Porsche & Brakes

[Frank Amoroso <famoroso@svbank.com>]

Having done the Porsche experience during my college years I had a chance to 
talk to some of the tech guys and, as my conversations invariably go, we 
talked about brakes and lighting. The info I was given is that obviously 
instrumented testing is done on a brake dyno (have we not all seen the ad 
for genuine Porsche parts with the glowing rotors & sparks flying?), but 
that subjective testing was also carried out in many different venues. In 
fact, at least at the time, Porsche regularly took the wheels & brakes out 
of other vehicles and mounted them to a current 911 and then ran it on the 
test track. I read an article that had a 911 with NSX wheels, calipers and 
rotors, the testing showed severe brake fade and eventually failure much 
sooner than with stock Porsche brakes. The moral is: I don't know, its just 
an interesting story.

FYI, The Porsche Experience was two semi-trucks full of every, then, current 
Porsche and a classroom. It would travel to tracks around the country and 
you got to flog each and every car around the track. I did it at Sear's 
Point and I felt it my civic duty to check and make sure that each car's rev 
limiter was working properly. It was by invitation only and it has since 
been discontinued.

               Frank--