Does Brake Caliper Position Make A Difference?

[CONRAD]

Hey guys,

I've always wondered why different manufacturers mount the brake calipers (typically front calipers) in different positions ie lower back or higher front or directly perpendicular to the coil-overs.

surely Porsche or Ferarri would have placed it their particular way for a good reason, I guess it's all about chassis balance when braking etc.. though can anyone elaborate.. why is one method better that the other?

[sav man]

I know the Formula 1 cars put the calipars below the axil line, to lower the center of gravity. Pretty sure the Enzo and Carrera GT have there callipers right down low.

[scathing]

I've noticed that most of the high-priced Euro sports cars tend to put their calipers at approximately the "3 o'clock" position, such as the Ferrari and McLaren F1 examples you have above.

As do modern Porsches, as a quick Google Image search shows.

I'd hypothesise that it puts the weight as close to the centre of the car as possible, to lower the polar moment of inertia. Who knows if its better there than at the 6 o'clock position, which lowers the CoG as much as possible....

[Master]

Not an expert, but as far as most production based stuff goes its largely governed by packaging contraints, steering and suspension geometry..etc etc. N as far as the 6 o clock position goes yes it does lower CoG, which then helps reduce the rolling moment, n the story goes on....

All things being equal id imagine a caliper mounted at 3 o clock will cool better than one mounted at 9 !

[Craved]

but if you look at the clearances between rim and caliper.. at 3 o'clock there would be less airflow hitting the caliper than at 9 o'clock.

would be all about the direction of force from the caliper i would think..

if you spin a cd say, and grip it from 3 o'clock. your fingers are forced down, where as at 9 they are forced up..

this may not actauuly make a change but i would think the 9 oclock would put extra pressure onto the springs and shocks..

either way you would be able to tune around it i would believe,

would love to hear an proper explanation though cos i've often thought about it

[US_R33]

another question, does the location of the caliper have any effect on the performance of the parking brake as well??

i have an S13 coupe (sold the Skyline) with ECR33 full brakes front and rear running on s14 SE 5 lug hubs and am unable to use the drum in disc ebrake setup from the 33. we are going to be building a custom bracket to relocate the stock s13 rear caliper to the rear of the rotor and use it only as a parking brake

[Boof]

Not really sure on this one...how ever i used to own a stanza, and did the 200b brake upgrade on it, and one of the things you have to do is swap struts, left to right and right to left, meaning now that the caliper is at the front of the rotor (9 oçlock position) and not at the back (3 o'çlock) like it was with the standard struts....didn't make any real world difference to me weather they were front or back of the rotor