SharkWerks GT3 3.9L Comes in for some Brembo & HRE Updates
SharkWerks GT3 3.9L Comes in for some Brembo & HRE Updates
This silver 2007 GT3 has lived an incredibly active life around NorCal's loop thanks to SnowBoarder. She's been in a few magazines including Excellence and 9Magazine (more on this soon) so you may have seen her around. She's as good a looking car that's been driven properly as I've seen. It was actually the very first 997 GT3 I ever drove back in late 2006 and some 50,000plus miles later she's back here again for another round of goodies.
She's made the 250mile trip south a few times over the years to get the light weight flywheel conversion, Sharkwerks exhaust and 13,000 miles ago our 3.9L engine too. We've also monitored and/or changed out some of the factory components along the way due to natural wear and tear which included the Bilstein coil overs and RSS suspension links however after all this her factory/original brakes were _finally_ needing some attention. Anyone that knows Snowboarder knows that he has an affinity for the gas pedal, turning, accelerating and yet his right foot rarely touches the brakes
I have to say I'm impressed how long they lasted. He's been lusting over PCCB's but in lieu of those factory units a nice set of Brembo GT 380mm x 32 6-piston front and 380mm x 28rear 4-piston brakes should make for a fun test-case scenario. There's some good weight savings (specifically a reduction in rotational mass) to be had along with improved braking performance on offer with these larger/thicker rotors and pistons on the calipers.
In she comes:
Off come the stock calipers, rotors, lines in front etc..
And of course the rear:
Here's the factory 355mm one piece rotor which weighs in at 24.3 pounds:
And the two piece 380mm (15-inch) front rotors at 19.62 pounds:
Side by side there's a nice difference in size:
The factory front caliper comes in at 12.76 pounds:
The larger replacement Brembo caliper, showing that larger can also mean lighter still (11.96 pounds):
And then the calipers off vs going on:
A real-world comparison on the stock rear GT3 one piece rotor vs the two piece 380mm rear rotor. The factory rear is 21.26 pounds per corner:
Here's the replacement Brembo unit coming in at 17.3 pounds:
A good indicator of the difference:
And here's the stock rear caliper which comes in at 8.6pounds:
And now vs the larger Brembo rear caliper 8.9 pounds:
I did say larger...
Fronts installed with Goodrich stainless steel brake lines:
Rears next:
Overall that's a 17.3pound reduction in unsprung rotational mass as far as the rotors go. The larger calipers come in about a pound lighter overall as well. We'll be monitoring Snowboarder's progress in terms of pad combination and performance over the next 50,000 miles. It has to be said the factory brakes are/were indeed world class so these have a lot to live up to. We have actually used this very same set up on other powerful TT's as well that have destroyed their PCCB's (including calipers) over the years and those 700hp cars/owners have been happy with their performance/life at the track thus far.
Finally a set of HRE Competition Series C93 wheels have been added/updated over the previous C21's. These are also considerably lighter than factory but in brushed/clear centers and clear outers I think they look pretty darn sweet!
A close up of the new HRE C93's in front:
And mounted in the rear:
Clearance for the fronts:
And all ready to go:
The only thing left is for SnowBoarder to go with the track exhaust. You can have mine. I'm deaf!
She's made the 250mile trip south a few times over the years to get the light weight flywheel conversion, Sharkwerks exhaust and 13,000 miles ago our 3.9L engine too. We've also monitored and/or changed out some of the factory components along the way due to natural wear and tear which included the Bilstein coil overs and RSS suspension links however after all this her factory/original brakes were _finally_ needing some attention. Anyone that knows Snowboarder knows that he has an affinity for the gas pedal, turning, accelerating and yet his right foot rarely touches the brakes
I have to say I'm impressed how long they lasted. He's been lusting over PCCB's but in lieu of those factory units a nice set of Brembo GT 380mm x 32 6-piston front and 380mm x 28rear 4-piston brakes should make for a fun test-case scenario. There's some good weight savings (specifically a reduction in rotational mass) to be had along with improved braking performance on offer with these larger/thicker rotors and pistons on the calipers.In she comes:
Off come the stock calipers, rotors, lines in front etc..
And of course the rear:
Here's the factory 355mm one piece rotor which weighs in at 24.3 pounds:
And the two piece 380mm (15-inch) front rotors at 19.62 pounds:
Side by side there's a nice difference in size:
The factory front caliper comes in at 12.76 pounds:
The larger replacement Brembo caliper, showing that larger can also mean lighter still (11.96 pounds):
And then the calipers off vs going on:
A real-world comparison on the stock rear GT3 one piece rotor vs the two piece 380mm rear rotor. The factory rear is 21.26 pounds per corner:
Here's the replacement Brembo unit coming in at 17.3 pounds:
A good indicator of the difference:
And here's the stock rear caliper which comes in at 8.6pounds:
And now vs the larger Brembo rear caliper 8.9 pounds:
I did say larger...
Fronts installed with Goodrich stainless steel brake lines:
Rears next:
Overall that's a 17.3pound reduction in unsprung rotational mass as far as the rotors go. The larger calipers come in about a pound lighter overall as well. We'll be monitoring Snowboarder's progress in terms of pad combination and performance over the next 50,000 miles. It has to be said the factory brakes are/were indeed world class so these have a lot to live up to. We have actually used this very same set up on other powerful TT's as well that have destroyed their PCCB's (including calipers) over the years and those 700hp cars/owners have been happy with their performance/life at the track thus far.
Finally a set of HRE Competition Series C93 wheels have been added/updated over the previous C21's. These are also considerably lighter than factory but in brushed/clear centers and clear outers I think they look pretty darn sweet!
A close up of the new HRE C93's in front:
And mounted in the rear:
Clearance for the fronts:
And all ready to go:
The only thing left is for SnowBoarder to go with the track exhaust. You can have mine. I'm deaf!
He's also getting some new Michelin Super Sports (thanks Damon at TireRack) mounted as I type this... He'll be driving the loop so I'll be really interested to see what he makes of these tires
Waiting for the report to follow...
Waiting for the report to follow...
I wanted those on Kermit but missed the boat and rushed to C21s The thing that I can't capture in the photos (my lack of skills) is the neat finish on the lips. I really like them this way vs the polished. Well done fellas.
The thing that I can't capture in the photos (my lack of skills) is the neat finish on the lips. I really like them this way vs the polished. Well done fellas.
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Yeah, I think I will starting going to church instead of Sharkwerks; it will be cheaper!!
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From: Gualala, Ca.
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I just got home from the 150 mile trip up the coast from Sharkwerks, stopped off at my tire guys and got the SS's mounted. The big yellows are fricken awesome, I should have do this earlier! The jury is still out on the SS's, I'll report back once I log some "quality" miles. There was a full moon tonight and lots of critters lurging along the side of the road, so didn't give them a real chance to show their best!
I had a few hours today just driving too and from a meeting. Daily driver? Hell yes!
Hah don't you start
Very good to hear you made it back and keep us all posted on the brakes. You'll test these things for real and I wonder if you'll start using them more
On the SS tires I'm also going to wait till you green light them before adding them to the 6Gt3:P
I just got home from the 150 mile trip up the coast from Sharkwerks, stopped off at my tire guys and got the SS's mounted. The big yellows are fricken awesome, I should have do this earlier! The jury is still out on the SS's, I'll report back once I log some "quality" miles. There was a full moon tonight and lots of critters lurging along the side of the road, so didn't give them a real chance to show their best!
On the SS tires I'm also going to wait till you green light them before adding them to the 6Gt3:P
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 752
From: Gualala, Ca.
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Hey Alex, I didn’t realize you took all those photos! The brakes are absolutely incredible! I now wish I had done this several years ago, I had a great time yesterday hanging out with you guys and want to thank everyone for making me feel at home, James for the caring way he always looks after my car, Dan for always helping me with my computer questions, Emily for doing all the clean-up on my old parts and especially you and Joan for relieving of my money, oh and the loan of your Audi to get to my meeting! Talk about customer service, it doesn’t get any better then this! By the way, my accountant doesn’t like you guys, he refers to you as my “drug dealer friends”, I tried to explain that drugs would be way more expensive, but he says he doesn’t believe that.
It was a great day; new “Big Yellows” and a stop at Infineon on the way home to top off with 14 gals of 100 then swung by my tire guys and had him mount my new Michelin SS’s! It was a great drive home, although I didn’t get there until 11:30! As I said the brakes are superb, better then my expectations. Thanks for you guys hooking me up.
By the time I got out of the tire shop it was dark and my installer always warns me not to cook the new tires the first 24 hours as there is a chance you can rotate the tires on the rims as he uses a lot of lube when he mounts tires on “expensive” rims. So I had a reasonable drive home, at least by my standards. So I can’t give a full report on the SS’s yet. Two things I know I don’t like about them already is that they are heavy compared to the MPSC’s, fronts are 5 ¼ lbs more and rears 5 ¾, but those were much worn out MPSC’s we were comparing them too! Still all things considered they are heeeavy!!
Second is they aren’t exactly beautiful, but I personally don’t think any tire is as handsome as the MPSC’s! My initial impression is that they may work for my type of driving but the jury is still out. I plan on giving them a proper thrashing this weekend. What the heck, Damon told me I have 30 days to try them and if I don’t like them for any reason within that time I can send them back for a full refund! I’ll post an update on the tires once I give them a few miles.
It was a great day; new “Big Yellows” and a stop at Infineon on the way home to top off with 14 gals of 100 then swung by my tire guys and had him mount my new Michelin SS’s! It was a great drive home, although I didn’t get there until 11:30! As I said the brakes are superb, better then my expectations. Thanks for you guys hooking me up.
By the time I got out of the tire shop it was dark and my installer always warns me not to cook the new tires the first 24 hours as there is a chance you can rotate the tires on the rims as he uses a lot of lube when he mounts tires on “expensive” rims. So I had a reasonable drive home, at least by my standards. So I can’t give a full report on the SS’s yet. Two things I know I don’t like about them already is that they are heavy compared to the MPSC’s, fronts are 5 ¼ lbs more and rears 5 ¾, but those were much worn out MPSC’s we were comparing them too! Still all things considered they are heeeavy!!
Second is they aren’t exactly beautiful, but I personally don’t think any tire is as handsome as the MPSC’s! My initial impression is that they may work for my type of driving but the jury is still out. I plan on giving them a proper thrashing this weekend. What the heck, Damon told me I have 30 days to try them and if I don’t like them for any reason within that time I can send them back for a full refund! I’ll post an update on the tires once I give them a few miles.
Hey Alex, I didn’t realize you took all those photos! The brakes are absolutely incredible! I now wish I had done this several years ago, I had a great time yesterday hanging out with you guys and want to thank everyone for making me feel at home, James for the caring way he always looks after my car, Dan for always helping me with my computer questions, Emily for doing all the clean-up on my old parts and especially you and Joan for relieving of my money, oh and the loan of your Audi to get to my meeting! Talk about customer service, it doesn’t get any better then this! By the way, my accountant doesn’t like you guys, he refers to you as my “drug dealer friends”, I tried to explain that drugs would be way more expensive, but he says he doesn’t believe that.
It was a great day; new “Big Yellows” and a stop at Infineon on the way home to top off with 14 gals of 100 then swung by my tire guys and had him mount my new Michelin SS’s! It was a great drive home, although I didn’t get there until 11:30! As I said the brakes are superb, better then my expectations. Thanks for you guys hooking me up.
By the time I got out of the tire shop it was dark and my installer always warns me not to cook the new tires the first 24 hours as there is a chance you can rotate the tires on the rims as he uses a lot of lube when he mounts tires on “expensive” rims. So I had a reasonable drive home, at least by my standards. So I can’t give a full report on the SS’s yet. Two things I know I don’t like about them already is that they are heavy compared to the MPSC’s, fronts are 5 ¼ lbs more and rears 5 ¾, but those were much worn out MPSC’s we were comparing them too! Still all things considered they are heeeavy!!
Second is they aren’t exactly beautiful, but I personally don’t think any tire is as handsome as the MPSC’s! My initial impression is that they may work for my type of driving but the jury is still out. I plan on giving them a proper thrashing this weekend. What the heck, Damon told me I have 30 days to try them and if I don’t like them for any reason within that time I can send them back for a full refund! I’ll post an update on the tires once I give them a few miles.
It was a great day; new “Big Yellows” and a stop at Infineon on the way home to top off with 14 gals of 100 then swung by my tire guys and had him mount my new Michelin SS’s! It was a great drive home, although I didn’t get there until 11:30! As I said the brakes are superb, better then my expectations. Thanks for you guys hooking me up.
By the time I got out of the tire shop it was dark and my installer always warns me not to cook the new tires the first 24 hours as there is a chance you can rotate the tires on the rims as he uses a lot of lube when he mounts tires on “expensive” rims. So I had a reasonable drive home, at least by my standards. So I can’t give a full report on the SS’s yet. Two things I know I don’t like about them already is that they are heavy compared to the MPSC’s, fronts are 5 ¼ lbs more and rears 5 ¾, but those were much worn out MPSC’s we were comparing them too! Still all things considered they are heeeavy!!
Second is they aren’t exactly beautiful, but I personally don’t think any tire is as handsome as the MPSC’s! My initial impression is that they may work for my type of driving but the jury is still out. I plan on giving them a proper thrashing this weekend. What the heck, Damon told me I have 30 days to try them and if I don’t like them for any reason within that time I can send them back for a full refund! I’ll post an update on the tires once I give them a few miles.
And coming from the guy you filled up my tank too in the gas guzzler:P
Stay well and keep us posted on the new tires!
It is indeed and the driver aint half-bad either
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 752
From: Gualala, Ca.
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Okay, I had a chance to take a 80 mile trip over some of my best local roads today to give both the new Brembos and the new Super sports a proper thrashing. The brakes are just what I expected; superb in every aspect!! I have never been one to really abuse brakes, probably because as a youngster I had a very bad experience running out of brakes in my second 356A racing a Cobra down Big Bear Mt. back in 1963, but I won’t bore you with that, however that may chance after today. These Brembos are great. To give you an idea I drove just over 80 miles as hard as anyone should over public roads averaging only 10.5 mpg! I did a lot of threshold braking which is something I rarely do and it felt like I could just hammer them all day, just delightful! I did notice more ABS kicking in however I think that was primarily because I was braking so late and just got caught up in the power of these big boys. The Super Sports also performed way beyond my expectations! I was pleasantly surprised as they allowed me to really get in a nice rhythm right from the gate. They have an equivalent crisp turn-in to the MPSC’s and gave me plenty of warning before loosing grip, which did happen on a couple occasions but was very manageable. I should point out that I did go up a size on the fronts to 245 and suggest doing so to anyone who is considering going with these tires. The fronts will give you a nice audible warning when they are reaching their limits but they never really gave up grip. There is no comparison between this tire and the PS2’s, which I hated on the GT3 and only drove about 2000 miles before going back to my MPSC’s. The PS2’s were just horrible by comparison! So in conclusion I will have to say that so far I think the SS’s are a homerun for Michelin but I will hold my breather for awhile longer as I only have driven them for 160 miles. I’ll give an update when I get a few more miles on them on some hot days. As many of you know I have only been getting 2700 miles or less out of the MPSC’s since having the SW 3.9, I was averaging 3200 with the stock motor. So I’m very curious to see how these will last! I’m stoked!
I have never been one to really abuse brakes, probably because as a youngster I had a very bad experience running out of brakes in my second 356A racing a Cobra down Big Bear Mt. back in 1963, but I won’t bore you with that, however that may chance after today. These Brembos are great. To give you an idea I drove just over 80 miles as hard as anyone should over public roads averaging only 10.5 mpg! I did a lot of threshold braking which is something I rarely do and it felt like I could just hammer them all day, just delightful! I did notice more ABS kicking in however I think that was primarily because I was braking so late and just got caught up in the power of these big boys. The Super Sports also performed way beyond my expectations! I was pleasantly surprised as they allowed me to really get in a nice rhythm right from the gate. They have an equivalent crisp turn-in to the MPSC’s and gave me plenty of warning before loosing grip, which did happen on a couple occasions but was very manageable. I should point out that I did go up a size on the fronts to 245 and suggest doing so to anyone who is considering going with these tires. The fronts will give you a nice audible warning when they are reaching their limits but they never really gave up grip. There is no comparison between this tire and the PS2’s, which I hated on the GT3 and only drove about 2000 miles before going back to my MPSC’s. The PS2’s were just horrible by comparison! So in conclusion I will have to say that so far I think the SS’s are a homerun for Michelin but I will hold my breather for awhile longer as I only have driven them for 160 miles. I’ll give an update when I get a few more miles on them on some hot days. As many of you know I have only been getting 2700 miles or less out of the MPSC’s since having the SW 3.9, I was averaging 3200 with the stock motor. So I’m very curious to see how these will last! I’m stoked!
Okay, I had a chance to take a 80 mile trip over some of my best local roads today to give both the new Brembos and the new Super sports a proper thrashing. The brakes are just what I expected; superb in every aspect!! I have never been one to really abuse brakes, probably because as a youngster I had a very bad experience running out of brakes in my second 356A racing a Cobra down Big Bear Mt. back in 1963, but I won’t bore you with that, however that may chance after today. These Brembos are great. To give you an idea I drove just over 80 miles as hard as anyone should over public roads averaging only 10.5 mpg! I did a lot of threshold braking which is something I rarely do and it felt like I could just hammer them all day, just delightful! I did notice more ABS kicking in however I think that was primarily because I was braking so late and just got caught up in the power of these big boys. The Super Sports also performed way beyond my expectations! I was pleasantly surprised as they allowed me to really get in a nice rhythm right from the gate. They have an equivalent crisp turn-in to the MPSC’s and gave me plenty of warning before loosing grip, which did happen on a couple occasions but was very manageable. I should point out that I did go up a size on the fronts to 245 and suggest doing so to anyone who is considering going with these tires. The fronts will give you a nice audible warning when they are reaching their limits but they never really gave up grip. There is no comparison between this tire and the PS2’s, which I hated on the GT3 and only drove about 2000 miles before going back to my MPSC’s. The PS2’s were just horrible by comparison! So in conclusion I will have to say that so far I think the SS’s are a homerun for Michelin but I will hold my breather for awhile longer as I only have driven them for 160 miles. I’ll give an update when I get a few more miles on them on some hot days. As many of you know I have only been getting 2700 miles or less out of the MPSC’s since having the SW 3.9, I was averaging 3200 with the stock motor. So I’m very curious to see how these will last! I’m stoked!
I have never been one to really abuse brakes, probably because as a youngster I had a very bad experience running out of brakes in my second 356A racing a Cobra down Big Bear Mt. back in 1963, but I won’t bore you with that, however that may chance after today. These Brembos are great. To give you an idea I drove just over 80 miles as hard as anyone should over public roads averaging only 10.5 mpg! I did a lot of threshold braking which is something I rarely do and it felt like I could just hammer them all day, just delightful! I did notice more ABS kicking in however I think that was primarily because I was braking so late and just got caught up in the power of these big boys. The Super Sports also performed way beyond my expectations! I was pleasantly surprised as they allowed me to really get in a nice rhythm right from the gate. They have an equivalent crisp turn-in to the MPSC’s and gave me plenty of warning before loosing grip, which did happen on a couple occasions but was very manageable. I should point out that I did go up a size on the fronts to 245 and suggest doing so to anyone who is considering going with these tires. The fronts will give you a nice audible warning when they are reaching their limits but they never really gave up grip. There is no comparison between this tire and the PS2’s, which I hated on the GT3 and only drove about 2000 miles before going back to my MPSC’s. The PS2’s were just horrible by comparison! So in conclusion I will have to say that so far I think the SS’s are a homerun for Michelin but I will hold my breather for awhile longer as I only have driven them for 160 miles. I’ll give an update when I get a few more miles on them on some hot days. As many of you know I have only been getting 2700 miles or less out of the MPSC’s since having the SW 3.9, I was averaging 3200 with the stock motor. So I’m very curious to see how these will last! I’m stoked!