gota911

The brakes on a 911 are mounted toward the "center" of the car, but the Panamera calipers are mounted toward the "ends" of the car.

Does anyone know why? Just curious about the different locations.

mdrums

Probably has to do with the suspension and room.

Those wheels on that Panamara really make it look nice though.

Hella-Buggin'

perhaps weight distribution?

gota911

Anyone else with some reasons for the difference?

Mike in CA

Weight distribution, lowering center of gravity, clearance, cooling, etc. are all things that need to be considered for caliper placement. My guess is that on the rear biased 911, getting weight toward the center of the car is more critical than on a heavier car like the Panamera that already has closer to 50/50 distribution. Suspension design is also different between the cars and might be a factor. Another item that needs to be considered; maybe airflow under/over the Panamera is such that the calipers get better cooling where they are positioned.

Wish we had a for-real Porsche/Weissach engineering/design insider who contributed to the forum and could answer these kind of questions authoritatively!

gota911

Mike, thanks for the comments and the extended reasoning about the comments. I was also thinking it might involve weight distribution, but wanted to hear what others thought about the different placement of the calipers.

I agree, it would be nice to hear the engineering/design reasons from someone at Porsche.

ADias

I agree. Sports cars tend to have the calipers towards the center (like the 911) for polar moment reasons. On a large sedan that consideration is moot. and other considerations, such as packaging, take over.

996FourEss

I know when I was getting the "old 996 4S", the center mounted brake calipers were said to be a function of cooling as the ducts channelling air from the front of the car into the wheel well were deliberately designed for this. Guess location also works for weight distribution. On the Panamera, firstly, I think one needs to ask where the Cayenne brakes are mounted as the system was I thought taken over from that. Then, the answer may have something to do with suspension and front drive shafts....

Mike in CA

The Cayenne has a different caliper layout than either the Carrera or Panamera; both front and rear calipers are fixed at the leading edge of the disc.

ChiefEntertainmentOfficer

Then it's settled!

GHills

I look at the calendar......nope its not April Fools Day.

I don't know the answer, but I do know the caliper location has nothing to do with weight distribution or "polar moment reasons".......

Somebody start a thread about why the seat belt buckles are located in the cabin beside the seats.

Mike in CA

You should do a google search on brake caliper position. I think you'll be surprised at what you find. Red Bull, for one, did a great deal of work on the caliper positioning on their F1 car to optimize cooling and COG, for example.

texas911

Could they have positioned away from the engine heat?

gota911

This was a serious question because I was curious about why they were in different locations. Not a big deal.

Next time I will post a question which is much easier to answer, like..... "What's the meaning of life?"

jrotsaert

As you know, the answer is 42