Hey I was just curious for you brake gurus, why are certain calipers placed in different locations on the rotor. Does it make any difference(I would think not") and also if someone wanted to could you move a caliper in a stock location to another. For example I have the track edition the front calipers are towards the front could I place them near the rear of the rotor given the logo will be backwards.

 

Caliper placement (supposedly) is a factor of suspension design. The object of proper design is such that when the brakes are applied during a hard stop, the resulting brake torque reacted through the brake caliper will transmit the force through the suspension to counteract the natural propensity of the car to nose dive and squat under braking.

 

But how do you know where to position for certain applications. I am just an inquiring mind wanting to know, not actually going to do it

 

Computer modeling I suppose. Other design factors come into play for sure. At one extreme, in Formula One cars, the priority is such that low center of gravity takes precedence so the caliper sits at the six o'clock position (on the rotor). Their suspension is already so stiff and has so little travel that it takes tremendous force to upset it.

As far as a better explanation or analogy of what my previous post was saying, imagine the rotor is spinning very fast, and you try to stop it with your left hand grabbing the rotor upon brake application. Lets say you are facing the left front brake and we are looking towards the motor and the car is traveling to our left. Your left hand is at the rotor nine o'clock position and when you suddenly grab that spinning rotor to try and stop the car, your hand will want to move down from nine towards the six o'clock position of the rotor while reacting the braking torque - that reaction force upsets the suspension and in a street car, causes the car to want to squat under braking. Typically, car makers position the caliper so that under braking, the caliper force counteracts the suspension squat. Easy to understand, no?!

 

Thanks, ya that makes sense. I just find it simply amazing how much thought goes into designing a well balanced braking system for a car. Its pretty cool stuff to learn and understand.