Mini guide to upgrading the car brakes in Gran Turismo 7 and more

3/28/2022

All the Brembo braking components that make the difference in Gran Turismo 7 in 4 upgrade steps

«You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.» (Plato).

Hundreds of thousands of car enthusiasts all over the world are getting their feet wet with the Gran Turismo 7 Tuning Shop, so also with Brembo braking components. This is one of the biggest new features in the seventh edition of the most famous driving videogame of all times.

As a leader in the development and production of high-performance braking systems, Brembo is the official technical partner for the Gran Turismo 7 brakes. This means that the performance of most of the 400 cars in the game can be further enhanced in the Tuning Shop thanks to Brembo solutions.

Brembo engineers and the game designers have collaborated constantly throughout recent years in order to ensure that the new version of Gran Turismo would have an unprecedented level of realism, even in braking! The use of Brembo braking components has an impact on braking distance and how cars corner and this aspect was also considered and faithfully reproduced in Gran Turismo 7.

In addition to sharing their know how, Brembo also provided the software engineers with all the drawings and dynamic characteristics of their products so that the ones presented in Gran Turismo 7 would be identical digital counterparts to the braking components that can be purchased in real life.

Even the sequence and the available braking system upgrades are not by chance but reflect the typical path that is followed in real life by those who choose to tune the braking system in their cars. You normally begin by changing the brake pads, then you opt for higher performance discs, followed by a complete braking system upgrade in the various options of increasing performance.

This aspect comes to life in the aforementioned Tuning Shop, which is made up of 5 submenus, each corresponding to a different level of tuning. From lowest to highest, the first is “Sports”, followed by “Club Sports” and then “Semi-Racing”, “Racing”, and finally, the absolute tuning pinnacle, called “Extreme”.

Obviously, moving from one step to the next also implies increasing costs in the Tuning Shop. This aspect is also fairly realistic, albeit tweaked a bit in order not to make procuring higher quality braking components too frustrating.

But let’s take a closer look at the steps and possibilities Brembo offers players who want to upgrade the brakes on their GT7 cars.

STEP 1: THE PADS

For each section of the Tuning Shop, several options are offered. For example, in the “Sports” section, players have a choice of several tires, the air filter, the ECU, the exhaust, and the suspension, but they can also choose Brembo Sports Brake Pads. This replacement part improves braking quality, in terms of both performance and stability.

In real life, Brembo Sports Brake Pads constitute the first upgrade level for any braking system. Through the use of materials that ensure consistent friction at any operating temperature, even as high as 600°C (315°F) and outstanding construction quality, they provide outstanding performance even at low speeds and without the need for preheating.

STEP 2: THE DISC

Moving up one step, in the “Club Sports” section, players can increase bore, change the gearbox ratio, as well as replace the camshaft, pistons and flywheel, but they can also opt for a full upgrade to Sports Brakes. This specific option includes changing not only the pad, but also the brake disc.

The latter is the new SPORT|TY3 disc that can be easily recognized by the use of Type3 slots and the Brembo logo, prominently visible on the braking band. The Type3 slots are reminiscent of the design of the discs used in motorsport and allow friction to be increased, thereby making performance more consistent and improving modular braking, ensuring more responsive and replicable braking.

STEP 3: THE CALIPER

Since there are no braking components in the “Semi-Racing” menu, we’ll move on to the “Racing” menu where, along with superchargers, intercoolers, racing air filters and exhausts , there are three brake options: Racing Brake Pads, the Racing Brake Kit with slotted discs, and the kit with drilled discs, naturally all Brembo.

Although there isn’t much to say about the pads except that they are the even higher performance version than those available in the first upgrade step, the kit is a different story. The heart and soul of the kit includes aluminum one-piece calipers from the BM range that use multiple opposed pistons (from 4 to 8, depending on the models). The rigidity of these calipers and their reduced deformation ensures significantly improved braking performance.

The advantages of this kit are the result of the combined action of the caliper with the larger discs, available both slotted and drilled - two solutions that significantly improve braking response. The result is greater braking torque that produces braking that is more responsive and decisive, as well as more stable.

STEP 4: CARBON-CERAMIC

However, the pinnacle of tuning, both in terms of the end result and the cost is in the “Extreme” menu. Here, we find a nitrous system, tires for extreme weather conditions, a new engine, a four-wheel steering controller, and also the Brembo CCM-R Carbon Ceramic Brake Kit, the absolute top of the line for road-legal vehicles and maximum performance in GT7 too.

Brembo has been making carbon-ceramic discs since 2002, when they began supplying them for the Ferrari Enzo. In fact, daily driving does not allow the braking system to reach the minimum operating temperatures the carbon discs used in Formula 1 would need, so they are exclusively for racing vehicles.

The carbon-ceramic discs let the most prestigious super sportscars in the world reduce weight compared to conventional cast iron discs, with clear advantages not only in braking, but also in acceleration and direction changes. Furthermore, these discs do not undergo distortion at high temperatures and they are reliable even in the rain.

CONCLUSIONS

Naturally, all of these benefits have been implemented in the game to increase the level of realism. For those who, after trying them out in Gran Turismo 7, want to use Brembo braking systems in their real-life cars too, the upgrade steps are pretty much the same, but with a much broader choice in terms of available options. This would be the perfect way to come full circle, from reality to simulation and back to reality.