Brembo wants to end the practice of questionable caliper painting with the G Sessanta concept, an experimental caliper with LED accents added for both form and function.
G Sessanta means “G Sixty” in Italian, and Brembo presumably spelled it because Volkswagen used the G60 nameplate on a range of high-performance cars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Essentially, the caliper is identical to that of your car, truck, or motorcycle in that it is designed to hold brake pads that grip a rotor. What is different is the outer shell: it is equipped with LED strips that drivers can adjust wirelessly.
Think of it as mood lighting for your wheels; in a sense, the G Sessanta picks up where outside neon lighting left off in the 2000s. If you want them to glow green, you can use a smartphone app to make it happen. If you want them red, a tap on the app immediately changes the color. Brembo designed the concept for motorcycles, but pointed out that the basic technology can be applied to any application and type of brake caliper to fit a car.
We are not here to discuss the merits of backlit wheels. You like them or you don’t. Either way, there are other arguments for incorporating LEDs into brake calipers. Brembo points out that sensors can activate the lights when they detect that the brake pads, the brake discs, or both need to be replaced. Alternatively, flashing your brake calipers can be a way to locate your car in a dark parking garage. Both functions would complement existing technologies.
Brembo explained that the G Sessanta reflects how it plans to add new features and solutions to its portfolio in the coming years. It didn’t stop revealing whether its illuminated caliper will make the transition from concept to production part. It looks pretty realistic, but we’ve seen a lot of similarly cool ideas remain in the prototype stage.