Long term update on the Endurance BBK:
55,000 miles and 20 track days later, I finally had to swap the rotors in my Essex BBK. While there were only very tiny heat cracks on the rotors, pretty sizable pad grooves had made a ridge in the rotor, making some parts of it pretty thin, so I decided to swap rotors in abundance of caution (realistically could have had probably 2 more track days on the rotors). I was one of the original purchasers of the V1 Essex/AP Racing Endurance BBK and have been super satisfied with it over the past 5 years. I’ve talked a lot before about the stopping power, which is amazing but these brakes are also very durable. A few of the key things that I’ve noticed about the kit that have been awesome in owning this kit:
No need for piston dust boots: Notice that people say you should have the rubber dust boots at the pistons for street use. After 55k miles, numerous fluid flushes and track use, and the street use involved canyon driving in wooded and coastal areas with lots of dust, sand, tree leaves/debris, puddles, etc and nothing ever got stuck in a piston. Dust boots will melt on the track and the pistons already have silicon seals from the inside so nothing will get stuck in the piston. Worrying about the kit not having boots on the street is a non-factor.
Extremely Durable: Twice at the track, I under estimated how much pad wear I actually had after few sessions and had metal to metal contact where I had to do a pad swap. In spite of my mistake, the rotors were actually fine (was caught early but still..was was a little surprised that the rotor was pristine)!
Run much cooler: My friends and all track E9x and F8x M3s. A few times at the track, I brought in an IR surface temperature gun and we compared temperatures among my car with the Essex endurance kit, my friends E92 with stock rotors and Pagid pads and my friend’s F80 with stock rotors and Pagid Pads. Coming off the track, my rotor surface temperatures were about 40% lower than the other two setups (about 350-400 degrees vs 580-700 degrees). That is crazy!
Brake noise: The brakes make a little more noise than stock (pads rattling, making groaning sound when you first back up especially after the rotors have been wet in the rain), but honestly after having experienced cars with stock BBKs right out of the box (brakes on GT350R or 911GT3 RS) this kit is no noisier than these stock brake kits. The rear pads now come with clips and inserting these clips really cuts down the pad rattle.
Super satisfied with the kit and given my car now has 100k miles, will probably be the last set of fronts that I’ll need as won’t be tracking the car as much as my last set and plan to drive this car for another 50k-60k miles. I recently got a 911 GT3RS and plan to replace the PCCB with the Essex/AP racing rotors while keeping the stock Brembo calipers. Also, I used to have a GT350R and the race versions of the car the FP350S and Shelby Mustang GT4, cars that consistently some of the fastest in their race series, both carry Essex-designed AP racing rotor kits. While the stock brakes of the 350R were fantastic (I told Essex they should make a rotor only solution while keeping the stock caliper), they did run extremely hot and I think just used size as a way to dissipate heat.
Awesome job, Essex/AP Racing. Thx for 55,000 blissful miles
