How Carbon-on-Carbon Brakes Can Handle Endurance Racing

Story by David S. Wallens • Photography as Credited

Le Mans: 24 hours of intense racing on just a single set of brake pads and rotors. For the past 20 years or so, in fact, that’s been standard operating procedure for the LMP1 prototype teams. What sorcery allows brakes to live for so long? Two words: carbon-carbon. That means brake setups that …

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I thought your endurance Miata was getting another upgrade!

In reply to adam525i :

That's next week. 

I learned some stuff, so I'm giving it 

Did you mean "dry breaks" rather than "dry brakes"  ?

In reply to jkstill :

You're hired. 

Vigo said:

I learned some stuff, so I'm giving it 

Thanks. And I learned something, too, in putting that piece together. Going in, I knew that the carbon rotors weighed less, but I didn't realize that thet shed heat so quickly. 

Thanks, that was an interesting read and at least they still glow in the dark.

In reply to jkstill :

A dry break allows you to disconnect and reconnect a brake line without introducing air. This allows them to swap calipers without having to bleed the lines.

The samer fittings are used for QuickJacks and in lots iof industrial settings.

Extra tidbit:

Le Mans 2020 was the first time a GTE car didn't need a brake change. The winning Aston Martin Vantage GTE-Pro used Endless pads specially tailored for the track and Alcon calipers.

Apparently La Sarthe is easier on the brakes because the same team needed to do a pad change at the Bahrain 8H.