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Why are the rear brakes disks larger than the front brake disks on the Model S?

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It has a lot to do with why the car stops from 60-0 in 108 feet with no drama. Normally the center of gravity on most cars is much closer to the center line of wheel rotation. When you stop, a lot of of the car's weight "rolls" onto the front wheels which plants them down on the pavement harder and lets them generate more braking force before they break loose. Manufacturers know this and thus most normal cars have larger front brakes and have a forward bias on the brake line pressure (sometimes done with the mechanical link between your pedal and the master cylinders that drive the front and rear brakes but mostly done by having different sized cylinders on the front and rear master cylinders to provide the differential pressure).

In Tesla's case, they have good static weight distribution AND a very low center of gravity. That leaves a lot more weight on those rear wheels when you brake thus they need a brake size (and probably pressure) bias that is more neutral or even to the rear. I've not seen this short of a few GTP cars and NEVER on a street car (if someone else has, please chime in here). It is just one more example of how Tesla has thrown out the "how we do things" book for the better :)

Who'd thunk a big ole lux EV would out brake a Maranello (114 feet)?
For reference
599 105 feet
Carrera GT 101 feet
GRT Black 101 feet
Diablo 109 feet
R8 96 feet

There seems to be a lot of carbon brakes in the following listing-
22 Cars that Stop from 60 MPH in Less Than 100 Feet - Motor Trend
 
Yeah, I think low center of gravity, and rearward weight bias (compared to competitors) are the most likley factors.

Also, I have seen many cars where the rear discs are bigger because they have less airflow than the fronts.
In some cases cars will use solid rear discs, and ventilated fronts.

Also, the rear has a 2nd disc for the parking brake mechanism which may influence the size.

Why are the rear brake discs larger than the front discs on the model s? : teslamotors

Tesla Vehicle Engineering - Part 2 - YouTube
 
lolachampcar said:
It is just one more example of how Tesla has thrown out the "how we do things" book for the better

Not so fast. :)

Not disputing the exceptional results but on the surface, it looks like the Model S has the same brake package as a Camaro SS and early CTS-V. Rotor sizes are the same as are the front calipers (couldn't find a pic of the rear Chevy calipers). The front may be smaller to compensate for the larger front caliper and keep the wheel clearances similar front-to-back. It may be as simple as the Tesla engineer who spec'd it came from GM (or Brembo) and was intimately familiar with that collection of components.

Brembo does a good job of reselling the same components for a long time across many manufacturers. A '99-'05 Ferrari 360 has the same front caliper as a 1995-97 Lotus Esprit, early Viper, and even some Porsche 944 Turbos.
 
Rotor Sizing considers both the Temperature Management and the Torque Management. The overall required Torque of the brake is governed by the weight distribution as described by others. Each Brake must deliver its Torque by a product of both the rotor diameter and the caliper piston size. The Rear brakes are required to provided less than 50% of the Torque. This allows a smaller caliper. Because the caliper is smaller it allows a larger rotor to be packaged in the wheel. General design practice is to use the biggest rotor you can fit and then pick a caliper size to deliver the overall required Torque. It is very common to see a larger rear rotor diameter due to this.
 
It actually has to do with traction control. More and more RWD cars are using larger rotors in the rear than in the front, because the rear brakes are playing a larger role in power management, both in terms of traction control and automatic electronic "limited slip" differentials (which basically mimic an LSD by applying the brake on the wheel that has lost traction).

Bigger rotors allow more heat dissipation. At the same time, TC and ABD don't require the same clamping force as braking to a full stop, which is why you don't need a giant caliper.
 
Is this thread even relevant anymore? OP was from early 2013. Since that time, to address the "brake squealing problem" Tesla is now using larger and heavier rotors on the front. As I had the squealing brakes I had a Tesla apply the TSB for this and they replaced my front rotors with new bigger heavier ones. Much better now with no more squealing. I think they said this is standard on cars from the factory now.