I am the proud owner of a F430 Spider F1. It came with great brakes, but I wanted to replace them with the Factory Carbon Ceramic Brakes. (now standard on all 2008 models)
1. Has anyone ever swapped out their standard brakes with ceramic brakes?
Yes, several times. First upgraded to CS/F430 ccm's, followed by an upgrade to 430 Scuderia/F430 Challenge/458 Italia spec larger discs.
The CS/F430 front discs are 380mm diameter
The Scuderia front discs are 398mm diameter. The rears are the shared and the same on both at 350mm diameter.
2. What is the expected costs?
Depends how you do it. If your savvy you can still get 'new' performance without buying everything new. Do Some proper research first as there any many ways to accomplish this upgrade including buy a combination of new and used parts.
Brembo Calipers
Buying used Brembo [yes they are made by Brembo, not Ferrari] calipers and just fully re-furbishing them to 'as new condition' can save substantially on costs so worth searching. Don't worry about colour, that can be changed too. Also don't worry it will some how be 'less efficient' than brand new. It won't. Essentially a brake caliper is nothing more than a big piece of aluminium metal that has machined by a computer on a CNC machine. Nothing really can go [normally] wrong with the caliper itself other than [very obvious] damage ore corrosion [I've never seen this ever once on these calipers].
Caliper Pistons & Seals
These are the main serviceable items in a caliper [excluding pads] are the replaceable. However both the pistons nor the rubber seals are sold directly from Ferrari [they want you to buy all new for more $$$].
If you factor in buying of brand new original Brembo seals, upgraded pistons and a re-paint and you can save yourself thousands just on the calipers alone. Literally thousands and they will look and perform as brand new ones do.
Upgraded Options - Better longevity & Reliability
Hills Engineering sell the pistons and seals required to do a full refurb and they actually do upgraded pistons which are fully stainless steel so don't suffer from the problems associated with factory pistons which are nickel coated and can get scratched and the begin to stick leading to poor breaking performance. Hills pistons don't suffer this problem!
Pagid CCM Pads
Next up are the pads. Again the factory stuff is not made by Ferrari, this time Pagid steps in (threads on this already). The stock pads are Pagid S600's and while OK on the road are pretty useless on the track. Its far better to run RS29's which also just happen to be a lot cheaper too and have dramatically improved track day performance as well as help with much longer disc lifespan. Win win.
Brembo CCM Discs
A lot of speculation is talked about regarding the discs themselves. Some quote ridiculous prices but the reality is, yes, they are expensive BUT they last significantly longer [if you use the right pads] plus they don't fade if you buy the right pads. Once you have bought a set of discs that work with your car calipers and hubs you can replace the outer disc ccm donut can retain your disc centre bells. If your savvy you'll discover that many cars actually share the exact same dimension discs so you can buy the discs much cheaper and just swap the bells over.
Master Cylinder
Optionally the (Bosch) master cylinder [which provides hydraulic braking assistance to your foot pedal] can be swapped. It doesn't actually need to be swapped, all this helps improve is the brake assistance over the stock cylinder. Really though this is not essential and some people actually prefer the LESS assistance of the stock steel brake cylinder over the CCM one since it helps you better with pedal modulation (but ofcourse requires a bit more pedal pressure).
Dashboard Clocks
A poor 'guessing' style software feature has been added to the Dashboard software. This attempts to estimate wear rates of the brake discs based on rather suspect data it try's to calculate when to replace the discs/pads. Its not exact, just like the Clutch wear estimator.
I'd personally give this a miss. Its not accurate anyway. Far better off to visually inspect the discs/pads for any major damage and them weigh the discs and check them against the numbers printed on the bell. Discs get lighter as they wear.
3. Is anyone else interested in having this done to their F430 by a certified Ferrari Technician?
The my service center has never installed Ceramic Brakes so they are researching it for me.
I should have an answer tomorrow. What we know so far is:
1. There is a Ceramic Brake Kit in Italy from Ferrari.
2. It appears a lot has to be replaced:
a) brakes
b) rotors
c) calipers
d) brake lines
e) brake cylinders
f) some additional electronics for rear brakes
a) CCM Calipers & CCM Pads, Caliper bolts [longer ones required than for steel discs]
b) CCM rotors and centre bells which match your car's hubs and calipers
c) Steel braided Brake lines, worth upgrading them to steel braided for improved pedal pressure and response.
d) Master cylinder [optional] Gold coloured.
e) Dashboard firmware upgrade for warning of wear [optional]
f) Brake fluid
g) ABS ECU sw.
If its all new kit is actually quite a simple bolt on upgrade. Definitely insist on getting a full geometry and ride height check done though to ensure handling is still perfect.
The CCM's save around 16k's over the stock stoppers and another 1k is saved if you replace the master cylinder too. You can save even more if you fit racing bells and center lock wheels/hubs [that's quite beyond the scope of this reply but I've written extensively about it before!]
3. It will cost more than the $10K from the factory. How much? I dunno yet...
Thanks in advanced...