Three different kinds of brake discs including two coated brake discs and one steel disc were tested under the same experimental conditions on a reduced scale braking test bench. A braking test bench was specially designed to analyse thermo-mechanical and frictional behaviors of two types of brake with different sizes in stop and hold braking modes. Plasma spray coating technique was also used to coat the discs with ceramic powder. During the test four commercial brake pads were coupled with discs. Ceramic coated discs showed good stability in friction coefficient at high speed and high energy braking conditions. But they caused large wear loss of pad mass compared with the steel disc. It was shown that thermal barrier effect in ceramic coated discs adjusted the thermal partition between pad and disc. For a steel disc. it showed fluctuating friction coefficient at high speed but small wear loss of pad mass compared with ceramic coated discs.