[The Stig]

Originally Posted by orthojoe

The new Z/28 really has my attention. GM really has impressed me with making a car strictly for a small set of enthusiasts who enjoy tracking their cars on a regular basis. I am glad to see that GM thinks this is an important market segment because the sport has been growing in popularity over the past few years. They have the insight to know that there is something to making a car for this growing sport.

The only concern I have about the car currently is how heavy it is. 3800 pounds is lighter than a ZL1, but still considered VERY heavy for a track car. Traditionally, heavy cars are not as nimble, overheat, and are costly in terms of consumables. I can see how the car can still be engineered to be nimble, and how coolers and the right components can make it reliable in terms of heat management. However, I do want to bring up my concern on consumable cost with the carbon ceramic brakes:

Carbon ceramic brakes (CCB) are expensive. Why would they put these types of brakes on the Z/28? My guess is that CCB brakes are necessary for a car this heavy and this powerful to prevent brake fade. I doubt that standard steel brakes would be able to hold up lap after lap in a 3800+ pound car that makes 500HP. While CCB last longer than steel rotors, they still wear out. I have experience with CCB on a Porsche, and must say that they serve no purpose for track use. They only last a few days more than regular rotors during track use, you can't use aggressive track compound pads or else they will wear much sooner, and the cost to replace ($4k per rotor) is prohibitive to use in a track environment. Most Porsche guy that track their cars ditch the CCB rotors and put steels on. They can get away with this because those cars are lightweight cars (~3000 lb), and fade is not an issue. In a Z/28, this might not be an option if the car is too powerful/heavy for regular steel rotors. So the question now is: How much will it cost to replace these Z/28 CCB rotors, and how often will they need to be replaced? I wonder if this could be a potential achilles heel for the car.... Thoughts?

Just an FYI - rotors are iron, not steel.

CCB rotors run about a grand each.