Watch This Brake Rotor Explode in Slow Motion
Ever Wanted to See What Happens When You Subject a Brake Rotor to High Stress?
People from Finnland are nuts, in the best way possible. They’re always working to create something even more bizarre and more exciting than before. The guys over at Beyond the Press (who also run the infinitely-interesting Hydraulic Press channel) have released the below video, which is all about destruction in the interest of scientific research. They wanted to see what would happen to a brake rotor under high stress, so they jacked up one side of an old Ford Fiesta, then jammed down the throttle and the brake at the same time. After becoming glowing red hot, the brake rotor explodes in dramatic fashion!
Friction basically takes the rotational energy of the rotor and turns it into heat. That much heat in a piece of cast iron is enough to disintegrate the rotor, turning it into pieces. Luckily, these crazy Finns have filmed the whole process with both a slow-motion camera and an FLIR heat camera. This is a very interesting look at how rotors stand up to the rigors of stress. If you’ve neglected your braking system lately, perhaps now is the time to dive into setting it right, before you cause damage to your car, or worse yet, injury to you or someone else.
You can see from the video that a braking system can hold up to a lot of stress, particularly as this Fiesta has quite small rotors to begin with, making them poor heat sinks. While most of the Mercs you drive will have quite large rotors, and perhaps even carbon ceramic brakes, this can provide a good lesson. If you’re taking your Mercedes to the track, make sure to inspect the rotors for cracks and grazing before going out on course, because repeated stops from speed in a large, heavy car can create this much heat in rapid fashion. You need a lot of friction to get around a lot of courses in a reasonable time, so a rotor that is already compromised will have a larger potential to explode in dramatic fashion. The last thing you want on track is to completely lose your braking system, or to completely lock up a wheel inexplicably.
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Via [Beyond The Press]
