Automotive disc brake (Lanchester, Dunlop)
Freno de disco para automóviles (Lanchester, Dunlop)
- Date
- 1902-1953 · confidence high
- Place
- Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Frederick Lanchester, Dunlop and Girling
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A caliper brake that squeezes pads against a disc attached to the wheel, with better heat dissipation than the drum. Lanchester patented it in 1902; Dunlop and Girling made it practical, and the Jaguar C-Type won Le Mans in 1953 with it.
The caliper disc brake appears in Lanchester's 1902 and earlier patents; its commercial success came with the Citroën DS (1955) and the Jaguar C-Type (1953) after Dunlop and Girling.
What it led to
- disc brakes on production cars from the 1960s
- the basis of anti-lock and stability-control systems