Halo by Orthene: Unleashing Brake Potential

Lloyd Ker, Managing Director at Halo By Orthene, shares in-depth insights into the brand’s high-performance racing brake fluid—Halo P1—and the motivation behind its creation. Built on Orthene’s solid foundation as the world’s largest specialist brake fluid manufacturer, Halo By Orthene was established to engage directly with motorsport teams, refine product innovation, and deliver a decisive competitive edge on the track.

What sparked the idea to create Halo By Orthene?

Orthene has always been a private-label manufacturer producing brake fluid for some of the world’s biggest brands. In fact, Orthene is the world’s largest specialist brake fluid manufacturer. However, one limitation of the private-label business model is the lack of contact with the end-user customer. Our private-label customers are often two or three layers away from the final end-user. Halo By Orthene is a means by which Orthene can understand how brake fluid is used by end-user customers, in the most extreme environment of motorsport. This experience will help to inform our product development programme going forward.

When we were thinking about launching a high-performance racing brake fluid under our own brand, we talked about it as being a “halo” product for Orthene, to showcase what we are capable of. The name stuck, hence Halo By Orthene.

What problem or gap in the market does Halo seek to solve?

Fundamentally, our research has shown that race engineers do not appreciate the benefit that the best racing brake fluid can bring to overall braking performance, and ultimately to lap times. Racing brake system development is essentially a mechanical engineering discipline, and thought of in those terms. Halo By Orthene is bringing an additional, chemical engineering dimension into play. Race engineers spend a lot of time thinking about and improving the design of brake discs/rotors, brake calipers, brake hoses and brake cooling. But the brake fluid is barely given a second thought. This is a missed opportunity. The very best brake fluid can deliver a significant competitive advantage.

Want to read more? You can find the full and original article in the Q1 2025 issue of The BRAKE Report Magazine. Subscribe to our emails HERE to get your free copy.