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Source: Brembo announcement
LAS VEGAS — Brembo, the world leader and acknowledged innovator of brake technology, together with General Motors Performance Engineering designed, engineered and tested a Performance Brake Upgrade System for the Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban and the GMC Sierra, Yukon, Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade for on and off-road performance.
The Brembo Performance Brake Upgrade System is designed for quiet, consistent operation on the street, as well as dependable and robust stopping when working or towing.
Design challenges
GM challenged the Brembo team to design a 6-piston caliper that would fit more than 20 different wheel profiles, allowing the customer to add this bold 6-piston Performance Brake Upgrade System in combination with a wide variety of GM production and GM Accessory wheels. To achieve this goal, Brembo developed a unique compact fixed aluminum, 6-piston caliper.
Using a rotor significantly larger than production also presented several technical challenges, particularly for cooling, which required several iterations of rotor geometry, for both the ventilation and the center bell design.
“The production braking systems of today’s vehicles are integrated to a level that required our performance engineering and Brembo teams to partner and leverage each other’s expertise for this seamless performance upgrade,” Dom Lester, General Motors Chief Engineer, Performance Variants, Parts and Motorsports Engineering said. “Our full-size pickup and SUV customers expect to retain all of the same production features, including safety systems and quality while increasing the driving experience of their vehicles’ braking system with this robust performance accessory upgrade.”
Testing and validation
Before going into production, the Brembo R&D team directed more than 1,300-hours of design and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) time, 850 hours of dyno testing for vibration endurance, torque and pressure endurance, corrosion resistance, strength and fatigue, rotor structural integrity as well as on-road testing of 40,000 miles to validate the performance bench tests.
“The Brembo Brake Upgrade System allows customers the opportunity to upgrade their already owned or newly purchased Chevrolet, GMC truck, SUV or Cadillac Escalade with the ultimate in braking performance,” Dan Sandberg, Brembo North America President and CEO said. “This unique 6-piston red caliper wraps around a large, vented rotor that not only looks great and fills the wheel opening, but also contributes to optimized braking and better control when hauling loads or pulling a trailer.
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“Together with GM, these packages have been validated for quality and performance, as well as for ease of installation by the local dealer or for the do-it-yourself mechanic.”
The package includes all the necessary hardware and instructions for the do-it-yourself installation, or it can be installed at the dealer. The front brake system is available for any light-duty, current model and past model back to 2014 Silverado/Sierra and light-duty 2015 to current Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon/Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade with 20-inch – 22-inch original equipment or GM Accessory wheels.
