Do I really need ceramics?

[Shinobi675]

I have no idea by the way! I'm genuinely curious.

[feeltheburn]

Ross - Their greater pad area means that they would be able to lock the wheels in a faster time which gives them a slightly higher decelaration force over steels, upto the grip limit of the tyres anyway.

I mean, we're not talking about steels being rubbish, the differences are fairly minor until you repeatedly hammer the brakes.

Of course, I could be talking complete rubbish as I've not driven ceramics but will have a set by Dec so I can do a back-to-back test then.

Size is not really the issue here- it is all to do with mass and heat capacity. As we all know from our school days, when braking Kinetic energy is converted to thermal energy and dissipated to the environment, it is this mechanism that slows you. Ceramic is a poorer conductor of heat than steel and therefore to maintain a similar effective heat transfer area to steel the discs/pads etc need to be larger. I found this thread on Pistons Heads, http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... 0it?&mid=0 somewhere in amongst all the testosterone BS, there are some quite informed posts, before, as with all forums it descends in to a pi**ing contest.

Ultimately ceramics were born to tackle brake fade for hard circuit driving. Why the hell anyone would want to stick a +2 tonne estate car on a track, other than for the shock an awe factor of seeing an estate car managing fairly well on the straight bits, beggars belief! Each to their own of course!