Brake Caliper Location - Explained
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- What determines the location for brake calipers? Why are some brake calipers towards the front, while others are towards the rear? What factors influence brake caliper placement? Location could be dependent upon weight distribution, aerodynamics, suspension geometry and packaging, the vehicle purpose, cost, and aesthetics.
NOTE: An important factor in brake caliper location for the front brakes is the location of the steering rack. The calipers will typically be located on the opposite side of the steering rack. To allow for the engine to be further back (and thus better weight distribution, the rack may be found up front, forcing the brakes to be closer to the center of the car.
NOTE 2: After discussing with various motorsport engineers, it seems the most critical factor in caliper location comes down to suspension geometry. The location is simply the best spot available after the ideal suspension has been designed.
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NEW VIDEO EVERY WEDNESDAY! - Авто та транспорт
I just took my brakes of completely, saved me a ton of weight.
Yep, they're completely unnecessary, just slam it in reverse gear, works like a charm.
Lol
+LewisHamiltonMSPR Rocket mode 😊
Don't bother with brakes - they only slow you down.
Downshift
Love the subtle wing on the "Sports Car" :D
And it's red!
Kristian Niss
The wing adds 500 hp to the wheels.
Engineering Explained All we need is a Type-R sticker and it'll be pushin 1000 hp
bullshit guys, you cant dyno that car, everyone who tried melted their dynos down.
J3n555 *Subtle.
I was told in a vehicle dynamics lecture, by an industry expert no less, that calipers should go behind the disc in an ideal world. Being behind the disc, when the brakes are applied the moment created by the pad on the disc is reacted by the wheel bearing in an upward direction, countering the force acting downwards from the cars mass and the forward weight shift.
However, in front wheel drive cars the driveshaft would interfere with the caliper due to Akkerman steering, so it's placed in front of the disc to maximize steering lock, at the cost of bigger wheel bearings.
He also said calipers are rarely placed top or bottom because the disc can deflect whilst cornering, which can push the piston away from the disc, giving a strange feel on the next application of the brakes as the pad moves further than normal to take up the slack.
Like I said, this was told to me by an 'expert', and I've since moved into powertrain so have no first hand experience.
This is the main reason , caliper behind the disc, the disc comes from down-up direction and countering de downing force....The car doesn't sink while breaking...
😮
How much horsepower does painting your brake calibers red add?
About 10 I think....🤔
Rodney Jones doesnt get you power. Gets you that short stopping distance, and better cooling.
I hope you are joking...
twas a joke ;)
25killerwasps minimum.
Fred Flintstone never worried about caliper placement. But his podiatrist bill was through the roof.
Through the floor you mean
@@adpmol 😆🤦🏿♂️
and I thought I was the only person in the world who looked at caliper locations...haha
Me too!
Was only thinking about this this week.
not only that, i also look at front brakes to call out owners who have a base model with very low hp, but they installed big body kits from the faster model of the range
for example, a basic audi A3 1.4TFSI with 125hp, with RS3 bodykit and wheels. well, in these cases, the tiny front discs are a dead giveaway lol
no man your not is just 54 of that do
You're not alone! Been doing it since I was a kid. It's also a good way to tell if a car shares a platform with others. And there is also oddities I've noticed throughout the past 30 years.
Simple and effective way of explaining principles. I bow to you sir.
another thought is that on front wheel drive cars the calipers would be in front most of the time because there is an engine right in the way of the rack and pinion which is why the rack is usually behind the axles. because on front wheel drive cars the engine is in front of the axles and sits where a rack could go but can't which is why most of the time the rack is behind the axles with calipers in front. on a rear wheel drive car the the engine usually sits far back as possible to give more weight to the center which is why steering linkage is often in the front because there isn't much room behind the knuckle and you are left placing the calipers on the rear of the knuckle(there is also a big transmission behind as well).
Nice overview, well explained, and backed up by some real-life examples for data. No need for any scientific data and huge amounts of statistical analyses and mathematics for what you are doing, which is simplifying engineering concepts for non-engineers to understand. Well done! I like how you simplify your explanations without dumbing them down; which usually leads to some essential information being left out. FYI, I have a Ph.D. in engineering and am a retired university professor of engineering. I am also an auto enthusiast and racer. This is to say, I know what you are discussing and you do a great job. Keep up your great video posts. I refer my friends to subscribe to your channel.
these old school videos are the best........short and sweet but most of all, INFORMATIVE!!
no matter how big you may or may not get in the future, remember it was these "simple/effective" videos that got you there not over complicated ones.
You're videos keep getting better and better.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge👍🏽
Thank you! I've been wondering about this for the longest time. Nice clear explanation.
Please do a video explaining that they are Brakes, and not breaks, looking at the comments. Does my head in!
i feel like this is one of the most informative channels on youtube
Awesome vid. Keep up the great work you put into these videos.
I've wondered this for years, thanks for adding it.
Finally! I've been wondering about this for so long!
Had this question in my mind for a long time now!! Thanks for clarifying the query!!
I've always wondered about this. Really great video. Keep up the good work.
I don't know if you mentioned this but the air bleed valve needs to be in such a position that you can bleed the air. I don't believe 12 and 6 o'clock positions are used. One more thing, I just learned that "they" say the calipers are mounted either "leading" or "trailing" relative to the spindle. I've been wondering about this topic for a while, I'm glad you covered it!
Very informative video!!
All your vids are fn cool. Thank You for taking the time. Keep them coming.
Great Video Lads,
Learn something every day!
Keep Up The Good Work,
Many Thanks Charlie,
This was just on my mind today , thanks for the video !
Thank you - FINALLY
Most appreciated - I was the guy that raised the question last year!!!
Great video - you first responded by weight dist - but I knew there was more..
There just might have been someone else to ask as well. :)
Great job dude :) keep it going, i am studing brakes right now in class. Thank you!!
AWESOME AS ALWAYS!
Thanks! :D
Thanks, ive always wondered if it makes any adifference. But thanks to you now i know.
Another important consideration on motorcycles is steering polar moment. In most cars this won't be a noticeable effect due to weight, power assist, and the large masses involved, but the distance from the steering axis to the CG of the brake caliper affects the 2nd derivative a noticeable amount, with front-mounted calipers making steering inputs take significantly longer to initiate than rear-mounted calipers, which sit significantly closer to the steering axis.
you left out the most important consideration. how it affects dive in relation to other suspension geometries and the load path.
+Marc Niece That is what i was thinking, also should have looked at if the car's were all wheel drive front wheel drive or rear wheel drive,as i think that may effect were you want the brake caliper.
+mbsnyderc The "drive" configuration (I.e., FWD, AWD, RWD) typically does not matter. The only other reason really why most sports cars have the front calipers to the trailing side (rear side) is because of designers specifically wanting leading steer setup (i.e., the steering linkage / rack) being ahead of the axle centerline.
The reason why designers do this is because of suspensions deflection during lateral loading (particularly the control arm bushings). When deflection occurs, the steering geometry changes and with a leading steer configuration, lateral loading deflection is going to push the outside wheel inward towards the center of the car. This is going to reduce the steering angle of that wheel so it will require more driver input to correct and maintain the same line (basically it in a sense causes understeer). When the steering is on the trailing side, the lateral load deflection causes the steering angle to increase (basically like an oversteer of sorts).
Its better to have deflection understeer and force the driver to have to add more steering input then deflection oversteer as its more controllable by the driver. Deflection oversteer can cause a sudden true oversteer situation where the rear wheels loose traction and the rear comes around on you.
Since there isn't typically enough room to have the steering arm of the knuckle and caliper on the same leading side and designers are forced to put the caliper on the trailing side. This however is not a trade-off as there is the weight distribution benefit to having it on the trailing side.
+Chris P Great analysis ,
I was going to add that his "cooling" theory seemed wrong -
a rear caliper would not take any extra duct work, as you are not cooling the caliper,
you are providing cool air for the disc, and a vented disc needs air shot right at it's center. A solid disc just needs air shot at it that will get sucked thru the rim, which is a heat sink.
Hopefully the caliper will be much cooler than the disc. !!
+TIMEtoRIDE900 What he was getting at, is that with the ducting for the rear is if the caliper is on the leading side (i.e., torwards the front of the vehicle), the ducting has to get longer to get to the trailing side since the caliper is on the leading side. If the caliper was moved to the trailing side (i.e., towards the rear), for a cooling air supply ducting, it would be shorter and more direct.
With "sports" cars, there are a few reasons why manufactures typically put the rear calipers on the leading side. For one, they are less concerned with rear brake cooling relative to front since the rears do a very small portion of the total braking under high G deceleration events due to dynamic weight transfer. Typically the rears on most front engine rear drive cars are only doing in the neighborhood of 20% of the total braking so the heat generated is relatively small (this is assuming street tires and / or DOT track tires (i.e., not full race slicks)). The next thing is if you pay close attention to many modern performance / sports cars, the rear disc's are becoming inverted (so to speak). By this, what I mean is the air inlet to the vans on vented discs are on the outside, not inside like they have been for about as long as vented Disc brakes have been around. Look at the new mustang's rear brakes for example and you will see exactly what I mean....
The reason for this is it produces better disc cooling in the rear because of the high pressure area pushing in on the rear wheels. In the front, the nose of the car causes a low pressure area beside the front wheels so air naturally flows from inside the wheel outward. On the rear however, there is a high pressure area beside the wheel and due to improved undercar aero, chances are, under the rear of the car, the pressure will be lower so this naturally creates an airflow direction that flows from the outside in, so putting the vent entry on the outside instead of inside (like what we are used to), it makes better use of the natural airflow direction to promote better cooling of the rear brakes.
Now the real main reason why manufactures tend to put the rear calipers on the leading side like what was showed in the video on sports cars is related to what I mentioned about the fronts with geometry change due to deflection when cornering.
In the previous post I used the terms deflection Understeer and Deflection oversteer. Lets changes those to Deflection Toe IN and Deflection Toe OUT. As mentioned, in the fronts, if the steering linkange is ahead of the axle centerline, then Deflection Toe change is going to be OUT (i.e, deflection understeer) which as said is a safer and more controllable. Now how this applies to the rear is because most cars now-a-days have independent rear suspension with adjustable Toe, well the same thing, deflection in the suspension from lateral forces causes Toe change at the rear wheels just like it does in the front wheels. However, we want the opposite in the rear. We want any toe change from deflection to be toe IN at the rear wheels cause this causes them to try to turn in on a tighter radius which basically is a deflection understeer condition so the driver has to add more steering input. If the rear was to Toe OUT, this would cause the rear to want to Oversteer. In order to have deflection Toe IN in the rear, the Toe control links need to be behind the axle centerline and since we want the link behind the centerline, it becomes easier to fit the caliper ahead of the axle (i.e., on the leading side) which has the added benefit of better weight distribution.
So to sum it all up, we want Deflection Toe OUT in the front and Deflection Toe IN in the rear to make the car more controllable due to deflection steer effect. To get Deflection Toe OUT, the linkage needs to be ahead of the axle (really it would be ahead of the steering axis) and to get Deflection Toe IN, the linkage needs to be behind the axle and thus we want the front linkage ahead of the axle and the rear linkage behind the axle which therefore makes it more practical to place the front calipers on the trailing side and the rear calipers on the leading side.
*****
Well, that makes alot of sense.
But on the rear, do you think the control arm, and it's attaching point, which are IRON are lighter than an ally caliper and it's bracket??
and,
Enthusiasts upgrade to polyurethane, and real racers use billet aluminum suspension bushings (which are noisy). Are we really having much deflection with Poly??
and,
Your favorite brand names for replacement brake pads that are "better" than ordinary parts store brands??
TIA
I've always wondered this! Great vid man!
HAHA It has to be a sports car. It has a little spoiler :D I love the drawing!
great show man def. answered a couple of questions i had about brake caliper placement. love the show keep it up.
Great job as usual
Awesome video as always
cool collection of data. thanks!
In a former life I used to work on race car suspension and the position of the Caliper can be used for anti-dive effects.
I found this explanation on a website and it is reasonably accurate.
"The braking loads are transmitted via. the inboard suspension mounts. If viewed from side on these converge towards the CofG (parallel effectively means ground level), you get anti-dive geometry - going through the CofG is 100% anti-dive and a lower converging point is less than 100%, right down to 0% @ ground level. I don't know how much anti-dive is used in F1 cars (or anti-squat for that matter) as too much anti-dive can work to make the suspension "tie up" under braking.
Because the wheels rotate, if the caliper is behind the upright any braking force will try and lift the wheel off the ground (how much effect this has I don't know) - a caliper in front of the upright will try and drive the wheel into the ground. I expect these effects are minimal otherwise I'm sure we would see more calipers in front of the upright. "
Wow this was really interesting!I especially found the Hellcat example interesting!
great video man keep up the good work !
A video covering the engineering behind the brake design on Buell motorcycles would be cool. It's drastically different than other motorcycles and car disc brakes.
Cool stuff! Keep it up!
Thank you, I have always wanted to know this.
I've always wondered about this. thank you.
great video. thanks.
+Engineering Explained nice video. The main reason for front calipers being placed rearwards in sports cars is limiting bearing load while braking. If the caliper would be placed towards the front it would additionally load the bearing almost doubling it (depending on wheel and brake disc size, friction coefficient > 1 for high performance tyres...) Placing the caliper rearwards it will actually help to discharge the bearing while braking as the disc will tend to pivot around the brake pads, therefore compensating the load generated by the weight transfer while braking.
Cool video! I always wondered this now I know!
I know this is an old video and maybe it has been pointed out but for Chargers the issue is RWD vs. AWD. All of the RWD cars have the front calipers mounted to the inside and the AWD models have a clearance issue so caliper is mounted towards front. Easy way to tell if a Charger is RWD or AWD is check the front caliper placement. Nice content.
Good data well done.
always had this doubt on my mind.... thanks for clearing that up
Very interesting video, thank you.
Love your car drawings :D
really helpfull..i was extremly confused about caliper locations..thank you..!
For motorcycles the front brakes are all in the same spot , rear and up (around the 10 o'clock). The reason: they are mounted as close as possible to the steering axis to minimise steering inertia.
Are there any changes in suspension loading depending on where the callipers are located?
Thanks for the info, one area that i was hoping you would cover when considering caliper location is deflection.
When spinning the rotor at high speed and than jamming on the brakes for the corner. Does the initial bite of the brakes deflect the wheel in a given direction and possibly improve the bite of the wheel to the ground or lift it to reduce the bite to the ground?
For example, take a mountain bike and lift the rear tire off the ground. Get the wheel spinning and than jam on the brake like you would in a race car. The bike will push forward and down. Transfer that reaction to a car and could designers be using that reaction to their advantage on the track to either hammer the tire harder into the pavement for more bite and reduced braking distance or causing it to lift slightly in attempts to offset a heavier vehicle and save the tires from destruction in the corners?
Thank you for addressing this question.
Thanks for this
I have always wondered this....but couldn't figure it out. Thanks for the info! subbed
cool video.i always wondered why since the 18" and 20" rims came out you cant leave the rear windows down as the horrid wah wah wah wah noise comes into the care at around 80kmh, first the GT aussie ford i actually thought i had broken something and pulled over only to find out my back passanger window was down lol.and even worse with 20" srt8 300c i can just hear it throuh the body no windows down ,of course if i wound them down its an instant headache :) love your videos keep up the great information.God bless.
The most important think is related to the relief of weight bearing on when braking. In front will push the wheels up, relieving the weight at the time of braking, if your wheel is supported on the inside of the bearing this will extend the life of the bearing. The reverse is also supported outside wheel, brake caliper back.
O mais importante acho que está relacionado ao alívio de peso nos rolamentos no momento de frenagem. Na frente vai empurrar as rodas para cima, aliviando o peso no momento de frenagem, se sua roda estiver apoiada na parte de dentro dos rolamentos isso irá prolongar a vida útil do rolamento. O contrário também, roda apoiada do lado de fora, pinça de freio para trás.
awesome, thanks for teaching me!
Finally got an answer. I have always wandered why they are placed differently but always forgot/too lazy to research :D Thx!
cool! good information.
Does it have to do anything with the torque distribution for the vehicle or with the reaction forces on the brakes??
thank you.
Got it, thanks, explains a lot.
Interesting. Something that I hadn't put much thought into before, but I'm glad I saw this video. For the record, I do recall seeing a small number of vehicles with the brake calipers located directly on top of the rotor in the rear, but cannot remember which vehicles they were. Probably a truck.
I would really like to see a video on the old Duesenberg W-24 Marine Engine, I think that was an interesting engine design.
I walked past a Maserati and a Lexus (performance Lexus of some type) they were parked next to each other. The Lexus had the caliper on the rear of the front tire and the Maserati had it on the leading side. I wondered if the placement affected nosedive when braking hard, so I found this video. Seems as though it has none or very little effect in terms of handling characteristics when braking. Thank you for explaining.
Never even realized the location would play a roll, just opened my eyes once more
From 2 years ago but that Corvette is a GTE.
Great video!
thank you for investigating this and telling us why
I would like to see the stats on caliper location for front vs rear vs awd performance cars.
What about cars like the Audi R8 where as there's 2 callipers on some wheels? Nice video though I love the fact that you properly explain!
Hi there! Does the placement of the brake calipers affect the brake force? similar to leading shoe/trailing shoe in case of drum brakes? please let me know. Thank you
as always nice video dude! Btw can you explain how active exhaust works?
I have been drawing since age 5 but gotta admit Jason's drawings are wayyy cooler and funnier.
Cool.. As an engineer, I liked your video based on hard data.. Kudos
Good video
Good videos broo !!! Keep doing them , i learned a lot from them , by the way , test a hellcat man , or a charger R/T 2012 road &track , like mine , I will be interested to see my car there
Wouldn't caliper location also be dependent on where they felt the rack and pinion should be? I think a reasonable explanation for having the front caliper on the back is that the they want the rack and pinion in front because there is more room given that sports cars like having the engine as far back as possible. what do you guys think?
Absolutely.
Engineering Explained Is it possible to get pics of the steering knuckle(uprights) of these cars?I would like to see how the steering arm is positioned(the angle,length). I would like to see how this affects the caliper position too.
Thank you! I've always wondered why calipers were where they were. It always seemed so haphazard, I always thought it was an after thought. Personally, I think calipers look the best when they're rear mounted or bottom mounted. Front and top mounted always looked weird to me. :P
I love this guy.
Great video bud! Very informative and greatly appreciated! Need to keep my mind chewing on some new material to learn! You live in LA?
Caliper location on the race cars has several reasons you mentioned.
Center of mass to the middle of the car, less rotational inertia when turning.
Having the front calipers behind the front rotor allows the air ducted to the wheel to enter the brake rotor in the center rear of the rotor. The air travels from the hub (cooling the bearings) outward through the vents in the brake rotor, where it exits towards the rim, and also, brake caliper.
The caliper being at the rear, this allows all the air that is traveling under the car, and into the wheel through the outside, to pass over it, where it would be in a virtual dead zone if it was on the forward side.
In a street car, that will help keep heat in the pads, during normal driving, allowing consistent braking.
Rear brakes having the rotors to the front side, once again center of mass. Brake ducts also travel back, but don't always enter the center of the rear rotor, because of the axle placement, as well as hub design on independent rear cars. Ducts are often through the body work and then exit under the car and simply point at the caliper/rotor.
A reason the calipers are mounted low, but only to a certain degree is wheel failure on race cars. It is a calculable risk to have wheel lug failure, human error, or a center lock wheel (one large nut) cross thread. When this wheel falls off, breaks off and or otherwise fails. The car falls and the brake rotor itself rides on the pavement.
As the cost for a consumable like a brake rotor is completely within most budgets, as a item replaced frequently (not so much with full carbon) its preferable to have the brake rotor for other reasons as well to be the only part of the now bare corner, riding on pavement.
If the wheel fails. Its very plausible that if there isn't an accident.. the car can have a wheel mounted and continue, even though the brake rotor itself rode on the pavement some.
If the caliper was mounted low, it would cause irreparable damage to the caliper, possibly damage that causes the braking hydraulics to become compromised, allowing the remaining brakes to fail. And or cause enough drag, to make the car spin, and or do extremely costly damage to the chassis components from the shock loads.
One of the F1 teams (cant remember which on ATM) has moved their calipers to the bottom of the wheel for this 2015 season. Guessing for lower CG
Hi!! I am always asking myself about this small detail in cars. In this case I thought there were only thermal issues for brake caliper position.
Thank you.
I Waiting for your next video!!.
Bye!
Good Job........................
I think one of the things he didn't mention is how the braking force interwork with the suspension geometry. I think when placed in the rear vs front, the force exerted on the caliper mount is more inline with the center of the steering geometry. Closer means less effect on the steering force. This is why most sports cars have the caliper towards the rear on the front vs passenger cars so that the steering is more agile vs more stable.
Glad you made this video, disappointed you didn't touch on a little theory I've had in my head about caliper location relating to braking stability, more specifically - when the tyre digs into the road, would outer placed calipers influence the car to dig in or squat and inner placed callipers influence the car to lift up? Basically could the location of the calipers influence whether the car try to roll over those wheels or lift up? When you brake all the weight moves forward, and since you have the biggest brakes and the steering in the front you want all the weight to move forward, but at the same time you don't want the rear lifting off the ground so an outer placed rear caliper counteracts that by keeping it planted and resisting the liftoff. .. do I make any sense?
Other considerations are bleed screws need to be vertical to avoid air pockets, and bearing loads will be lower for a trailing caliper, and even lower when placed lower, optimal at about 45 degrees depending on the braking deceleration. That being said, the caliper has to be partially dismounted in order to bleed the brakes since the bleed screw is located at the top of the caliper
can you change the placement of the caliper in a gt86? so that the calipers are pushed inward towards the centre of the car
Hey I have a question about F1 ERS, but i don't think you'd see the comment, so i'd post it here.
For the MGU-K, does the motor spin the entire crankshaft to allow the pistons to rotate faster for a higher RPM and fuel burn. Or does the motor only send its power directly to the rear wheels to spin them faster??
I've always thought of it in the way that, for example, if the front caliper is at the back of the front disc, the force exerted on the caliper by friction on the disc is upward. This effectively lifts that wheel upward, and would mean that the load transferred to the front tyre is less than it would be, and keeps the front to rear weight distribution closer to 50/50. I may well be confused.
Would have been interesting to explore the anti-diving effect of caliper positioning on the suspension, considering different suspension layouts: double wishbone, Macpherson, multiple links...
Caliper position doesn't affect brake dive. Brake dive is caused by the tire contact patch being lower than the car's center of mass. Regardless of the position of the caliper, the braking torque is converted into a force couple at the contact patch and the hub.
im glad you analyze things like that... are you still doing the mechanical engineering career?
Could there be any effect on weight if hard braking ie in front of wheel more weight rear of wheel less weight on hard braking or is it just angular momentum thanks I love your work
There's a point you didn't mention about why putting calipers on the inside on sports cars :
When braking with a car, the global inertia will push the mass center to the front of the car, putting all the weight on the front wheels while the rear of the car is lifted up.
By putting the calipers on the inside, on heavy braking, when the calipers aplly forces trying to stop the rotors, the inertia of the front wheel will try to lift the front of the chassis up whereas the inertia of the rear wheel will try to pull the rear drivetrain to the ground.
(Try to make a disc spin fast and applying friction on on side of it, you'll see it trying to convert this friction by moving toward the direction it's spinning to escape your friction.)
These counter-forces, applyed in oposition the the force of the car slowing down, help balancing the mass center, keeping is as close as possible to the middle of the car, for better stability while braking.
I hope I was clear enough, correct me if I'm wrong, and sorry for my poor english! ;)
Abhishek Chowdary That's exactly my point! ;) I was told this by a friend who worked as a mechanic on a Aston Martin DBRS9 in the GT1 world's champonship.
This doesn't make sense to me. It would make sense if the caliper and brake rotor were not connected by a knuckle and wheel bearing like in your disc example. Regardless of caliper position, the resultant force is going to be a moment of the knuckle translated through the control arms of the suspension. Under braking, the unsprung mass becomes (more-or-less) single unit delivering torque through the control arms. However, that torque, front and rear, delivers a forward pitch of the entire chassis. Imagine pushing a stick through the front spokes of a moving bicycle. No resistance between the frame and rotating wheel results in normal riding. When the stick is jammed in. You flip over the handlebars. It doesn't matter where the stick goes through the wheel or even what causes the front wheel to lock up, just so that the front wheel locks up. A prominent method of controlling chassis dive (for braking) and squat (for throttle) is suspension geometry and spring-damper tune. By aiming the control arm pivot axes towards the vehicle center of gravity, diving undulations of the chassis can be better controlled.
How would changing the location of the friction matter? The inertia of the wheel will always be the same way for forward motion, and it's always going to cause a forward pitch. It doesn't matter whether you use calipers in any different orientation on the wheel.
drumnstuff Don't know the details, just reporting what a friend told me, I believe he knows what he says as he was a mechanic in the team who won the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship (team Hexis Racing with Aston Martin DBRS9.)
Arthur Tipaldi A mechanic doesn't necessarily know anything about design. They know how to fix shit.
Sorry to say, but your friend is wrong.
I was racking my brain thinking about this before - I was curious about what affect braking has on the weight shift on the suspension. It would seem like you would have a reaction of some sort when hard braking is applied; as in the rotor wild want to lift the car up or down. Or maybe it doesn't work like that.
Do torque paths play any role in location preference? as in, influencing squat during application?
Ive always wondered about the position, I thought it was more related to the caliper design / cross platform characteristics.
The points in the video are for the most part correct, but there are cars that do not follow this model at all.
I came here looking for answers more related to the braking performance, which I would assume would be none based on position (excluding cooling). However as long as the caliper touches the rotor and clamps down then brakes will perform.
I also noticed some manufacturers stick with the same position for all trims, BMW for example is always inner mount front calipers on all trims even if its a basic caliper or a brembo. Same deal for Jaguar, audi, etc.
As an engineer I really hoped to see, mentioned in the video, the influence of the position on the nose dive of the car while braking.