A Potted Tarox Brakes History...... "...while still just boys, in their first workshop, he [Taroni] refined a compressor based brake system similar to today's ABS. His experiences led to the key development which brought Didier Pironi to victory at the exciting 1980 Belgian Grand Prix". This brief biographic note, taken from the January 1990 special issue of renowned Italian magazine ‘Autocapital’, describes in great detail the spirit of Gianni Taroni. Born in 1936, he devoted almost four decades of his life to the research and development of the ideal ‘Brake’. Signor Taroni is widely known throughout Italy as the 'Specialista' of braking science.

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After several years as a professional race car driver, he met F1 driver Giancarlo Baghetti. Baghetti taught him many secrets of motor racing and shared several journeys with Taroni in the mid 1970’s - Terra del Fuego to Alaska, Cape North to Cape South, and from Milan to Calcutta, among others, for investigating and reporting on new cars while being operated under the most severe conditions possible. Such experiences turned out to be extremely useful in the development of TAR-OX brakes : “I am the one who actually tests and develops all the production” - is one of his favourite sayings. Another is “I want to make sure that my customers will enjoy a fully reliable and performing product, no matter what its use, in race or in the every day roads”.

1980 saw host to the first opportunity of Gianni Taroni’s expertise to attract world wide attention: “It was at Zolder," Gianni recalls. "That circuit was very demanding for the brakes and Ligier’s driver, Didier Pironi, wanted to try my special anti-heat calliper pots". The Frenchman’s confidence was rewarded with a victory. It almost goes without saying that all the championship contending teams (Williams, McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Lotus, March) asked to have the same device installed on their race cars. It was an exhilarating period culminating with Rosberg’s victory on a TAR-OX equipped Williams for the 1982 F1 World Championship. In March 1983 the first grooved disc, designated C83 was brought to market by TAR-OX. The results were encouraging but Gianni was aware that perfection was still a long way to come. Therefore a major commitment was made in the investment of state-of-the-art technology.

In 1988 TAR-OX launched the G88, the multi grooved disc whose peculiar design and terrific performances set a new standard in the high performance disc brakes market. During the same year, as a result of the strong demand from the Asian market, TAR-OX designed and marketed the Sport Japan, a drilled and grooved high performance disc.

At the start of 1993 the new 6-pot calliper was designed and manufactured. Thanks to the various adapting mounting brackets the TAR-OX caliper can be installed on the car without any major modifications thus allowing the use of thicker and larger discs than the original ones. Although the new TAR-OX 6-pot caliper system was originally designed for competition use it also delivered surprising performances and smooth braking when used on everyday road use vehicles. In the following years the brake conversion kit application list soared: it included 100 cars in 1997, 200 cars in 1999 and nearly 500 cars by the end of 2002.

The new millennium saw the design and production of a new breed of caliper: the B32 10-pot caliper and the B34 which is suitable for discs larger than 340mm and available in 6, 8, 10 and 12-piston configuration. In January 2002 TAR-OX brake discs and brake conversion kits were TÜV approved.

In September 2002, after years of research and development TAR-OX was the first manufacturer in the world to offer for sale Metal/Ceramic discs for after-market applications.

The steady research and development of new products has led TAR-OX to be one of the most recognised names in brakes. Few companies can compare with TAR-OX in terms of sheer innovation, quality and reliability.