GT350 Rear Brake Caliper Mounting Placement

[302 Hi Pro]

This is just a question that I have thought about concerning the rear brake caliper mounting point on the new Shelby GT350.

I thought there was some benefit by mounting both front and rear brake calipers toward the center of the car. On the Boss 302, Ford mounted the rear calipers towards the center of the car, (rear brake caliper mount is forward of the rear tire/wheel).

Then looking at Rick's awesome 2016 GT350TP car, I noticed the rear caliper mounting position is behind the rear tire/wheel.

My question is: "Why did Ford change the rear brake caliper to this position?" I thought, I read something, somewhere about having benefits of unsprung weight distribution by moving both front and rear brake caliper mounting points towards the center of the vehicle.

Frankly, I am not sure if there is any validity to this, but I have noticed this same feature on other makes high dollar super cars. So I thought I would throw this question out to the Forum experts here.

Please share your thoughts on this.

Thanks so much,
302 Hi Pro


PS: Note: Not criticizing here, just curious.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

In an ideal case, the calipers (both front and rear) are facing the center of the car. This helps reduce polar moment of inertia by having more of the mass towards the CG of the vehicle, and contributes to making the car easier to change direction.

However in some cases, this cannot be achieved due to packaging constraints for other suspension parts, brake lines, swaybars, etc.

Alternately, they could have been placed in the rearward position to alter (improve?) the front-rear weight balance of the vehicle. (Get closer to the "magic" 50/50)

Unsprung weight will not be affected by the orientation of the caliper.