Detroit 2009: Hot Stoppers - Internally mounted calipers on Lincoln Concept C
by Sam Abuelsamid on Jan 13th 2009 at 7:59AM 
To some of us, at least, of the most visually annoying elements of many past concept cars has been the installation of huge wheels on cars with normal size brakes. The resulting product can end up looking ridiculous. As I was checking out the littlest Lincoln, the Concept C on the Cobo Hall show floor today, I noticed something interesting in the wheels. Take a close look at the brake caliper in the photo above. Typically, the brake rotor is attached to the wheel hub and the caliper grips the disk from the out edge. On the Concept C, the braking surface is attached to the inside edge of the wheel rim with caliper wrapping around the inside edge of the rotor. This basic idea has been tried before... mostly on concept cars.
An internal caliper mount has the advantage of allowing a larger effective radius for where the braking force is applied. Since torque is defined as a force applied at a distance from a pivot point, the greater the distance, the greater the braking force. Such a setup allows more brake force with a smaller caliper, which in turn can provide better brake feel since the fluid displacement is smaller. The downside is that changing wheels becomes a much more complicated matter since the brake hardware is mounted on the wheel.
Gallery: Detroit 2009: Lincoln C Concept Live
Gallery: Lincoln Concept C
Live photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Hamud 8:05AM (1/13/2009)
Mmmm, realy interesting. It leads to a better heat dissipation too.
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JCUOIT 10:15AM (1/13/2009)
That’s true, likely a marked increase in heat dissipation, braking power, and likely less fade, but the down side would be more unsprung mass, it would also be difficult to upgrade to larger rims, or even winter rims, let alone just getting the wheel off.
To get the wheel off you'd have to remove bolts holding the disc to the wheel, then remove the wheel lugs, then some how get the disc through the wheel or manoeuvre the wheel and disc out of the calliper and pads without damaging the disc, wheel, calliper or pads.
Good idea, but damn I’d hate to change a flat with one of those wheels.
JC
zmf001 11:02AM (1/13/2009)
I like this idea a lot. This would be very beneficial on a very sporty car, but a Lincoln Hatch?
JCUOIT, Lincoln would likely put run-flat tires on the car anyway. So, you wouldn't even have a spare tire to use in case of a flat.
Randy 1:21PM (1/13/2009)
Imagine this on the F150! That would make braking incredible!
Rocketboy 3:52PM (1/13/2009)
They would be totally clogged up with snow and ice just trying to drive down my driveway.
naggs 4:18PM (1/13/2009)
i have been waiting for this for years
its works better and i fully expect that this will become the new standard over time
pgh 8:15AM (1/13/2009)
This is an old idea in motorcycling. Take a look at the Buell Firebolt (which has been on the market for a couple of years) which uses it.
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Hamud 8:16AM (1/13/2009)
Yeah, I've seen this in a lot of bikes, but first time in a car.
Mark S. 10:47AM (1/13/2009)
What PGH said. It's Eric Buell's idea (and somebody else before that) called ZTL, or Zero Torsional Load. The idea being that the torque from the caliper doesn't have to be carried back down to the hub and out through the wheel to get to the tire. This way the load is more directly attached to the tire through the wheel and you can lighten the hub assembly.
Cross pollination can be a wonderful thing if Engineers can be open minded enough.
doug 8:35AM (1/13/2009)
See all the little nuggets you can glean from these concept cars! Obviously Ford is not going to produce a Lincoln like this, but we can see new brake technology, the 1.6L Ecoboost 4 cylinder, 43 mpg, weight reducing technologies. This concept is meant to get us excited for the 2011 Focus family.
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DJ 8:57AM (1/13/2009)
I disagree. I think what we see here is the end of the Mercury brand and the beginning of a new Lincoln brand. A Lincoln that is targeted at Acura, Infiniti and the middle lines of Audi and BMW. To do that, you'll need both small, fun cars and very unique cars like this to hook younger buyers. It's obvious Mercury is dead, since they have NO new cars at the show.
Jimbo 1:53PM (1/13/2009)
I was wondering the same thing about Mercury. It was just a few months ago that Ford was saying that they were going to reposition Mercury towards making small luxury vehicles. Mercury would be the Mini to Lincoln's BMW (I know, I laughed at that statement too). This concept seems to erase that new direction. Maybe all the stuff that happened in Nov/Dec is probably making them reconsider the need for the Mercury brand.
Dude 8:53AM (1/13/2009)
It's not the small brakes that look dumb. It's the HUGE cartoonish wheels.
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416Hammy 9:04AM (1/13/2009)
This won't make swapping wheels harder when it's time to throw on the snowies...
Nooooooo... definitely not.
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Jimbo 1:47PM (1/13/2009)
Judging from the photo, it appears that the brake can be separated from the wheel with an Allen wrench. That would negate the wheel/tire changing issue.
Alex 9:10AM (1/13/2009)
As pgh said, this is something you can see fairly often on motorcycles. The advantage on the motorcycles is that the wheel rarely comes off the forks. The only time the wheel comes off is to replace the wheel or the tire. There is no rotating of tires, pads get replaced with the wheel on.
Its cool technology and has huge advantages but unfortunately is not very practical for cars as a bolt on to the wheel.
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Craig 9:22AM (1/13/2009)
Maybe if they moved to the Sbarro hubless wheel, this would be easier to deal with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubless_wheel
http://www.burningart.com/meico/moto/sbarro/index.html
I would love a car or bike running on rims like that.
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RBW 9:32AM (1/13/2009)
My 1991 Audi 200 20v had internal caliper brakes. Same idea, different execution.
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JayP 9:45AM (1/13/2009)
In that they were a failure. Most everyone I knew who had "UFOs" hated them as they warped horribly.
Too bad for the 200q 20V. One of my favs.
RBW 9:57AM (1/13/2009)
Yeah I had the G60 retrofit done. Braking performance wasn't as good but a break job didn't cost $$$$.