Ask a Automotive Brake Engineer

[popeyespappy]

What's in a carbon-carbon brake other than carbon?

I'm not positive what you are referring to. Carbon is a common material found in friction material, but by volume it is a small amount added as a friction modifier and a thermal conductor.

If you are speaking of carbon fiber rotors, it is just the rotor that has carbon fiber and I don't really know what other materials are added to the carbon fiber, but I know lots of people that do know. I'll ask next time I have some BS time with one of them.

I was under the impression that the brakes used on high end race cars like Formula 1 were carbon fiber until I watched the Canadian GP this past weekend. During the broadcast I thought either Matchett or Hobbs say they weren't using carbon fiber anymore but carbon carbon. They also said they were carbon cinders. I think that's what I heard. 

Anyway, it was a carbon reinforced carbon panel that failed due to impact that caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It failed because while the material is strong and has great heat related properties it is brittle. I didn't think brittle would make good brakes so I was wondering what the F1 brakes were made of these days. I guess they could have been referring to carbon reinforced silicon carbide, but that didn't sound like what they talking about on the F1 broadcast.  They made it sound like they were using a purer form of carbon.