Do-It-Yourself High Performance Car Mods

Anatomy of a Braking System

Unless you are restoring an antique from the days of Model Ts, your car probably has a hydraulic braking system. With hydraulic brakes, the brake pedal pushes on a hydraulic cylinder, known as the master cylinder. This forces brake fluid through the brake lines to the brakes themselves, which on normal street cars sit just behind each wheel. A few Jaguars and other European cars use inboard brakes, where the brakes are attached to the differential instead of the wheels to reduce unsprung weight.

Brakes come in two varieties: disc brakes and drum brakes. Almost all cars since the mid-’70s use disc brakes on the front wheels, and high-performance cars often have them at the back too. A disc brake has a spinning metal ...