Porsche continues with their commitment to out-braking the competition. The 2019 Porsche Cayenne’s brakes feature iron rotors coated in a thin, ultra-hard layer of tungsten carbide. This allows them to have an extra edge in performance as well as reduced wear and less dust.
While most Porsche owners ignore the occasional squeaking and dust that comes with the maximum braking performance, others have been longing for the expected stopping power with less noise and dust.
Considering this, Porsche tested low-noise, low-dust brake pads, but found them to be less than satisfactory. Instead, Porsche, working with Bosch, looked into making improvements to the rotor instead. They found that while the pads were thought to be the biggest contributor to dust, it was actually the rotors causing most of the dust.
While pads and rotors both lose thickness over time, rotors have a larger surface area — meaning the material that wears off ends up dirtying the wheels.
Porsche reduced the amount of material that wears off the rotor to reduce brake dust. Tungsten carbide can be used for a variety of applications, since it comes in over a dozen different grades. Being several magnitudes harder than steel on the Vickers scale, tungsten carbide is useful in reducing brake dust. Only a small portion of the material is needed relative to iron to provide longevity without adding weight. Each rotor consists of an iron core wearing a 100-micron-thick coating of tungsten carbide. Porsche says it will last up to 30% longer than iron rotors and will reduce brake dust by 90%.
Unfortunately, these new PSCB rotors are incompatible with traditional brake pads, so Akebono provides pads made of a new compound — all parties involved are keeping these pads in secrecy. Dealers will measure the brake’s wear and determine their replacement to ensure customer’s don’t see a distinct reduction in braking performance once the last of the tungsten carbide coating wears away.
The 2019 Cayenne might be the company’s most important launch in a long time. The Cayenne will be available at Porsche dealerships in mid-2018. The base model will start at $66,750 and the Cayenne S will start at $83,950.