Ask a Automotive Brake Engineer

[Brakeman]

I worked for a wholesale parts distributer. Can you tell me what brand of pads you like and if cost equals performance?

Akebono brakes of course! (don't want me to get fired do you?) Akebono brake pads are good OEM quality.

I like ITT and another German make I cant think of right know. I use the brand I cant think of every day in my office, but I'm having a major senior moment right now.

Performance Friction is pretty good but they are small and very poorly run. Their quality of consistency is questionable but they produce performance pads here in the US.

Cost equals performance? .. No, not for the average user. If you live in a mountanous area or are towing anything then yes, spend the extra money. Americans don't usually prefer short stopping distances though because they don't want to be "thrown through the windshield" as opposed to European tastes. Our police pads are barely as gripping as European standard.

[ignoramus]

Tell me why so many performance cars use brembo than any other non oem brand. Are they that good, or just good value performance brakes.

[Alex K]

Bosch?

[Brakeman]

Bosch?

Bosch bought PBR in 2008 but Freaked out over the economy in 2010 and sold chassis brakes to Akebono. So Akebono brakes are the old Bosch.

The company I couldn't think of was PTI.

[Alex K]

Ok, tell us a fact about brake technology that you find fascinating, and that we probably don't know!

[Brakeman]

Tell me why so many performance cars use brembo than any other non oem brand. Are they that good, or just good value performance brakes.

Brembo is our biggest competitor in the high end caliper business, and they are known for their radical engineering designs that sell well to someone looking for flash. I'm pretty sure Brembo doesn't make any friction material though. I think that is farmed out for them. They use Performance Friction as their main friction material supplier for their OEM pads.

Brembo and PBR/Bosch/Akebono pass sports cars around like hot potatoes. We don't like the "A" surface paint requirements for expensive sports cars because scrap costs eat up all of the profit. Brembo somehow manages to make a profit from "A" surface quality parts (no scratches) even though our CMM controlled process are better and our machining is more precise.

I think the future is for more painted calipers though, so we will have to adapt more than Brembo.

[popeyespappy]

What's in a carbon-carbon brake other than carbon?

[JesusHChrist]

On say, a 2015 Mustang, is it worth it to get the Brembo brake package or is it mostly marketing hot air?

Reviewers seems to think they are the bees knees, but that could be selection bias.

[Kitty Galore]

What do you think of Raybestos and Powerstop? Lol

[Brakeman]

What's in a carbon-carbon brake other than carbon?

I'm not positive what you are referring to. Carbon is a common material found in friction material, but by volume it is a small amount added as a friction modifier and a thermal conductor.

If you are speaking of carbon fiber rotors, it is just the rotor that has carbon fiber and I don't really know what other materials are added to the carbon fiber, but I know lots of people that do know. I'll ask next time I have some BS time with one of them.