Larry Elliott wrote:
>
>Many, many years ago Road & Track did a braking test with several
>vehicles, one being a Dodge sedan. The only vehicle that stopped shorter
>when it was loaded to what they figured was a maximum load (this was
>before GVWR's) than with just the driver was the Dodge sedan. It was nose
>heavy enough with just the driver to lock up the rears, but with the full
>load it didn't lock the rears. This was before disc front brakes were
>widely used as I remember.
>
Larry, my sister had a '72 Plymouth Duster, with slant six in it.
It had 4 wheel drum brakes, with NO POWER ASSIST!!! (Nor did it have power
stearing...maybe 20 turns lock-to-lock!) Talk about ANTI-LOCK BRAKES!!!! You
needed both feet, and about 90# of pressure to stop
from 70 mph (in a reasonable distance)!!!! :)
In high school, with a bunch of buddies packed in car, we came back
from the beach, and went through an intersection a little FAST and caught
about 1-1.5' of air...during the short flight, someone making a right
from the cross street pulled out in front of us!!! I NAILED the brakes and
could actually hear/feel the drum brake make a 'droning-lock' sound, then
make contact (tires chirped), roll, 'drone-lock' again (we bounced), and again
landed with a chirp... Not once did we slow down! It reminded me of a bad
landing from a US Air flight I was on!! :p
It was pretty funny... My MOM's '67 T&C Chrysler station wagon with 383c.i.d.
had front wheel disc brakes...it said so all over the hub caps!
...Sam '95 SLT
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