As a long time refurbisher of Brembo calipers, we could get put out at one of their latest news posts. But we’re a little flattered, the post I am going to share with you (link at bottom) could cause damage to business’ like ours. It is clearly an attempt to deter people refurbishing brake calipers. Instead, purchase new replacements from the main dealers and Brembo distributors.
This news post is the equivalent to vehicle manufacturers i.e. Porsche posting all about how it is a really bad idea not to buy a used Porsche. That the only way to really be sure you’re buying a Porsche, is to go to Porsche. It is ludicrous!
Whlie I might have suggested that this is an attack on business’ like ours, it probably isn’t the case and is more just for them putting out content that people will read and share. After all their post has had 140,000 Facebook engagements alone since the end of September this year (up until the publishing of this post). So job well done Brembo.
But why come across like you’re suggesting that every refurbished caliper is either a knock-off or unsafe? Isn’t that just scaremongering propaganda for your own gain?
People aren’t stupid. Buying a new set of calipers in a colour close-ish to their desired colour, makes no sense. Just because you say it’s unsafe to paint brake calipers, isn’t going to stop them, or us.
Refurbishing Brake Calipers Is Perfectly Safe
While we had to slightly amend our processes some years ago to comply with our insurers, it is perfectly safe. Our insurers say so.
We are covered up to £10,000,000 public liability cover and £5,000,000 professional indemnity. Each brake caliper is pressure tested between 400psi and 2,500psi, depending on the brake caliper. A small aluminium motorcycle unit will be tested at 400psi and big Skyline GTR caliper is tested at 2,500psi. This means that every single part of the caliper is stress tested, including the cast, pistons and seals. This is simulated by placing a solid acrylic block between the two sides of the caliper between the pistons. This allows the pistons to exert force between the two sides of the caliper, stressing any joints.
Brembo also states that their paint doesn’t fade! Really Brembo, Have you seen any Mitsubishi Evo brake calipers for a while? You know, the red one’s with “brembo” screen printed on them in white. Well, most of them are pink now.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts on this: Brembo, you are epic! You really do make the best brake calipers in the world. We have refurbished at least 10,000 Brembo calipers in the last 6 years. Another 50,000 from Alcon, AP Racing, Akebono, ATE, well all of them. There is no doubting it, Brembo are the best. (Although, the Akebono’s on the McLaren P1 GTR are incredible units).
But you can’t just make posts like this that scrape the barrel a little from a moral view, in fact it seems a little desperate.
Please continue to make amazing brake calipers. We love doing amazing things to them, we love customising them to our customers demands. Some are weird, some are nice, some incredible. We have seen banana Brembo’s, Kinder Egg Brembo’s and we have painted Italian Flags, chrome effect and more. Just don’t do that again please.
Brembo B-M8 Brake Calipers
Note to Brembo: Your new Brembo B-M8 calipers are easily the sexiest brake calipers we have ever seen. We can’t wait to get a set of these in our workshop.
If you would like to view the Brembo article, you can do so here: https://goo.gl/G4czo0
