This is one of those ‘you won’t know until you need them’ kind of things. Many folks won’t need to do a ‘max effort’ stop, but for those who do disks will perform better, for sure.
@WheresRick–I started driving in 1957 and few cars in this country back then had disk brakes. I think that the Crosley automobile did have disk brakes as far back as 1950, but the tiny Crosley didn’t sell very well and there were problems with its disk brakes.
My first car was a 1947 Pontiac which I bought for $75 to make the 350 mile trip to graduate school. The drum brakes were adequate in those days. I didn’t have interstate highways to drive and I ran the Pontiac on the highway between 55 and 60 mph. That was a common speed at the time and with an oil consumption rate of 1 quart per 250 miles, I didn’t want to put too much stress on the engine. I didn’t have a car with power brakes or disk brakes until 1978 when I bough a new Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon. By that time we were doing a lot of interstate driving. I found the brakes on that Oldsmobile much better than the brakes on the 1971 Maverick that I traded in on the Oldsmobile. The Maverick did not have power assist and had drum brakes.
Enough with the disc brake pulsation already. That’s usually caused by driver abuse, such as not downshifting when going downhill. I never had a problem with my brake pulsating.
And even when they vibrates to all kinds of frequencies, they can take repeated pounding without fading. At the end of the day, being able to stop is all that matters.
Regarding brake feel, I don’t understand what’s so special about all the dead travel necessary to overcome those return springs. Proper disc brake goes to work at the first touch of the pedal and they are predictable in their response.
not sure if trolling or just plain stubborn now.
My god man, even NASCAR car is using disc brakes, and they’re atleast 20 years behind the times in technology. it was until last year that they used carburetors for crying out loud, and only because it was MANDATED.
http://nascartechnology.com/?p=33
Last year they mandated use of fuels containing ETHANOL. Now for 2012, NASCAR has mandated the use of ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION.NASCAR had resisted the move to FUEL INJECTION for more than 20 years. The most publicized reason was that it would be too difficult to police because the technology was “too complex.” But even a VW beetle in 1979 was fuel injected, How could it be that complicated? But rather than embrace the technology, in 2011, NASCAR is still using carburetors.
By resisting the move to FUEL INJECTION not only did it waste manufactures money developing 50 year old technology, it deprived the American automotive industry an opportunity to make significant improvements in ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION technology for over 20 years.
The benefit of ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION is more efficient and precise use of fuel. NASCAR Crew Chiefs are expecting an increase in fuel economy while achieving the same if not greater horsepower output. There will abviously be a learning curve, but they will make huge advancements. But more importantly for NASCAR, the addition of ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION will be a big improvment to NASCAR by ensuring its technical relvance in the automotive industry.The only downside to the switch to ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION? The loss of THE OVERRUN FLAME from the exhaust on road courses and short tracks.
They actually still have the overrun flames out the exhaust even with fuel injection.
@triedaq Thats what I love about discussions like this, we got an interesting story that might otherwise not be brought up. I had a maverick at one time and it had drum brakes however I thought they were power on my particular car however I cant remember.
Could you imagine now a days someone driving 55 to 60 on the interstate due to the condition of thier car, I have seen cars with two doughnut spares in the left lane flying about 80 to 85mph with the rear bumper flapping in the breeze. I used to be fairly reckless myself, particular in my camaro
@bscar2 If you read my last few posts you will see I have reluctantly admitted that OVERALL disc brakes are better for todays cars, you will also see that there have been a few posters that agreed with me about drums. Just because you disagree doesnt mean I am trolling. I stated in my original post that it was my OPINION that drums were less problematic than discs. It has been my experience and my opinion.
It all started because several people have had a question about warped disc brakes and I was thinking back and realized I never had that problem with drums. It is my OPINION that drums were less problematic.
@WheresRick–about 15 years ago, my wife and I were coming up north on I-75 between Lexington, KY and Cincinnati. A VW Beetle about a 1970 vintage, give or take a couple of years came flying around us and we were going between 70 and 75. The rear fenders were flapping in the breeze. There was a special exhaust pipe on the car, so the engine may have been hopped up. At any rate, the VW was being driven by a young girl. About 2 miles after she passed us, she was pulled over by a policeman. I commented about how the young woman was getting a ticket. My wife remarked that if she could make that VW go that fast she should be given a medal.
@triedaq Wow, I didn’t know a bug could go that fast, I have driven a few and IIRC anything above 70 was scary, and this is from a guy that used to drive a camaro like an idiot.
They used to hop up the VW’s like that when they made dune buggies out of them. Not sure what they did to them. I can’t tell you anymore how fast my 36 hp 59 would go but it was on the floor all the time on the freeway. I might have hit 70 down hill but then it’d be 60-65 up hill. I agree she should have gotten an award but maybe the patrolman just wanted to know how she did it.
@WheresRick: Is there any ‘modern’ tech that you like? I have owned an old-school car with 4-wheel drum brakes, a 1970 Chevelle. The brakes were in good repair and I couldn’t fault the pedal feel, as you said, but two hard stops and they would start to fade. 4 hard stops and pretty much no brakes! Scary. While I have experienced discs fading, never anything like that.
I will say this against disc brakes: many modern cars use chintzy rotors that warp easily and result in brake pulsation. While drums can warp, it isn’t nearly as noticeable when braking.
But truly, do you think that auto engineers for the last few decades are stupid? With an exception for the 5 years or so when fuel injected, computer-controlled cars made their debut and hadn’t been perfected yet, every FI car has been much better to start and drive than their carbureted predecessors. Not all tech is needed or useful. I don’t think we all need to be connected to our Facebook pages while driving. But it’s a pleasure to cruise behind modern cars without breathing in unburnt gas fumes constantly. And we’re extracting great amounts of horsepower and torque from ever smaller engines with decent reliability. Sure, any big-three smallblock can arguably go 300K or more miles, and an old cast iron block motor won’t self destruct if you overheat it a little like an aluminum engine, but today’s cars are quiet, efficient, quick, long-lasting, and don’t rust like the cars of yesteryear. They also handle and stop better, and are safer despite less mass and size.
One thing I do miss are bumpers that were rated for at least 5 MPH. A dinky little impact will cause hundreds of dollars of damage to most cars these days.
@WheresRick: " Whitey thats why I like drums, when you replace them it takes a while and you get to think of all of the times you used the brakes when you didn’t need to, so it reminds you not to hit the brakes all of the time or ride them."
I guess if you need that kind of reminder, drum brakes are one solution. I don’t think I need that kind of reminder though. I don’t ride the brakes or use the brakes when I don’t need to.
One advantage to brake drums that nobody’s mentioned: They sound better when you hit them with a rubber mallet. When I was in college, we had several musical pieces which called for different pitched brake drums. Don’t really know what part of disc brakes you would play.
I don’t really care if my vehicle has drum brakes or disk brakes because I don’t use the brakes anyway. I have a large size 14 foot and I just open the door and drag my foot to stop the car. Shoe soles are cheaper than relining drum brakes or replacing pads. However, my shoe repairman can’t understand why only my left shoe sole shows wear.
“The Bionic Triedaq” - has a nice ring to it!
@Texases–Great video. I wish Mrs. Triedaq was more like the bionic woman. I would drag my foot out one door and she could drag her foot outside the other door. We would have braking even more stable than anti-lock brakes.
The VW Bug engine was one of the most commonly modified import in the US before the Japanese tuners came along.
A Bug fanatic friend (doesn’t everyone have one of those?) knew a machinist who could build an engine to different states of tune up to some crazy level (250+ hp?) - for a price.
I remember a whole section of the J C Whitney catalog dedicated to ‘go fast’ Bug parts.
The most publicized reason was that it would be too difficult to police because the technology was “too complex.” But even a VW beetle in 1979 was fuel injected, How could it be that complicated?
The technology isn’t complicated, verifying they aren’t cheating could be. Hence the comment about policing it. Hard to change a carburetor on the fly…easy to enable/disable hidden programming at any time…
It all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. NASCAR decided long ago that they would try to level the field in terms of hardware and make the race less about who had the most money/technology and more about skills in racing “equal” cars. So the public benefiting from advances developed in racing “stock” cars virtually vanished and was replaced with what you have today.
And then there was the Meyers Manx, designed to bolt VW parts onto to make a working dune buggy. A brilliant design, perhaps the first fiberglass “unibody” ever. A tub with the structore to support VW running parts. Ortigonally invented by a maker of fiberglass boats and surfboards.