Hey 360 Challenge owners, I am back from testing this last weekend at Willow Springs. We did back to back testing of our 360 Challenge car replacement rotors. A big thanks goes out to Martin Baratt at International Motorsports for being our guinea pig and allowing us to test the rotors on his Challenge car. The goal was to validate the rotors and be sure that our material composition and vent configuration proved to be as good, and better than the Brembo units specified for the car. We tested the rotors and OE rotors back-to-back on the same car, and measured the system with heat sensitive paint, temperature sensitive stickers, laser thermometers and thermocouples. The rotors were tested with the factory specified Ferodo DS3000 brake pads. The test was a great success, and the rotors performed flawlessly. The brake pedal was firm and the modulation, initial bite, and deceleration feel was unchanged from the OE rotors. Martin ran very consistent laps for us, and we found that both the OE and Girodiscs would heat up to a running temperature at the same rate, and the Girodiscs would stabilize at a temperature between 10-40 deg F cooler in the same time period. This may not seem like much, but Willow is not the hardest track on brakes, and the temperatures reached are not in the danger zone for the pads in terms of fade point. At a track where the stabilized temperature pattern around a track lap is higher, the cooling difference between the Girodiscs and the OE units will also be greater. Also, the brake hat and caliper showed reduced temperatures as well, as the greater flow capacity of the Girodiscs means that less heat soaks into these components. The true goal is that we can now offer the rotors to customers at $350 each for front rotors, and $325 each for the rear rotor. Compare this to the Ferrari Dealer price of $718 each for the Brembo sourced Challenge rotors. As a note- these rotors are not legal for remaining 360 Challenge races. The goal is to offer the rotors as a replacement item for these cars when the Challenge series is done, and these cars become track toys and move on to other series. I include a couple pictures from the test. -Eric
Ok, so do your discs bolt straight on to Challenge hats and bobbins, or do we need to change all that to match your discs? It appears your discs have a thinner wall thickness but greater air passage. I find lots of radial cracking on the brembo components but they seem to hang together very well...never had a failure yet despite some big cracks. I usually leave them until they have reached the edge and turned over the top. I wonder if yours would be as strong for as long...?? Are you doing an endurance test for your brakes? I estimate I get about 24 hours of use from the Brembos' on average, but this varies a great deal (8-40 hours!) for many reasons.
Hi Phil, Our discs are direct replacements, and use the Brembo/Ferrari bells and bobbins. All dimensions are exacting at the bell mount. We have confirmed that the amount of float is exact as well. Our discs have only a 1.5 mm larger air gap, the picture is misleading as our cheek thickness has a chamfer back to the vent opening.The vane amount and pattern is much changed, which allows for the increase in cooling capability. The manufacturer of our rotors has been making brake rotors for more than 30 years. I am completely comfortable with the composition and durability of the rotors. They have been run on racetracks around the world in all types of racing, and independently on a brake dyno to test their ability directly against the big name racing rotors (which all come from the same foundry in the UK by the way). The findings show that the rotors manufactured for Girodisc hold up every bit as well, and the crack propogation resistance is high. I cannot tell anyone how much life to excpect from a race rotor. It is dependant on pad material, driving style, track layout, etc... Rest assured that as someone who has designed many race systems for Brembo, I would not design systems for my own company that do not live up to my expectations. -Eric
also...looking at your picture above, you have the Left fronts in the guys hands, which I can see from the cooling vein direction, but the disc on the ground has the slots facing the same as I would say a Left front brembo slotted disc would have.... so, either, you have cut your slots the opposite angle to brembo, or you are fitting two Left fronts....? I just want to be clear on your design philosophy in order to market these to clients here.......
The disc on the floor is a rear, the disc in his hand is a front. Both left hand side. Slots go in direction of rotation, vanes opposite to that.
