When it comes to fancy options on state-of-the-art performance cars, carbon ceramic brakes are often revered and feared in equal measure. They promise a huge weight reduction, improved heat dissipation, vastly longer wear life, and dramatically reduced dust – at a cost. Literally. Factory replacement carbon ceramic rotors are unbelievably expensive, and that’s a problem now that early use cases of them are getting into normal used-car pricing territory. But before you pull the trigger on a set of more affordable steel replacement discs, it’s worth having a look around the aftermarket. Over the past few years, third-party replacement carbon ceramic discs have come on the market at dramatically lower prices than you’d pay at the dealership parts counter, and some of them seem quite good.
While modern non-ferrous brake rotors got their start in aerospace, the carbon ceramic brakes you see on street cars are a different composition than the carbon/carbon brakes seen on the fastest planes. For the streetable carbon ceramics, manufacturers take carbon fibers and phenolic resin and mold them under immense pressure and heat to create something disc-shaped. It then goes into an oxygen-free oven and meets with solid silicon, which liquifies, travels into the unfinished discs through capillary action, and undergoes a transformation into silicon carbide. After hours of baking, the oven cools, the discs are removed, and machining can begin. Once the discs are ground to meet standards, they’re covered in a protective coating, married to the metal hats that fit over the hubs, and pass through final quality checks before being shipped out. Compared to casting standard steel brake discs, making carbon ceramic rotors is an incredibly involved and time-consuming process, which is why they usually cost an absolute mint.
Need one right-front carbon ceramic brake disc for a nicely depreciated F80 BMW M3? You’re looking at $5,048.99 from FCP Euro. If you need a pair of front discs, that’s over $10,000 for just two consumable parts. Did you end up with a reasonably priced launch-spec 997 Porsche 911 Carrera S with the carbon ceramic brakes? A pair of genuine front carbon ceramic discs retails for $18,900 through Suncoast Parts and a pair of rears costs the same. If you need to replace all four, that’s potentially more than the value of the car in brake discs alone – an astronomical expense on what may be a high-mileage $36,000 car.
As a result, many owners have historically swapped to steel brake discs when their carbon ceramics were nearing end-of-life simply because like-for-like replacement is uneconomical. Now, there’s nothing wrong with steel discs, but they typically result in more brake dust, shorter wear life, and more unsprung weight than carbon ceramics. Thankfully, the aftermarket’s here to help. Overseas manufacturing of third-party carbon ceramic discs isn’t just feasible, it’s happening. And some drivers are finding success.
Take CTE Carbon Composites, for example. This subsidiary of a Taiwanese company with a fairly new composites facility in China is an OE supplier, but it also produces aftermarket carbon ceramic brake discs that often cost a fraction of genuine units. Its “street/track” carbon ceramic discs for a 996 Porsche 911 Turbo, which were shared with 997 Carrera models, retail for $1,999.95 per axle. That’s $3,999.90 worth of discs versus $37,800 worth of discs. Still a lot of money, but there’s absolutely an argument to be made for them.
What’s more, owners of various Porsches have actually tried them, and the results seem confidence-inspiring. On the notable Porsche forum Rennlist, user “twct” posted:
Great day at Castle Coombe yesterday. I went with my son (only his 3rd track day) so I only drove half the day. We were there a month ago and I know the track well so it was a pretty decent comparison.
The CTE/Endless [brake pads] combo worked flawlessly. Zero fade, very easy to modulate once warmed up. Threshold braking was much easier than the Girodisc/RSL29 combo. Made rotating the GT4 even easier than it already is. Even my son was braking much later to the point I was getting a little nervous as a passenger! It’s not a forgiving track with some off camber turns and nearby walls everywhere.
Street duty is rarely particularly taxing on brakes, but Castle Coombe circuit lets drivers build serious speed before getting into proper braking zones. Quarry corner immediately springs to mind. As such, a report of these aftermarket carbon ceramic discs holding up to that sort of use is hugely promising.
Of course, CTE isn’t the only brand with skin in the game. Hop on Alibaba and you’ll probably see carbon ceramic discs made by a brand called Icooh. They’re based in Guangzhou, which is in China, and have been selling replacement discs for intriguingly low prices. However, they are fundamentally a reseller, one that seems to have recently switched to chopped-fiber discs instead of continuous long fiber discs. While I wouldn’t run their calipers, as pad sizing is relatively unknown and this could limit replacement pad selection, their discs seem to be performing decently. Over on the Audizine forum, user “richib86” posted an update after breaking in the Icooh discs on his RS6:
so far no drawbacks. if you are looking for a different pedal feel, these won’t do that, it’ll feel stock. the brake booster would affect that, so maybe an option to do along with these?
Very slight squeal at very low speeds till they warm up but nothing that wasn’t present on my steal setup(these squeal much less than my factory steal rotors).
still no dust.
brakes much harder.
74lbs weight reduction.
I probably wouldn’t track on these discs, but as a street replacement for a heavily depreciated car where an iron conversion is cost-prohibitive (many calipers for carbon ceramic brakes are designed differently to those for steel discs), around $1,300 for a pair of replacement front discs for, say, a cheap high-mileage Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio with factory CCBs seems like a viable option.
If you’re feeling particularly bold, third-party carbon ceramic discs are available for vehicles that didn’t come with carbon ceramics from the factory. Rotheli Racing has found particular success with aftermarket carbon ceramic discs on their GR Yaris track car, and now offers an upgrade kit. However, not only is this not a streetable upgrade in cold weather, Rotheli Racing’s done it properly with huge dedicated AP Racing brake calipers to allow for proper pad thickness. At roughly $7,838 at the current conversion rate, it’s not cheap for a single-axle kit but also not wildly expensive. There are factory one-axle carbon ceramic options for some cars that cost more than this.
It may have taken a couple of decades, but carbon ceramic brakes are no longer solely the domain of the ultra-rich. They’re now in the domain of anyone with a high enough credit card limit and a sense of reckless abandon, and that’s a beautiful thing. This is exactly why the automotive aftermarket exists. It keeps older cars on the road and gives speed merchants new ways to go fast. Or in this case, stop fast repeatedly with little wear. Maybe one day, if overseas manufacturing gets cheap enough, you’ll be able to slap a reasonably priced set of carbon ceramic discs on an absolutely juiced-to-the-letter-of-the-rulebook low-ish-buck autocross Miata. Now that would be a treat.
Top graphic image: Porsche, CTE Carbon
Trusting your life to Chinese quality is risky, especially with the speeds these cars achieve. If a disk frags in high speed braking, you are toast.
I’m just glad to get modern E-coated rotors that don’t clog the cooling passages with rust before they get too thin. 30 years ago I would soak new rotors with spray paint or cold galvanizing compound – ANYTHING – to try to keep them from clogging with rust.