Bought these, as you will see, from a company called Compbrake. The Calipers are generally referred to as “6 Pots” because there are 6 pistons grabbing the disc. Most road cars have a single piston, and simply push aginst the other side of the caliper. These are cheap to make and acceptable for road use, but don’t work very well in competition. The main problem is that the mounting arrangement flexes under high pressure, giving a spongy feel to the brakes, and not giving confidence to the driver.

The discs are massive, both in diameter and in thickness. The larger the diameter the less force required for the same braking effort, or for the same force, more breaking effort is acheived. The vents help to dissipate the heat. If you don;t know brakes work by converting energy into heat, so in competition the brakes get VERY hot. In the sunbeam we took a bearing cover off a front wheel, and it melted through the tarp

Because of all the heat a few things happen. The brake pads get too hot and lose their friction, meaning that you put your foot on the brakes and have a good firm pedal, but there is no loss of forward momentum. The other thing that normally happens is that you boil the brake fluid. This causes gas bubbles to form, and now your brake pedal goes to the floor and again nothing happens. Both of these are bad.

To avoid the first we use different temperatures of pad. The higher the temp rating, or harder, the more they resist fade due to heat build up. The downside is that all pads only have a temperature range that they work in, so if you increase the upper, you also increase the minimum. This means that when you get to the first corner and push the brake pedal, little happens until heat is generated. This is bad for the nerves.

The second problem, boiling fluid, is by using brake fluid with a high boiling point. The only downside of this fluid is cost.