So here's the deal, locally there's 7, yes SEVEN, sets of callipers for solid discs from various fiats and Alfas, the price is cheap too, I can pick any of them up tomorrow. However I cannot find any callipers for vented discs locally and if I go nationally I'm literally paying over twice the price. So for a car that's not likely to see any track work, is there any point paying the extra, both money and weight, for the extra cooling?

So is it worth it?

wouldnt bother with vented for the size of car tbh.

Depends on what power your running. I have vented, and would reccommed them.

Larger pads means more friction, so the discs will heat up sooner and being larger retain heat for longer.

How much are the non-vented you can get? Sure there are a par of vented in my local breaker i can get off for you and sell at cost. Prob want about 40-50 going by the caliper i got there the other day.

Kristian

The amount of friction is not decided by the size of the pad, purely by friction coefficient of the pad and the disc. This, together with the force which with it is pressed onto the disc gives the braking force.

The advantage of a larger brakepad is that it has more material to cope with the friction-heat. Therefore a larger brakepad from the same material as a smaller one will stay cooler under braking. This is the reason that a larger brakepad can be made of a material with a better friction coefficient, because it can cope with more heat.

So a larger brakepad only brakes better when it is indeed made fro material with a better friction coefficient.

Same story for a tyre. A wider tyre does not give more grip. But because it is wider, it has a larger contactpatch, and therefore has more possibilities to get rid of its heat. Therefore a wider tire can be made softer. The softer, and wider tyre can get rid of its heat easier, thus can be made of a softer rubber that gives more grip.

So getting larger brakepads is nice, but they are only effective when made of a material with higher friction coefficient. But dont worry, most brakepads are, so combining them with a good pair of vented discs will surely improve braking!

The reason for doing this is that I've simply lost confidence in Yellow's brakes, even with the garage telling me the front brakes are in very good condition and the efficiency is way up there etc. when I drive the car it simply doesn't have the confidence I get from Red. So it's a case of sell the car, which I don't want to do, or fix it, so I'll fix it and that means big brakes.

Cheapest place was £35 for the pair, most expensive £55. After postage I was looking at £70 to £85 for a pair for vented discs.