Which rear brake upgrade would be better performance: Baer or Cobra

[ponysarepretty]

The fact is, most people don't road race their cars, therefore fade on the street should not be an issue, if it is an issue, you are probably driving your car too hard on the street and causing a hazard not only to yourself but those around you.

Bigger brakes won't allow you to stop any better. Think about it this way, the limiting factor on most car's ability to stop and go are the tires, if you can lock up your tires from a given speed, then bigger brakes will not help you in any way stop sooner. It will have a larger surface area, which would translate to less fade and a better pedal feel, but the ultimate stopping distance will not be significantly changed due to your tires losing grip before your brakes are unable to stop your wheels from turning.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Another interesting thing I saw posted once about brakes is that if drilled/slotted are so great then why don't aircraft employ the technology?

 

[Mustang5L5]

The fact is, most people don't road race their cars, therefore fade on the street should not be an issue, if it is an issue, you are probably driving your car too hard on the street and causing a hazard not only to yourself but those around you.

Bigger brakes won't allow you to stop any better. Think about it this way, the limiting factor on most car's ability to stop and go are the tires, if you can lock up your tires from a given speed, then bigger brakes will not help you in any way stop sooner. It will have a larger surface area, which would translate to less fade and a better pedal feel, but the ultimate stopping distance will not be significantly changed due to your tires losing grip before your brakes are unable to stop your wheels from turning.

At the initial grabbing point, most brake systems will lock the brakes. From geo metros to Cobras if you slam on them hard they will lock or cycle the ABS. Tires do play a roll but you could still lock them. The difference is try to lock them up after slowing the car down substaintially. Do 90MPH and step on the brakes normally to slow down. Around 40MPH slam on them as if a panic stop. Chances are you won't be able to lock the brakes up then. Do this on a hot 100 degree day and you might notice the fade even more.

The larger brakes just offer more heat disappation. True most guys here will never see the situation where they would notice a huge difference. I beleive the 1-time stopping distance of the GT's brakes vs a Cobra's brakes was only about 8 feet. Of course, 8 feet is 1 carlenght. The difference was during repeated stops that the difference opened up to 20-30 feet and more after each sucessive stop without cooling.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Another interesting thing I saw posted once about brakes is that if drilled/slotted are so great then why don't aircraft employ the technology?

The heat would crack them instantly.

Plain rotors > drilled, but there are exceptions