Hi First time poster, but I've been reading and searching the forums for about a year. I was looking at the brakes while cleaning the wheels today and remembered something. Back in the day, GM guys would buy cheap drum upgrades by using the aluminum drums from an IROC. This swap saved 6 pounds of rotating weight, and offered better cooling. My question is, are there any cars, say a Corolla or TC, that have aluminum drums that fit the Prius?
Doubtful. Performance cars (and moderately 'sporty' cars such as the TC or mazda 3) simply have disc brakes all around. The GM aluminum drums of yesteryear were a foot in diameter and still had a fair amount of meaty iron for the pads to grab. The prius drums are so tiny I don't think any weight savings would be worth it. A disc conversion would be neat but also not practical, the brakes see so little action because of the regen. Unless you are racing, there isn't much need for high performance brakes to be fitted.
aaah, so they do exist, cool! on my dad's old chevy k1500 suburban I was able to do a brake job clocked under 10 minutes per side for the front including jacking and pulling the wheels off, but I developed a mighty hatred for all drum brakes working on the rears.
