Vette Dogs

With a round-trip haul from Illinois to Spring Mountain racetrack in Nevada still fresh in his brain; Patrick Gramm rethought his strategy for the Cannonball. With a lot of drive time on the road and intense bursts on the track, the 2002 "DC Z" Corvette needed to balance both durability and performance.

A cracked set of drilled rotors with only 5,000 miles was a tell-tale sign that the Corvettes’ Active-Handling system got a hefty work out in Nevada. The system, which automatically activates any of the four brakes to maintain adequate car stability, had pumped the rear brake pads enough to cause significant wear on the drilled rotors. Knowing that the eighteen events of One Lap could pose similar results, the decision was made to use stock C5 Z06 pads and 'no name' solid rotors for One Lap of America. With rotors and pads only setting them back 0, they could now concentrate on affording to fill up the tank.

The decision to go with a cheap brake setup may seem odd on the surface, but having solid rotors would prove invaluable knowing the abuse they can take. The crew couldn’t risk another rotor issue all for the sake of a few extra stopping-feet on the track, when 5,600 miles of unknown pavement and zero wrench-time were in the forecast.

Would you have made the same decision? Let us know in the comments.

by Daniel Bowler