Lets Talk Brake Kits

[jpgolf14]

Sounds good. I'm not surprised Warren knows what he is talking about. I'm just not crazy about his approach.

Regarding the clamping force. That is solely based on hydraulic advantage. In other words, how much piston area the caliper has. All the manufacturers make calipers with different sized pistons.

Example Wilwood FSL caliper. It is available in the following piston configurations.
1.88 / 1.75
1.75 / 1.75
1.62 / 1.62
1.38 / 1.38
1.25 / 1.25
1.12 / 1.12

It is up to the buyer to make sure their system is matched. The problem with big piston area is that is also increases the pedal travel. So it all depends on the whole system and driver preference. Do you want you brakes to be: high effort/short pedal (ie small caliper pistons) or low effort/long pedal (ie large caliper pistons)? The answer is typically somewhere in the middle. That is the beauty of large diameter rotors. You get better brake torque without the downside of the longer pedal. Basically free brake gain. Of course the downside is more rotational and sprung weight. Of course another upside is a larger rotor has more thermal mass, keeping the temperature of the whole system down. This will help keep "street" pads in their temperature range.



I agree, in a race car, run the smallest rotors you can get away with. With the proper pad, run the brakes at 1000+ degrees.

John