Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Car & Driver on brake upgrades

[Rick Lindsay (rolindsay]

My general feeling is that for most of the road-going
cars we drive (not our hobby cars) the brakes are
probably sized correctly for the performance and
anything larger just increases rotating mass!  F still
equals MA.

rick

--- Dennis Liu <bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> >From the Oct 2007 issue of Car & Driver, letters
> page in back:
> 
> "What's with all the braggin about bigger brake
> discs, multipot calipers,
> carbon discs and pads, and so on?  I mean, we all
> know that every car on the
> road today, even humble econoboxes, can lock their
> brakes or activate ABS
> with no problem.  So it seems logical that, given
> the same surface, stopping
> distances are only a function of the tire package. 
> What, then, is the
> performance advantage for stopping distances of
> bigger or better brake
> components?"
> 
> --Guillermo Pinto, Santiago, Chile
> 
> C&D EDITORS REPLY:
> 
> "Your point is annoyingly valid.  As with
> acceleration and cornering, a car
> can only brake as much as the grip of the tires
> allow.  The main advantages
> of better brake components, then, are to resist fade
> and improve braking
> feel.  Larger discs have more mass to absorb the
> heat that's generated from
> the friction between the disc and pad.  This
> prevents - or at least delays -
> the brakes from overheating, so they can perform
> repeated stops before
> reaching the stage when they can no longer lock the
> tires."
> 
> ============
> 
> Vty,
> 
> --Dennis
> 
>
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