Might be a dumb question but...

[alanc5]

why dont Ferrari make cars with gear driven cams? Seems a lot of people dont like the hit on getting the belts done, so it would save people a lot more money and be a bit more efficient and robust too.

I know you can build performance engines without the chains, so...does anybody know why?

Also, why do they only have single caliper brakes? I would hazard a guess it takes a lot more energy to slow a disc from a single point that it does from two? My logic behind this is a bit more simplistic than the geared cams though...but if you spin a bike wheel and stop it with one hand it will give you a good tug, grab it with both hands and you can bring it to an instant stop.

[Davey S1]

400i / 412 use chains instead of belts

[murph7355]

Chain driven cams are more expensive to produce I think. And are also not immune to issues either. But on a 100k+ car you would hope these would not be issues (even if they're produced in smaller numbers). I would also expect they crank up engine weight.

As for brakes, I dont know of many (any) cars that use multiple calipers per disc.

There are some that drive the pad with multiple pistons (incl. Ferrari), but I'm not aware of any that use >1 caliper per disc for day to day stopping (you sometimes see dual calipers on the rears, but 1 is the handbrake).

Multi-pot calipers allow the pad to pressed harder generally. They also allow a bigger pad area if the disc is suitably sized, which is possibly the main gain.

[rob.e]

If you put more than one caliper on a disc you'd add considerable weight (unsprung) which is bad for handling and ride. Also, cooling would reduce if you had two calipers on a disc.

[murph7355]

Indeed.

[pesty]

Dont know about the cams but I know of one car that has two calipers on the front disks.

Not a Ferari but I saw a Bentley Continental T at teh motorshow and it definately had 2 massive calipers

[rico]

But the Cont T is a barge and needs all the help it can to stop in time!