Brake balance 101

What is brake balance and how does it affect your driving? Here we will do small dive in to the world of brake balance and few ways how you could adjust it to be more of your own liking.

Brake balance is as it´s name says. The balance of the braking forces divided between front and rear axles. On street cars this is usually fixed ratio with no easy way to adjust it, but on race cars you should be able to adjust it rather easy with brake balance adjuster dial.

When driver is pressing down on the brake pedal. This movement also moves a piston inside the brake master cylinder that creates pressure in the brake systems lines. On a street car where you will normally have only one master cylinder for braking circuit. This balance of forces applied to front and rear are pre-calculated. And depend on few key aspects:

• Brake master cylinder´s piston bore
• Brake line size and length (differences between front and back circuits)
• Type of brakes being used on both axles
• Diameter of the brake caliper pistons
• Ratio that the brake pedal moves (mainly applicable on dual cylinder setups)

On a street car brake balance is usually from OEM more on the front axle than on the rear. This ratio will depend on the intended use of the vehicle, but is almost always over 50% on the front. Usual setup from factory is somewhere close to 60% front and 40% rear brake balance.

For street driving and or commuting this balance is alright as this is usually relaxed driving and this brake balance offers safe, stable and care-free stopping power.

Let´s say you want to do a big brake kit (BBK). On your street driven track day car. Your car would originally have one piston floating calipers and 290 mm discs in the front and one piston floating calipers with 280 mm discs on the rear.

You upgrade your front calipers to four piston fixed calipers with 350 mm discs on the front and leave the rear untouched. You will feel that the front has a lot more bite now than it had before, but the rear seems to be off. With only upgrading your front setup. This could tip your brake balance even more over to the front. Making your brake balance to be somewhere around 70-80% front and 30-20% rear.

While this can make your "stop" faster and allow later braking before corner. It is also creating more weight transfer as the front of your car is taking on more of the braking and rear is lacking on the brake power. Relying on the front brakes to do all the work.

If you upgrade your front brake setup. It is always recommended to match your rear brakes with the fronts. This will actually allow your car to be faster around the corners. Allow smaller weight transfer between axles and make the car stable on the braking.

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