Engineering, General; Foreword; This volume reports the proceedings of the International Conference on Vehicle Braking and Chassis Control (Braking 2004) held at the Royal Armouries Museum and Conference Centre, Leeds, in July 2004. The event was organized by the Yorkshire Centre of the Automotive Division and co-sponsored by the Tribology Group of IMechE. It also attracted the support of SAE International, FISITA, the Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE), and Yorkshire Forward. Building upon the success of previous events in the series, the scope of the Conference has been widened to include chassis control systems since braking can no longer be considered in isolation from other chassis functions such as steering and handling. This is reflected in papers presented during the first session of the Conference that discuss the interaction of braking with the whole vehicle, including active steer control and stability analysis of both motorcycles and tanker trucks. The second session features an extended paper devoted to the developing topic of human factors in automotive braking in which the driver is considered an integral part of the overall vehicle system. Papers in the third and fourth sessions of the Conference are solely devoted to noise, vibration, and harshness issues related to automotive brakes. The fact that this continues to be the single most popular subject for papers indicates the importance still attached to refinement by vehicle and brake manufacturers. Papers in the third session are largely devoted to theoretical approaches to the problems of disc brake squeal from both academic and industrial perspectives. The fourth session covers experimental work and addresses practical solutions to real brake NVH problems. The final session of the Conference features papers on thermal and materials issues and how these influence foundation brake design. Included are papers on novel design solutions and problems associated with parking brake systems, as well as on fundamental materials developments. The aim of the Conference organizers has been to create the opportunity for academics and industrialists associated with automotive braking and chassis systems to present their important new results to one another and to the wider engineering community in a formal, archival manner. We believe that this volume of Proceedings does justice to the aim and would like to thank all the authors for their efforts in producing their papers to the required standard and timescale. The Organizing Committee would also like to extend their gratitude to all those involved with the Conference, particularly Cath Goulborn of the University of Leeds School of Mechanical Engineering and the external referees for their efforts with the papers. We hope that all readers find this volume interesting and informative and that many of them will be able to attend our next event planned for Summer 2006. David Barton and Andrew Blackwood For and on behalf of the Braking 2004 Conference Organizing Committee