I'm looking into upgrading the stock brakes on my TT and a guy I know said that track oriented calipers (which the GTs seem to be) might need regular rebuilds and maintenance.. something to do with dust boots (?) or somth.

My car sees about 7-8 track days per season. I haven't had any problems with the stock brakes so far.

 

all brakes should see some form of maintenance at some point. pads fluids seals dust boots all need replacing eventually. if you track a lot then the calipers see much more heat than normal driving would have. seals dry out crack and start to leak. the dust from the pads gets into the pucks and starts to corrode and wear the smooth surface leaving pit marks.

I'm sure if you were to rebuild your stock brakes you would see signs of wear you didn't know were there

 

thanks, I guess my question was: will Brembo brakes need MORE maintenance than Stock if used the same?

 

i wouldn't think so. there are cheaper alternatives to the gt setup that are as good imo . the 997 turbo setup is a nice alternative and adds 2 pistons to the fronts and 30mm all around in rotor diameter. direct bolt on.

 

No. Stock brakes are Brembo also. There is nothing particularly better on the GT kit. I have 100+ hard track hours on mine and there are no issues. Dust seals are gone as they have burned up and disintegrated. Managing heat with proper brake cooling will go a long ways to prolonging the life of the seals. All calipers will eventually need rebuilding.

 

Ok, got it.. Last question. Do I need to upgrade the master cylinder as well? Won't I be pushing more liquid?

 

I'm not sure on the gt setup but i doing think so. the 997 turbo upgrade is fine . look at pwdrhounds setup. simply the most detailed researched and track proven brake setup on the planet! but at a large cost. he has spent countless hrs adding to the stopping ability of his turbo.

 

Bigger brakes in general will take less, but as powder says dust boot on all will quickly be gone, I run a big Brembo GT kit on the front of my race car and it held up really well for actually racing W2W. The stock brakes should go a long way with some good Pagid track pads and Castrol SRF brake fluid at about a 100.00 a liter one of the best braking mods you can do.

 

We work closely with Race Technologies (who are Brembo in the US for all intensive purposes) and use Brembo almost exclusively on all of our pro and club cars. It's also nice because we have a direct technical line with their staff.

- The nice thing about the Brembo GT (Gran Tourismo) brakes is that they are good for the combination of street & track use because they have the outer dust boots and also the inner piston seals. If anything, they would need LESS maintenance than the OE brakes. Any and all service parts can also be bought from RT & Brembo directly instead of Porsche.

- The Brembo GT brakes can also be spec'd now with the Type 3 racing discs and endurance pads for very little cost over the standard drilled / slotted option so it makes them extremely capable on the track too and also come with upgraded brake lines. The overall package performance is significantly better than OE Porsche brakes.

Service intervals really depend on the overall brake demand and we always use temperature stickers to keep an eye on the caliper temps. Higher temps = more frequent service intervals. We have had some customers who have used Brembo GT kits on the track without ever needing servicing of the dust boots or inner piston seals..but it all really depends on the level of use. If the Brembo GT calipers do need servicing, Brembo has replacement parts always in stock.

- Only pure race calipers which DO NOT have dust boots must be serviced as the dust boots protect the inner piston seals from the environments and debris. The Brembo GT kit is not a race system like what we have on the Grand-Am Cup cars or RSRs which needs regular service every 6000KM. It can be used on street and track.

- The Brembo GT brake upgrades are designed and engineered with the standard master cylinder and brake balance in mind using the correct piston sizes. So everything comes ready to install (even comes individually packaged and pre-assembled) complete (discs, calipers, brake lines, pads loaded, brackets).

We use and install a lot of the Brembo GT, Race and Porsche OE stuff so we just have a lot of experience with the parts so I figured to chime in.

 

Correct. There is absolutely zero reason to look past the OEM Porsche/Brembo 6 piston front / 4 piston rear GT2/GT3 set up. Same exact brake calipers are used on Porsche factory Cup cars except the Cup versions do not come with dust boots. Proven set up... The GT2/3/Cup versions have zircon piston insulators while the 997TT versions do not.