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Performance 60-0 braking

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What "upgraded" brakes can do (if they're properly upgraded) is let he car maintain that same stopping distance over many repeated high speed stops without giving them a chance to cool down- which is useful on a race track, but not generally in 'real life' unless your name is Jason Bourne.
Then why did my Mercedes always stop on a dime after regular driving (say, through mountain freeways or regular stop and go freeway traffic or city streets with lots of lights), when most my other cheap cars' stopping distance was twice or three times as much?
 
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Then why did my Mercedes always stop on a dime after regular driving (say, through mountain freeways or regular stop and go freeway traffic or city streets with lots of lights), when most my other cheap cars' stopping distance was twice or three times as much?

You'd need to be a ton more specific about what mercedes and what other cars you're talking about to be able to have any useful discussion around them.

Even then it wouldn't be super useful in THIS discussion since none of those cars are teslas and (presumably) none had regenerative braking that makes the heat capacity of the brakes even less important for non-track use.

Or to put it another way- I've yet to hear of any model 3 owner overheating the stock brakes anywhere but a race track- and doing so should be physically impossible for any single 60-0 stop, which was the actual topic of this thread.

Which means "better brakes" do literally nothing to help with 60-0 stopping distance for a normal stop.

Better tires on the other hand could improve stopping distance significantly. Because the brakes don't stop the car, the tires do.
 
You'd need to be a ton more specific about what mercedes and what other cars you're talking about to be able to have any useful discussion around them.

Even then it wouldn't be super useful in THIS discussion since none of those cars are teslas and (presumably) none had regenerative braking that makes the heat capacity of the brakes even less important for non-track use.

Or to put it another way- I've yet to hear of any model 3 owner overheating the stock brakes anywhere but a race track- and doing so should be physically impossible for any single 60-0 stop, which was the actual topic of this thread.

Which means "better brakes" do literally nothing to help with 60-0 stopping distance for a normal stop.

Better tires on the other hand could improve stopping distance significantly. Because the brakes don't stop the car, the tires do.

We managed to completely overheat the brakes on our test mule on Page Mill in California.

We were testing our new street pad compound last week and faded the stock pads with less than 10 stops from 60mph. They were smoking and smelled awful, and they didn't recover afterwards either. This is normal for a non-sports car, a Camry would do the same. The Model 3 is powerful and heavy. Most cars, out of the box, are incapable of heavy repeated braking unless it is marketed as a sports car and has exceptional brakes.

If you can activate your ABS during braking, it means the limiting factor of deceleration is your tires rather than your brakes!
 
We managed to completely overheat the brakes on our test mule on Page Mill in California.

We were testing our new street pad compound last week and faded the stock pads with less than 10 stops from 60mph. They were smoking and smelled awful, and they didn't recover afterwards either. This is normal for a non-sports car, a Camry would do the same. The Model 3 is powerful and heavy. Most cars, out of the box, are incapable of heavy repeated braking unless it is marketed as a sports car and has exceptional brakes.


When's the last time anybody stopped 10 times in a row from 60-0 back to back to back to back with no cooling off time in anything you could with a straight face call "normal" driving?


If you can activate your ABS during braking, it means the limiting factor of deceleration is your tires rather than your brakes!

Right. Which any modern production car can do in normal use- meaning bigger brakes don't help you in normal driving.

It's why Brembo- a company with a pretty big vested interest in convincing you you need bigger brakes, doesn't even list normal 60-0 stopping distances- because they know their BBKs can't improve those.

Brembo - FAQ

Brembo FAQ said:
Where can I find test data on stopping distances?

At the speeds that stopping distance is generally measured from (60 to 70mph), the test is primarily testing the tire's grip on the pavement. As delivered from the manufacturer, nearly all vehicles are able to engage the ABS or lock the wheels at these speeds. Therefore, an increase in braking power will do nothing to stop the vehicle in a shorter distance. For this reason, Brembo does not record stopping distances at this time.

(bold added for emphasis)

They're super useful on the track (or the chase scene of an action film) though.
 
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When's the last time anybody stopped 10 times in a row from 60-0 back to back to back to back with no cooling off time in anything you could with a straight face call "normal" driving?




Right. Which any modern production car can do in normal use- meaning bigger brakes don't help you in normal driving.

It's why Brembo- a company with a pretty big vested interest in convincing you you need bigger brakes, doesn't even list normal 60-0 stopping distances- because they know their BBKs can't improve those.

Brembo - FAQ



(bold added for emphasis)

They're super useful on the track (or the chase scene of an action film) though.

For sure. Big brakes are about repeatability rather than one-time performance.

Let's lobby Tom Cruise to use a Tesla PM3 for his next Mission Impossible film! It would be a great getaway car.