Originally posted by pops
Alex ran the ceramics for the first time in his car at the Northwest Champs. Out of interest I removed the wheel bearings and cleaned them to see what, if they would show any wear or gritt. The rear bearings were like just like new, but the fronts had a little more resistance, not gritty or anything, they just did not spin up like the rear anymore. That was two classes for 2 days plus practice runs. From experience at least 1 or 2 reg wheel bearings would be trash after a couple of race days.
I think the other ceramic bearings in the car will last forever, there is just not that much stress on them. For club racing, we will stick with the precision bearings, and save the ceramics for big races only.
I get life out of almost all the bearings in my car except the front wheel axle bearings as well. I really am not sure why those go out so fast, but when I ran Acer ceramics in the past, they stayed like new in the front knuckles.
I usually run the front bearings a couple racedays even once they are gritty, pretty expensive to replace bearings 1-2 times a raceday...