JRitt@essex

Hello Gents,
I've hinted at some of what we've been working on, but I wanted to make a formal announcement with some firm details. Over the past couple of years we (Essex Parts Services) have been working closely with Hardbar USA to support the Corvette market with some of the best brake products available. Essex will now be greatly expanding our involvement in the market. While Hardbar will still be able to sell the products we produce, Essex will design and manufacture the brake systems from start to finish. We will be selling direct to the end-user as well.

Why is this happening?
There are several reasons. The primary one is that Essex has had tremendous success overall with our line of Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Brake Kits. We are rapidly expanding the number of platforms we support and formalizing the program to a much greater extent. We also believe that given our resources, we will be able to provide an unparalleled level of support to our customers. We are also working very closely with AP Racing to produce several other new brake products for Corvettes in addition to our Competition Brake Kits. Overall our goal is to provide the finest and most complete range of brake products for the Corvette platform, regardless of what you plan to do with your car.

So what are we working on?

Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Brake Kits
We will be introducing three new Competition Brake Systems for C5 & C6 Corvettes. Please click that link to see all of the general details and concept of the product line.

Sprint Front System: Four Piston / 325x32mm

This system will replace the Hardbar T1 Brake System currently for sale in the Corvette market. It will use the same AP Racing CP8350 brake caliper and CP3908 brake disc.

If you track your car, this kit will be the ultimate lightweight, budget-conscious brake system available.

Essex has designed and will produce the caliper brackets and floating disc hats in-house.

The disc hat mounting system will feature a new anti-knockback feature, which will also eliminate rattles/NVH

We will also supply a set of Spiegler SS Brake Lines with this kit.

Pads will not be included as standard, but our kit customers will have the option to purchase one set of any of the pads we sell for this caliper for a flat rate of $25.

Target retail price = $2,599 (at this time I see absolutely no reason why we won't hit that price)

Endurance Front System: Six Piston / 355x32mm
We've had tons of requests for a system with this specification, particularly from C6 Z06 owners. Our six piston setup will offer substantially more thermal mass than our smaller Sprint System, enough to handle even the most brutal track abuse. It will be the ultimate track day/racing system on the market for the C5/C6.

The six piston calipers we'll be using are a derivative of an existing AP Racing design, with a number of enhancements. They share many of the same features our customers love about our CP8350 four piston calipers, but ratchets everything up to the next level. They will be lightweight, stiff, full of heat resistant features, and offer just about every pad compound option under the sun:
i. Two-piece construction with anodized finish, simple pad change without removing caliper
ii. Ventilated, domed back, stainless steel pistons
iii. 4 lb. anti-knockback springs
iv. Machined AP Racing logo
v. Uses extremely common pad shape
vi. Stainless steel wear plates
vii. Approximate weight= 6.4 lbs.

The 355x32mm AP Racing disc we'll be using has been proven time and again in professional racing, winning many races and even championships (ALMS, Rolex, Grand Am, etc.). It is a 72 vane, Heavy Duty J Hook design. Most notably, the Action Express Corvette Daytona Prototypes won the championship on these discs last year (and continue to run them). These discs are the epitome of endurance racing components, and will hold up extremely well to what our customers will do with them.

i. 72 directional vanes for high airflow and disc face stability
ii. AP's patented J Hook slot pattern
iii. Complex, crack-resistant metallurgy developed through countless track hours at all levels of racing
iv. Despite having a far more stout design, they weigh the same or slightly less than most of our competitors 48 vane street discs (about 18 lbs. with hat).
v. Reasonable iron replacement costs ($300 ish)

Target retail price for the front six piston / 355mm system is currently $3500-ish.

Rear System: Four Piston / 340x28mm
Our new rear system will be compatible with both of our front systems above, and an option for anyone with an existing Hardbar front T1 system (I know, I know...finally!). The parking brake will remain fully functional on the car. This system will feature a modified version of an existing AP Racing design, again with a few enhancements.

The four piston rear caliper more or less shares the same design features as the six piston described above.
i. Two-piece construction with anodized finish, simple pad change without removing caliper
ii. Ventilated, domed back, stainless steel pistons
iii. 4 lb. anti-knockback springs
iv. Machined AP Racing logo
v. Uses common pad shape
vi. Stainless steel wear plates
vii. Approximate weight= 5.3 lbs.

The 340x28mm rear AP Racing discs share the same basic design features as the front discs:
i. 60 directional vanes for high airflow and disc face stability
ii. AP's patented J Hook slot pattern
iii. Complex, crack-resistant metallurgy developed through countless track hours at all levels of racing

Target retail price for the rear system is currently $2,999.

When can I buy one?
We have a C5 and C6 coming in next week to test fit prototype parts. We'll also be doing a considerable amount of track testing.

Anticipated availability on the Sprint System is late May to early June.

Anticipated availability on the Front Endurance System is late June to early July.

Anticipated availability on the rear system is July-August most likely (the disc is a completely new design and will take a while longer).

We'll probably be taking pre-orders as we get closer to the availability dates on all of these systems.

Additionally, we're working on some new AP Racing Factory Big Brake Kits for the road/track as well.
These kits are fully designed and built by AP Racing's team in England, and they're not quite as hardcore as our Competition Systems. These kits will feature a new six piston caliper design in the front, and an existing four piston design in the rear. Calipers will be available in red, black, or silver. The front disc size will be 362mm x 32mm, and the rear is TBD. The discs will be fully floating J Hook's. Our goal is to make these kits fit inside of the OEM C6 Z06 wheels. You can get an idea of what these kits will look like if you check out our recent kit for the FT86 platform. The front caliper in our Corvette kit will be the same, except the disc will be larger.

These systems will most likely be available late this summer.

We are also already at work on some brake upgrades for the C7 Stingray.

Feel free to ask any questions. I'll start putting up some pics and more specs as I have them. Put that tax money aside boys...you're gonna like what we're building.

John Shiels

Screamin Z

New products are always a good thing!!

yooper

RX-Ben

Will long-term test for free.

dvandentop

very nice that AP is finally getting more involved into the non pro racer segment love their products

Scooter70

Will be watching intently.

Adam@Amp'dAutosport.com

GettReal

Curious why the rears are more than the fronts.. Been waiting for the rears to come out but at 3k, not sure why I wouldn't buy a set of the fronts and just lose the parking brake. Just some existing customer feedback

geerookie

Because the hats are much more expensive to machine due to the parking brake.

RE: Using the front rotors in the rear, that's what I'm doing. I use the same size caliper but different size pistons so I can also have a common pad shape. Then you have common rotors and less spares. BUT, that does add a significant weight penalty to the rear axle which affects unsprung weight and rotating mass but since I have redistributed so much weight in my car the rears are doing a significant amount of work now.

JRitt@essex

All of the components in the rear system are more costly to produce.
Calipers are more expensive, iron discs are larger and more expensive, and the hats are far more expensive...bigger piece of aluminum bar stock (larger diameter and considerably thicker). That all adds up to a higher retail price.

If you use the CP8350 on the back, you lose the parking brake...but more importantly, you'd have to go to a different master cylinder to have the proper brake bias/torque output on the rear end.

Forgot to say...we looked at the simple solution and losing the rear parking brake, but people are really tied to their parking brakes...even on full out race cars!

geerookie

Drift wannabes?

CTZoom

More like 'insurance' for having an off in an ABS car. ABS doesn't work in gravel, but the handbrake will and slowing or changing direction in an off can save your life.

geerookie

Been there tried that! Hand brake isn't worth a $hit in that situation. Picture a Corvette headed into Big Bend at Limerock at 140 and a brake line breaks. I went for the hand brake and it was worthless and to make things worse I wasted precious time trying to make it do something. I ended up just using the steering wheel and the gas pedal and managed to keep out of any serious trouble. Just some minor cracking in the rear fender fiberglass and had to clean out the passenger seat because the guy with me made a mess

Just my personal experience. No parking brake in my car now.

RX-Ben

Who actually has the ebrake on a race car? It barely works at low speed let alone at track speeds.
Kind of tough to justify the cost of the rear kit when you are forcing buyers to shell out a bit extra for the ebrake "feature."

naschmitz

You need it to pass inspection in most states for all the dual use cars.

ErnieN85

Yes even if it is actually worthless
Mutch rather have better brakes than an emergency that won't do the job

AU N EGL

did the e brake ever work on C5s? mine didn't from day one in may 2003

John Shiels

why would you expect to use a parking brake at track speeds?

John Shiels

Probably sell less also for the rear so it would increase cost.