Anyone read . . .

[Tom]

. . the new PPC mag yet? In the letters section there is a letter from a guy asking about princess 4 pots.

 

Will Holman reckons they're worse than standard Escort/Capri calipers, His argument was that the surface area of the single escort piston is larger than the combined surface area of the 2 smaller pots on the princess ones, therefore less clamping force.

 

I can see his point But doesn't it take less pedal movement/effort to move a smaller piston the same distance?

 

I Thought the 4 pots gave you better brake effort from less pedal movement?

 

Am i right and is Holman only printing half the argument or i am i a dick and should stop thinking so much?

[Vista]

sounds like a lot of old cobblers to me, people have been converting to princess calipers for years and reporting better braking.

 

On the one hand you have thousands of happy customers reporting better braking (myself included on two different cars)

 

On the other you have one guy saying the opposite, who do you reckon is right?

 

I'm also not convinced that the pad area on M16 calipers is larger, I have some old M16 pads somewhere but no princess ones to compare them too. However my recollection when I changed them over was that the princess ones looked to have a greater pad area

 

edit just re-read your post, you mean the piston combined CSA is larger on the M16 caliper over the Princess one right?

 

Well he's right, the M16 piston area is some 4581mm squared, whereas the princess one has marginally less at 4537 mm squared. However the Princess caliper has a larger pad frictional area and being 4 pot, the load is spread better across that larger pad giving improved friction on braking.

 

It'd be interesting to have the braking distances measured on the same car from the same speeds, first with the M16 calipers and then the princess ones. My money would be on the 4 pots having a shorter stopping distance.

[Tom]

yeah the princess ones are larger but i'm talking about clamping force from piston surface area.

 

I was chatting to my mate earlier and he reckons it bollix too, i just wanted to know what you guys think

[bomber1]

the 4pots lock the front wheels up on my mk1 very well. do u think he had not done a true comarison like 1 car having a servo with the 4 pots to a non servo on the m16? or he knows