they have not changed since my initial impressions. They keep offering superior modulation and brake feel compared to OE. This became apparent when the stock discs went on again and were bedded. It was back to the usual on/off switch feeling of the OE brakes.
On track the difference grows significantly. They bite HARD and are super easy to modulate. By comparison, the OE 488 brakes felt a tiny bit more mushy and had nowhere near the same level of feel and sense of precision. Now it was also really interesting to experience these two cars back to back driven in anger, because they are very different. But the added brake feel and easy modulation just meant you could lay into them in a way that provided a ton of confidence. Normally this track only has once section that gets a Pista to 170kph, now it has three because you can get on the brakes later. Just absolutely staggering. The really fun part is that we are still running stock pads so this is without RSC2 pads and RSF brake fluid. Just to get a sense of how demanding this track is, on this day in 18C weather, tyre temps were consistently in the 85C for fronts and 75C for rears. Like I said, it kills tyres and brakes.

Now here's a few technical observations which is what I find really amazing.

Looking at the tyre wear, they are now down below the markers. They have lasted 4400 km. Of these the first 2000 was driven during the last week of March and to the date I posted the initial review. The car was brand new and these were mostly used to get to know the car and run it in. It was basically a daily driver until yesterday. When we removed the original discs, about 2mm pad was gone in the front, so not much for that range. But normally the pads last less than a set of tyres on this track. This is run often as they have sessions every Tuesday afternoon from 5pm to 20pm. No intermissions or the like, just run for three hours if you please. A session usually eats 1½ tank of fuel so that should give some of you an idea about the distance traveled on track in a Pista or 488. Now normally three sessions with little street driving on the side on this track means new pads. Here's something interesting. The track had killed the tyres as per usual, but there were still 3mm pad left. This is just nuts as that basically means a third pad left after 4400 km of which the 2400 has been 8+ hours on track and a lot of VERY spirited driving to test out the brakes. Normally this would not be the case, I'm truly astounded by this.

Lets talk temps for a bit. I bought out my temp gun and got to measure the Pista. We had a moment where the Pista was only car on track. Now just to be clear, these have not been busy days, so plenty of clean runs. But anyhow, I placed myself just at the pit entrance to get the best possible reading and my buddy went out and ran 5-6 clean laps. Now normally when I have tested OE discs, they have been in the 470-480 range, nothing unique in that. Now the CCST disc on the other hand ran 362 degrees. That lower temp is my guess as to why the pads have lasted so long. My guess is that those pads have one more track session in them or maybe a few thousand km on the street still. I was expecting something in terms of cooler temps as that's one of ST's claims, but still, that was impressive. They claim between 90 and 150 degrees cooler, so I'm stoked to find 110-120. At the end of the day, heat is a big factor when it comes to pad wear.

Now the discs will go on the 488 in a few weeks. We had a bit of a mishap upon leaving the track out on the road, so she needs to see the doctor for a bit before she's ready to rumble. Plan is to load it up with RSF fluid, but wear out the stock pads first just to see how that combo works. Then finally on to the RSC2. COVID-19 has made everything happen a bit slower and I'm having a lot of fun collecting data, so while the steps are a bit slow, they are pretty interesting. I hate the idea of recommanding a product without having some good base numbers

But all in all so far the whole ST experience has been awesome and as things look, this will be my brake of choice moving forward. While the dealer is not exactly chuffed about the idea of purchasing brakes elsewhere, the lead tech and the sales rep finally admitted that this was in fact pretty darn cool and not entirely out of the scope to consider for their Challenge guys and likeminded track rats lol Fact is that many have been inquiring about alternatives and they do understand that there might be a need for something like this Not expecting the dealership to straight up offer ST brakes for everyone, but it would be fun if it became a bit of a "thing" for the few who show up with cars that has enough battle scars and use 4-6 sets of pads per season

Who knows what the future will bring, but these are great brake discs worthy of these cars.

I apologize for the lack of pics, but sometimes you just have too much fun and forget the little things.

 

The discs are legal to use here in Europe. They are no different than any other after market disc you can buy to save money or the like being it on your Golf or Mercedes. Shoot me a PM and I can get you in direct contact with Craig Couzens at ST. It would be illegal for you to replace the calipers with non-appearance units, but discs are like pads, and like Pagid RSC1 pads, they are fully road legal.

 

There are a few answers to that question.
The first is that your Ferrari dealer can reset it. But not only can he reset it, he can disable it altogether. The thing about only being able to do it with a code, is bogus. They can if they will.
If they won't, any shop with a Texa Nemo 2 diagnostics tool can do it.
Craig can help you find a shop with one or you can contact Texa and ask.

Regarding the wear. That is measured by an algorithm. It is the biggest load of ********* ever. BMW has started this scam too. I have seen a few tracked discs that was worn completely down and had moonscape surfaces while the computer said 30% left. But most of the time, the discs are still shiny and fine while the computer says done.
The whole notion that you cannot see or feel if a disc is worn is false. It gets rough, and Brembo discs that gets a lot of heat get deeply pitted as the material burns away.
Let me stress that the statement that the wear algorithm issue is not just my personal belief. This I have had quoted from both a Brembo tech and former Ferrari techs.

There's many ways to make an extra Euro...

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So a bit of an update here. Just got these babies in the mail today. Yep, those are Pagid RSL1 pads. They can be used with OE discs, and racers do in the Challenge, but they wear the CCM discs down pretty fast.

But for the CCST discs they come highly recommended and are not only insanely hard wearing endurance pads with a stupid high friction coefficiency similar to many circle track pads, but on the CCST discs Michael Breiterbach from Pagid has promised me they will be as comfortable and quiet as RSC2 pads - and the RSC2 are as silent and smooth as RSC1, just with better bite and modulation. So if that holds true, this will be some seriously next level stuff.

Can't wait to get them on
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Sounds good. When running the RSC1 pads. unclip the wear indicators from your pads. The RSC1 can be worn 2mm further down compared to OE pads, but the wear indicators won't let you do this. You can do this because of the proprietary pad material fixing system Pagid uses. Pagid uses a system where the friction material is not only bonded on, but also supported by welded in rivets. These are made from a soft material that is made to be worn away along with the pad material. The Brembo pads uses a system with hard rivets that will damage the disc if they come into contact with it. both the Brembo and Pagid pads have a 9mm thick friction pad, but on the Brembo you can only use the 6mm. In principle you can take the Pagid pads all the way down to the backing plate, albeit this is not recommender of course. Just keep an eye on them, but that's easy as the pads are clearly visible.