Hmmm - I thought Lotus had ceramic composite discs on the first version of the Elise, way before 2001.... (They later changed back to steel I think - problems with supply/manufactur)
1996:
http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elise/information/press/magazine/magazine1999/aluise.html
"BRAKES
Cast iron has been the material of choice for brake rotors since the introduction of disc brakes during the '50s. The Elise heralds a new era, being the first production road car to use aluminium metal matrix composite (Al-MMC) discs instead, on all four wheels.
Aluminium is a better rotor material than cast iron for two reasons: its density is a third as much but its thermal conductivity three times greater These factors make it possible to construct a much lighter brake disc, with consequent savings in unsprung mass. The 282mm diameter discs on the Elise, which are the same front and rear, and weigh about half that of cast iron equivalents. Their large diameter and the low weight of the Gar also mean no brake servo is required, which saves more weight as well as improving pedal feel.
To provide the necessary abrasion resistance, aluminium discs have to be reinforced with a ceramic material, hence, Metal matrix composite. The Elise discs a 30 per cent by volume silicon carbide reinforcement, in particle form, and are manufactured by the US company Lanxide. The Al-MMC brake discs cannot withstand such high working temperatures as a cast iron disc, but their high thermal conductivity makes it much easier to move heat and dissipate it to the air via the wheel rim. A measure of just how effectively heat can be conducted away is maximum disc surface temperature measured at various test venues during the Eliseís development. Around Nurburgring it was a triffling 220deg C; at full pelt down the Stelvio pass the discs reached only 320deg C, With cast iron discs you might expect temperatures of the order of 700deg C. Really brutal treatment is needed to get the disc temperatures any higher: 30 maximum-effort. no pause stops from 60 to 20mph raise the temperature to around 450deg C.
Tony Shute, happily admits that the Elise brakes, which have achieved 1.29 deceleration in testing, are over-engineered, but, that will serve the car well when it takes to the track, hopefully in a one-make race series. He also anticipates remarkable disc life of up to 100,000 miles. Extraordinarily, the discs actually become thicker with use as a layer of the specially developed pad material, made by Allied Signal, is deposited on the disc surface."
