Wondering if the PCCB is worth the initial $8+ grand. What's the avg. replacement cost when u need brakes? How often are they replaced? How much more/less will these cost once I need to replace them vs the standard brakes?

Any info on maintenance and cost is appreciated.

Thanks

 

Great addition... but i consider it a MUST... its life span for normal street driving would be around 60,000 miles and 100,000 kms for the discs and the pads them self are not very costly... around 1,000 a set of 4... if you do track them, you can always have steel disc replacements for the extreme days... ITS GREAT and its a MUST... (had it on my Turbo S, C2S and now GT3)

Alan

 

Counterpoint; The big reds are more than enough, esp if you track your car, these 6 piston giant steel brakes are the biggest porsche has ever put on a street car. The replacement cost is in excess of 2k/wheel vs 1k for all 4 steel rotors and pads, there is no way 1k would cover it on a pccb car.
Personally, I can't comprehend a 10k brake job in the future. If you track your car at all, eventually you will be replacing pads and rotors. Not to mention how fragile they are, and the care that must be taken not to chip them while changing wheels and tires. Which is not infrequent on a car that sees track duty (or winter W/T for that matter).
The difference in weight is meaningless on a 3500# street car, sorry. To each his own, but you're fooling yourself if you think it's gonna make any significant difference on the track in this AWD, heavy street car, possibly in a track prepped GT3, but not in a turbo.

 

I can't speak for the PCCB's but the red steelies in the Turbo are much better than the red steelies in my 997S. I did test drive a PCCB optioned 997S and couldn't tell the difference but test drives are brief and not a good way to gauge the differences. $8.8K + tax Lic = almost $10k. It has to be one awesome option and way better than the steelies for me to go for it. Sure, the weight advantage is the greatest asset, along with less brake dust but the turbo is just too heavy for it to make that much difference. if the cost for the ceramics dropped to $4k that would be a different story (even though I prefer the red color with GT Silver). If I tracked the car or purchased a GT3 that would be another story. This topic is heavily taliked about (do a search) and some folks have strong opinions one way or another. I am a guy that likes to see facts down on paper. Comparisons between the 2 so far have not been documented as far as I know. If I'm incorrect I would love to see the numbers?

 

I just bought a set of PCCB pads: $775 from the dealer.

I am sure that is full MSRP. I assume they are or soon will be available for a bit less. I plan on replacing the pads myself, assuming there is nothing special/complicated about the process compared to regular Porsche brakes.

 

Sunset Imports and Suncoast Porsche offer pretty good discounts on OEM parts - I wonder what they charge for the pads?

 

any real performance gain? no. worth it? only you can answer that..

 

Here we go again LOL
As above, the weight savings is lost on a 3500# + street car. It would make more difference if 20# were lost off the beltline...J/K. That coupled with zero performance improvement over steel brakes, as measured in stopping distance, makes the decision easy. There are some that want these brakes for the yellow calipers only....if that's the case just get the stockers painted and save a lot of money.

 

So basically, 6 times longer lasting and 8 times more expensive? It's not "worth it" from an economical point of view at least.

 

Thanks for the input. I think I am sticking to the big reds. I never track my car and I just don't think its worth it on a street car. I just wanted to see what the general feel around the forums are for the pccb.

 

They release zero dust. That in my book is worth the $8k. I hate cleaning my wheels after every run.

 

I agree with redline.

Aloha

Byron

 

put it this way, u option the Turbo over an C4S for 40k difference. the performance is different but is it worth 40k? i'd get the PCCB because i can feel the 8k difference. once u go PCCB u can hardly go back. it feels like Braking with turbo.

 

If you wanna track the car -NO!

If you only drive it on the street and can live with the cost when discs need to be changed YES!

But if you don´t drive the car hard you may not need to need to chage them till you sell the car.

I know of many people who ordered the car with PCCB and changed over to steel,because at the track the late hard braking+ABS kills the surface of the disc.

cheers

 

Agreed. And too, I researched this ceramic vs steel choice through Porsche, different Porsche mags, 5-dealerships, and two driving schools. All said no difference in stopping distances for street driving. On the track with excessive brake-overheating, maybe some difference. Other negatives: 1. unsure stopping when starting out in morning or when brakes wet, 2. $5K/disc if cracked from stone or from changing tire (no warranty help here), 3. not too clear if Porsche will fully cover any warranty problems with ceramics, Porsche was very bad on early disc(phase 1) warranty claims, 4. the $8500 up front cost 5. need to change the pads with ceramics at delivery time for more street oriented stopping power. The pads that come on the car are more for the race track (Atlanta service quote), and 6. some say ceramics reduce value when the car is traded because of expense in replacing a disc. Pluses include 1. disc can last a longer time (who cares, who keeps the car 100K miles just for brake-discs), 2. less brake dust??, I find little so-called brake-dust with my steel ones and certainly not enough dust to spend $8500 to eliminate. You gotten wash the car every week or so anyway and so far brake dust not distracted from the looks of the wheels which are colored so as to make up for brake dust build-up anyway.