Originally Posted by
ChrisH
Can always buy big bastard 4 pots. Lots of people think "If i put big discs on the brakes are better" this is not the case, it's all about pad area, then you might need master cylinders to suit your new set up for full braking efficiency.
It's actually very little to do with pad area, it's a lot more to do with co efficient of friction, that's why uprated pads have a higher cof, larger pads tend to use more pistons in the calipers, or a larger single in a lot of cases, putting larger diameter/bigger discs will make the pedal lighter for the same amount of "stop", as it exerts a larger lever effect on the disc with the caliper being further away.
It's easy to over brake a car, a lot of rear discs fitted on smaller lighter cars do next to nothing due to the fact they have very little traction due to lack of weight over them, indeed some race series like hot hatch actually brake ONLY on the front and disconnect the rear brakes!!
On a fwd set up around 85-90% of the braking comes from the front, but by all means put discs on rear if you want the looks.
tabetha