Starting from left to right, the 350Z base package front rotor (16.6 lbs), track package f
Sliding calipers are simple, cheap and easy to maintain, but are less efficient due to the frictional losses of the sliding pins and rotor drag on the pads. They are ideal for street cars because they take up much less space than fixed opposing piston calipers. It is worthwhile to note that top vehicles like BMW's M-series cars use floating calipers for reasons they feel are advantageous over fixed systems.
Fixed Calipers
Most aftermarket big brake systems, some high-end sports car's brakes and most race applications use a fixed caliper design. Fixed calipers are rigidly mounted to the hub and use opposing pistons on each side of the rotor to clamp down onto the pad. Oftentimes, higher-quality calipers with two or more pistons on each side use a staggered piston layout where the leading piston (in the direction of rotor rotation) is smaller than the pistons behind it. This decreases the force on the leading edge of the brake pad, creating more even pad wear.
The Trophy Sport rear rotor (left) features an aluminum hat with provisions for a drum-sty
The only moving components of a fixed caliper are the pistons themselves which are positioned in each side of the caliper and pushing on each pad. Fixed calipers are typically made from cast, pressure-cast or forged aluminum, depending on the quality of the brakes. Because of this, more of the lower stiffness aluminum material is typically required when compared to steel. The trade-off is less weight but more space. The Track Package 350Z uses mass-produced, pressure cast-aluminum, four-piston calipers from Brembo just like EVOs and STis. These are less dense and have poorer grain structure than forgings like on higher-end aftermarket products. To help increase strength, StopTech also uses a patented X-brace across the caliper opening to further prevent the halves from spreading apart as the pistons squeeze against the pads and rotor.
There are also fixed calipers that are monobloc in design, meaning it's not made of two halves. In theory, the monobloc is a stiffer design, but due to cost limitations, monoblocs are typically pressure-cast instead of forged. This means it's not as rigid. In addition, a two-piece fixed caliper uses steel caliper bolts to hold the two halves together, which significantly increase its overall stiffness compared to just a pressure-cast monobloc. If price was no object, forged monoblocs with extremely expensive alloys can be stiffer and stronger, but even these types of parts have been banned in F1 to minimize costs.
Most OEM rotors use a non-directional straight or pillar vane design (left and center); hi
Our StopTech Trophy Sport brakes use a two-piece caliper reinforced by the company's patented machined X-brace. The brace also includes vaned orifices to help remove hot air away from the rotor. In the case of the Trophy and Trophy Sport calipers, StopTech went the extra step to increase caliper stiffness by using through holes for the caliper bolts. This means the two caliper body halves are clamped together with bolts secured by a nut on the other side instead of a slightly weaker blind hole design, where the bolt threads into the aluminum body itself. Through the use of computer modeling and simulation, StopTech was also able to further reduce overall caliper weight by machining out extraneous material on the caliper body itself without any sacrifice to overall caliper stiffness. Our Trophy Sport calipers also feature newly developed high-temp, silicon-rubber dust seals (all OE street brakes use rubber seals) around each piston to prevent dirt from entering and gouging the piston bores. True race brakes like the Trophy brakes don't use these due to the extreme temperatures they are constantly exposed to and the fact that race brakes are rebuilt on a regular basis. As a final touch, both Trophy and Trophy Sport calipers use a harder Type 3 semi-transparent anodizing that is more chip- and fade-resistant under high heat.