I had a lot of my brake calipers apart awhile ago and took some pictures that I wanted to share with everyone. Take a look at some of the similarities and differences between the different calipers.
First lets start out with some '03-04 Stock Cobra calipers. These are similar to the current GT calipers w/ 2 piston on one side of the caliper. These calipers are used with a 13" rotor.
Next up are the '07-12 GT500 and current "Brembo" packaged GT calipers. These are a Brembo 4 piston design. The calipers are machined in two halves by Brembo then bolted together with four large 12 point bolts. The brake fluid is transferred from one side of the caliper to the other by an external hard brake line, seen in the picture below. These calipers are used with a 14" rotor.
Here's a picture of two of the pistons from the 4P Brembos
These calipers, along with the '03-04 designs and the '13-14GT500 calipers I'm about to show you, use a piston seal and a dust boot. Some aftermarket designs use a scraper ring opposed to a dust boot. More on this later.
Up next are the massive new 6 piston calipers from Brembo, found on the current '13-14 GT500's. These calipers work with a huge 15" rotor! These calipers are really nice. Instead of being a two piece design that is bolted together, Brembo stepped it up with these one piece calipers that were cast in Italy.
This new one piece design eliminates the four huge steel bolts found on the earlier 4piston calipers, which significantly reduces weight, despite the extra 2 pistons.
Here you see the blue 6P calipers and the red 4P calipers.
Someone smarter than me may know why, but they changed the piston design too.
Now we're on to some aftermarket BAER 6P calipers for an '04 Customer of mine. These are also a one piece design similar to the 6P Brembos, but they do have an external brake line to transfer fluid from one side of the caliper to the other like the earlier 4P Brembo brake calipers.
Like mentioned earlier, these calipers have a scraper ring instead of the factory equipped calipers that have dust boots. Again, someone smarter than myself can probably explain why. I just have the pics. lol
Take another look at these factory 6P Brembo calipers. You'll see inside the piston bore is a recess for the piston seal ring. Then another recess on the outside of the piston bore for the dust boot to seal into.
These BAER calipers on the other hand have two recesses cut into the piston bore. The inner most one is the piston seal and the outer one is for another seal that has two ridges on it, that is called the scraper ring.
Here's a picture of the Baer pistons. Similar in design to the 4P brembo pistons.
Here's a pic of the Baer (bottom) and Brembo (Top) pistons together.
The whole sha-bang!
Thanks for looking!
-Brian
First lets start out with some '03-04 Stock Cobra calipers. These are similar to the current GT calipers w/ 2 piston on one side of the caliper. These calipers are used with a 13" rotor.
Next up are the '07-12 GT500 and current "Brembo" packaged GT calipers. These are a Brembo 4 piston design. The calipers are machined in two halves by Brembo then bolted together with four large 12 point bolts. The brake fluid is transferred from one side of the caliper to the other by an external hard brake line, seen in the picture below. These calipers are used with a 14" rotor.
Here's a picture of two of the pistons from the 4P Brembos
These calipers, along with the '03-04 designs and the '13-14GT500 calipers I'm about to show you, use a piston seal and a dust boot. Some aftermarket designs use a scraper ring opposed to a dust boot. More on this later.
Up next are the massive new 6 piston calipers from Brembo, found on the current '13-14 GT500's. These calipers work with a huge 15" rotor! These calipers are really nice. Instead of being a two piece design that is bolted together, Brembo stepped it up with these one piece calipers that were cast in Italy.
This new one piece design eliminates the four huge steel bolts found on the earlier 4piston calipers, which significantly reduces weight, despite the extra 2 pistons.
Here you see the blue 6P calipers and the red 4P calipers.
Someone smarter than me may know why, but they changed the piston design too.
Now we're on to some aftermarket BAER 6P calipers for an '04 Customer of mine. These are also a one piece design similar to the 6P Brembos, but they do have an external brake line to transfer fluid from one side of the caliper to the other like the earlier 4P Brembo brake calipers.
Like mentioned earlier, these calipers have a scraper ring instead of the factory equipped calipers that have dust boots. Again, someone smarter than myself can probably explain why. I just have the pics. lol
Take another look at these factory 6P Brembo calipers. You'll see inside the piston bore is a recess for the piston seal ring. Then another recess on the outside of the piston bore for the dust boot to seal into.
These BAER calipers on the other hand have two recesses cut into the piston bore. The inner most one is the piston seal and the outer one is for another seal that has two ridges on it, that is called the scraper ring.
Here's a picture of the Baer pistons. Similar in design to the 4P brembo pistons.
Here's a pic of the Baer (bottom) and Brembo (Top) pistons together.
The whole sha-bang!
Thanks for looking!
-Brian