What is the difference between Disc Brakes and Drum Brakes?

Disc brakes consist of a rotor, caliper and brake pads. The brake pads in the caliper squeeze the disk slowing the vehicle down. Most of the today's vehicles are equipped with the disc brakes. Where as, the drum brakes are more complex than disc brakes. It consists of large drum which has more components in the system. When pressure is applied to the brake pedal, hydraulic pressure from the master cylinder is applied to wheel cylinder. The piston moves outward against c-shaped brake shoes lined with friction material, to contact the rotation of the drum which brings the drum, wheel and the tire to stop. Drum brakes usually do not provide enough stopping power to stop, and internal drums also cannot take nearly as much heat as would be required to let them be used safely on heavy vehicles. So, most of high performance cars use these disk brakes.  more