Caliper Piston Size restriction

[Janko]

Is the following part of FB/F1000 rules involving Caliper Piston size valid?

J. Brakes
Unrestricted, except:
1. All pistons in a given caliper must be of the same size. Calipers
must be ferrous or aluminum alloy.
http://www.formula1000.com/

If so, what is the reasoning behind it?

[TimW]

More expensive multiple piston calipers have varying piston sizes from the leading edge of the pad to the trailing edge to provide more even pad pressure, which in turn gives less taper, longer pad life & firmer pedal. I believe the rule may be to keep the cost of such calipers out of the class.

[Janko]

Has anyone taken into consideration the cost of the brake pads when making that rule up?
With more even pad pressure, there will be more even pad wear which results in longer pad life...hence, after replacing pads a few times, the extra initial caliper cost will eventually be made up in lower pad costs over the lifetime on the car.

[Roux]

I like the rule as written. I don't have the trick calipers. If my pad wear is say 20% higher than with the best caliper design, then I am losing 20 % of about $200/yr. So 40 dollars a year. It will take me something like 10 years to justify the cost of the taper resistent calipers. For what it is worth, my Club Ford always gets new pads because of the loss of thickness, not because of taper, so I have yet to see real evidence of pad taper due to the single pot design

Right now I am getting FB fever. The conversion of the RF96R is finally top priority! Engine mounts are cut and fitted. Welding is next. Then on to spacer and diff

Steve

[Janko]

Good info. Thank you.

[kakarot]

I believe pad tapering happens on low stress applications. I seen couple of pads taper in a shop I worked at. The caliper was multiple piston floating and pistons in a row. Both pads where tapered. Those cars were street cars.
I think on high stress applications, like Formula cars, the wear is more even.

Just some other random info, slightly related to the topic.

[JakeL]

Has anyone taken into consideration the cost of the brake pads when making that rule up?
With more even pad pressure, there will be more even pad wear which results in longer pad life...hence, after replacing pads a few times, the extra initial caliper cost will eventually be made up in lower pad costs over the lifetime on the car.

Just flip the pads every so often, problem solved.

-Jake