so if you lowered your ride heigh from stock, thus lower the CG, would that increase potential stopping power of the rear brakes (thus the entire car?)
...i'm sorry if the answer is evident to everyone else, but i didn't pick it up. All I got from SS was that if the car was over lowered then the suspension would actually hinder the contact effectiveness of the tire-to-road, if other things weren't taken into account. But would conservatively lowering the car increase the stopping power of the rear brakes without comprimising the front?
I thought the topic had deviated from braking. Technically lowering the cars CG *CAN* increase the cars overall capacity to brake. HOWEVER, without a brake-bias adjustment it would probably make it WORSE - the cars brake bias is setup for the stock amount of weight transfer. Drastically reducing that weight transfer onto the fronts will probably just make them lock even earlier... The stock brake bias is setup to lock the fronts just before the rears. This "expects" the weight onto the fronts. Reducing that would make the fronts lock that much more before to rear. CG height / lowering is NOT the place to look for improved braking... SS
no, i'm just a moron with lots of questions. :] I guess i should re-learn how to ask the question better to get an answer i'm looking for... When braking the car (wrx)seems to 'dive forward' more than just slow down. I feel the car's angles change under hard 60-0 braking. Is there something I can do that will both lessen that feeling and shorten stopping distance?
stiffer suspension would lessen the forward "pitch" you're feeling, better tires would increase braking traction. dunno if it would really help braking dist. significantly though.
To shorten your stopping distance you are looking to change a variety of variables, however, the ultimate ones which you have control over are... Rotors, Calipers, Tires, Pads. As per some of the previous posts, you can see why larger rotors and calipers can improve your response time and braking distance, as well as the importance of a high quality brake pad. Tires which grip substantially better than stock will also aid in shortening the distance as they are less likely to give and slide under heavy braking.
i using kumho ecsta ASX for tires now... but i do remember reading how putting bigger rotors-calipers on a car may seem to improve breaking power, but actually increase stopping distance because of improper brake bias tuning. That leaves me with the impression that a brake bolt on by itself will not have the effect I want...