Not sure if word has spread down in the Ferrari 458 world yet but the scuttle but flying around some of the repair facilities is that if you keep any of the electronic nanny devices turned on when you go to the track you may end up buying a set of rear brake rotors in a day. Just $10K or so, no biggie! (yeah right). I guess the stability management system uses the rear brakes to try and keep the cars stable when it feels it's not... and so if you leave that system on and do a track day where the car is most likely not going to be stable (unless you drive it like it's on the normal roads) that system is constantly applying brakes to either side in the rear and will kill a set of carbon rotors in one day.

Tip # 2... yes carbon brake rotors are cool, and yes they're light weight...BUT nobody has been able to create a set of carbon rotors that work well cold and at the track. You get one or the other. The track rotors perform phenomenal at very high track temps but suck when cold and would be dangerous if used on a street car. The street carbon rotors perform okay when cold (not as good as steel) and feel great when hot but wear out super fast when really hot. But if used strictly as a street car the carbon ceramics should last the life of the car...unless I'm the driver. (But that's not saying much...what's the mileage life of most Ferrari's)

 

Its not unique to the 458, I was warned of this also with my GT2 and its carbon brakes. The nannies need to be turned off when tracking or even driving fast on windy country roads. Unless I was tracking my car more then 50% of the time, I prefer my carbon brakes.