baer vs Wilwood

[Tom Nickols]

Ok, may be I'm the daft one....



But the real way we should compare calipers is like this.

427v8, we should not remove half the 4 piston caliper, we should double the sliding caliper. I wasn't till I recovered from the hang over of having a baby (not directly!) that I drew a free body diagram.

Start with a sliding caliper- the pressure in the piston chamber applies to the piston face. It also applies to the caliper chamber in the opposite direction, to the exact same magnitude. The piston pushes against one side on the disc and the caliper pushes against the other. The fact the equal each other and the caliper slides means the disc doesn't get pushed side ways.

With an opposed piston caliper the force on the caliper halves cancel each other out.

So therefore both calipers (4 piston opposed and 2 piston sliding) will generate the same clamping force if the pistons are the same size.

Correction to bad math... baer track is 8% more effective (theoretically) than wilwood 12.19 big brake.

Although according to Tony Huntimer fixed opposed calipers give "better braking feel and faster responses" (Pro-Touring book)

Also as floating calipers non-piston side isn't infinitely stiff my guess is that it isn’t likely you'll get symmetrical pressure distribution on both side of the disc.

Daft Tom