YOUR BRAKES HAVE EVOLVED FROM WOOD TO CARBON-CERAMICS.
The first mass-produced cars in the late 19th century were slow-moving things, and stopping them didn’t require much effort. The earliest brakes were simply wooden blocks pressed against the wheels using a lever - simple but effective. Efficient they were not, the wood wore out quickly, especially under heavy use or wet conditions, which led to the need for more suitable materials. As car speeds increased, wood wooden work, and by the 1900s, drum brakes appeared. Also relatively simple, they involved a set of shoes inside a metal drum attached to the wheel as seen on the back of plenty of new cars. When the brakes are applied, the shoes are pressed outward against the drum, creating friction to slow the car. These early shoes used things like asbestos because of its heat resistance and durability, it was used in brake linings for decades, due to its ability to handle friction and heat. Healthy & safety for what? Disc brakes arrived on the scene in the 1950s, first seen on racecars and high-performance vehicles and like today, filtered down to road cars. Disc brakes use a cast iron disc that spins with the wheel, and brake pads made of materials like the aforementioned asbestos are pressed against the disc to create friction. This disc design offered better cooling and stopping power than drum brakes, especially under repeated use. By the late 20th century, brake materials began shifting again and semi-metallic pads became common, using materials like copper, steel and organic materials. These pads had better heat dissipation and performance but they were also heavy and caused more wear on discs.
It was in the 80s when the big shift in materials happened with the introduction of ceramic and carbon ceramic components. This was the age of the supercar, and they were much needed. These were made from a mix of ceramic fibres, bonding agents, and sometimes small amounts of metals. These pads had several advantages, including being quieter and producing less dust with a longer life. They cooked themselves under extreme conditions, and so racecars and supercars shifted to carbon-ceramic setups that use carbon fibre reinforced with silicon carbide to form a lightweight and durable material. Carbon-ceramics can operate at much higher temperatures without losing effectiveness and they also last much longer than conventional steel brakes, often outliving the vehicle itself in normal driving conditions, whatever normal is. They’re also lighter and help to reduce unsprung mass which improves handling and performance, and they’re also much more resistant to fade. It wasn’t that long ago that carbon-ceramics were only seen on supercars and racecars, but these days they’re on the options list for most high-end performance cars. If you’re into track days and actually exploiting the massive power from a modern sportscar, then carbon-ceramics are a good choice. If the wallet can keep up with the prices, of course. Even with all the benefits, there is one serious drawback to a carbon-ceramic setup, and that’s the fact that you have to get heat into them before they work optimally. There are loads of videos online of supercar fails where they leave car shows and cock up because the brakes don’t do what the drivers expect them to do after a bit of a hard launch. Makes for great content though. Now you have a bit of a history of brakes, and so the related video will be an interesting addition to this little learning process.
Take a look at the YouTube video that adds to the above as the chaps from HotCars discuss steel versus carbon-ceramic brakes and which is the one to choose depending on your needs: Are Carbon Ceramic Brakes Worth It OR Just A Gimmick? | HotCars
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