Ferrari invents the car that never runs out of brakes

Latest carbon-ceramic material lasts the life of the car -- but don't expect it on a Falcon or Commodore soon

Italian supercar maker Ferrari has released a car with brakes that never wear out -- providing you don't drive it like a Ferrari was meant to be driven.

Ferrari and its brakes supplier Brembo have developed a new type of carbon-ceramic discs and pads -- originally designed for Formula One -- to last 100,000km or 10 years under normal road use.

"We have tested several cars beyond 100,000km and [the brakes] did not need replacing," Ferrari chief engineer Roberto Fedeli told the Carsales Network at the launch of the new V12 FF supercar in Italy at the weekend.

Ferrari defines 10 years as the "life" of the car, for at least the first owner. Most customers sell their new Ferraris after three to five years.

Ferrari and other car makers have used carbon-ceramic brakes for more than a decade. But typically the brake pads wear out in just 10,000km of normal road use and the discs wear out in 60,000km. Regular steel discs and pads on a typical road car last well beyond 100,000km when driven normally.

But don't expect carbon-ceramic discs to appear on a Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore anytime soon. They cost between $25,000 and $40,000 per set.

"I think it will be still another 10 years before we see this type of package on other [more affordable] cars," he said. "And even then it will still be expensive models, not everyday cars.

"The cost is very high compared with steel disc brakes, not because of the material but because of the process and the number of hours you need to create the final product," he says.

The carbon-ceramic brakes on the new Ferrari FF are so advanced that Ferrari has created an algorithm to monitor driver behavior and driving history of the car. Based on the rate of deceleration during every drive, the computer estimates -- and accumulates -- brake wear data.

"If you see the disc you can't understand if you are in a very [worn] condition or not because the carbon fibre is inside the matrix of the material, you can't see it," says Fedeli. "On the disc you don't know how many miles you can drive again before cracking. For this reason we have a special algorithm to warn the driver before some cracks appear."

Fedeli says Ferrari has tested several cars "well beyond" 100,000km without the need to change discs or pads. In race track-only conditions, however, the brakes may last only 1500km and the car would warn the driver when it was time to inspect the brakes.

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