VENOM V
Enthusiast
A couple of weeks ago, I took the Ron Fellows driving school at Spring Mountain Raceway. Although I had tracked before, I wanted to up my skill level before taking my Gen V on the track, so I enrolled in the ZR1 class because of it's similar weight, HP, and track performance as a Gen V Viper. The school also uses Z06's and Grand Sports which share the track with the ZR1s during the same sessions. Exceptional school, I was blown away at how much fun I had and how much I learned. But I'll post about that in another thread. I was impressed with the ZR1's carbon ceramic brakes.
I picked the brain of the lead instructor about carbon ceramic brakes Vs. steel. He is a huge fan of the carbon ceramic brakes. I got the impression that CCBs are the way to go for cars that see frequent track duty. All of the school's ZR1s have them, but the Z06s and Grand Sports have steel disks. He said that the pads last for about 6,000 miles on the ZR1s (he was guessing), but the pads for the steel-braked Corvettes wore out much quicker. He said with a driver that's heavy on the steel brakes, someone that's turning decently fast times but isn't very smooth, the pads may only last a weekend (smooth, fast drivers will make them last a lot longer). When they do brakes on the carbon ceramics, they just replace the pads. He's never had to replace a carbon rotor, and of course you don't need to resurface them. They don't warp, they just plain work, and work well.
A big advantage of the carbon ceramic brakes: they give very consistent stopping torque, hot or cold, on the street or track. You don't need a track pad and a street pad, like you do if you want top track performance out of steel disk brakes. CCBs don't fade. They just work well, all the time. They don't squeak or have low torque when cold, like steel brakes' track pads.
They've never damaged a carbon rotor in the school. And they are typically running about 6 ZR1s on the track, 5 days a week, plus about 10 other Corvettes. They had one rotor that was knicked by the dealer when one of the ZR1s was new, because the tech wasn't careful when removing/replacing the wheel. He didn't see any downside to the carbon ceramic, other than the initial cost.
They are light, although SRT would have to go to 19" wheels on the front, to clear the big Brembo CCBs, assuming it would use the same ones as on the Corvette (I believe most street cars using CCBs are this same Brembo model, but I'm unsure). This is probably the biggest challenge to integrating them in the Viper, massaging everything to fit around a larger wheel, including using different tires, clearances in the wheel housing, Etc.
I have very few suggestions for SRT on improving the Gen V Viper, but making carbon ceramic brakes an option makes sense to me. I would rather have SRT put some R&D dollars into a carbon ceramic brake option rather than engine development for example, seems like a no-brainer. 640 HP is plenty. The CCB option would be costly, but that is one I would pay for in a heartbeat. I think CCBs should be on the ACR, and should eventually end up as an option for the other Viper models.
I'd like to hear from the experienced track rats to hear your thoughts.
Thanks
I picked the brain of the lead instructor about carbon ceramic brakes Vs. steel. He is a huge fan of the carbon ceramic brakes. I got the impression that CCBs are the way to go for cars that see frequent track duty. All of the school's ZR1s have them, but the Z06s and Grand Sports have steel disks. He said that the pads last for about 6,000 miles on the ZR1s (he was guessing), but the pads for the steel-braked Corvettes wore out much quicker. He said with a driver that's heavy on the steel brakes, someone that's turning decently fast times but isn't very smooth, the pads may only last a weekend (smooth, fast drivers will make them last a lot longer). When they do brakes on the carbon ceramics, they just replace the pads. He's never had to replace a carbon rotor, and of course you don't need to resurface them. They don't warp, they just plain work, and work well.
A big advantage of the carbon ceramic brakes: they give very consistent stopping torque, hot or cold, on the street or track. You don't need a track pad and a street pad, like you do if you want top track performance out of steel disk brakes. CCBs don't fade. They just work well, all the time. They don't squeak or have low torque when cold, like steel brakes' track pads.
They've never damaged a carbon rotor in the school. And they are typically running about 6 ZR1s on the track, 5 days a week, plus about 10 other Corvettes. They had one rotor that was knicked by the dealer when one of the ZR1s was new, because the tech wasn't careful when removing/replacing the wheel. He didn't see any downside to the carbon ceramic, other than the initial cost.
They are light, although SRT would have to go to 19" wheels on the front, to clear the big Brembo CCBs, assuming it would use the same ones as on the Corvette (I believe most street cars using CCBs are this same Brembo model, but I'm unsure). This is probably the biggest challenge to integrating them in the Viper, massaging everything to fit around a larger wheel, including using different tires, clearances in the wheel housing, Etc.
I have very few suggestions for SRT on improving the Gen V Viper, but making carbon ceramic brakes an option makes sense to me. I would rather have SRT put some R&D dollars into a carbon ceramic brake option rather than engine development for example, seems like a no-brainer. 640 HP is plenty. The CCB option would be costly, but that is one I would pay for in a heartbeat. I think CCBs should be on the ACR, and should eventually end up as an option for the other Viper models.
I'd like to hear from the experienced track rats to hear your thoughts.
Thanks
