Car Craft Magazine Homepage Car Craft

 

Jeff Smith's Blog

Braking Performance
Posted October 18 2008 05:00 AM by CarCraft 
Filed under: Editorials

Short Stopping      


As part of Car Craft's Street Machine of the Year (SMOTY) competition, one of the evaluations was a 60-to-0 stopping contest. Several cars had difficulty in achieving an optimum stopping distance mainly because one or more tire locked up prematurely. Since we're dealing with muscle cars that have been thrashed on for more than 40 years, it's common to see a hydraulic brake line that's been bent, tweaked, pinched, or otherwise hammered so that the pressure and flow are restricted. This happened to one of my cars, and I never realized until I tried an aggressive 60-to-0 stopping test where the left front kept locking up. It turned out that the brake line that runs along the engine crossmember had been kinked in a previous engine swap, effectively reducing brake pressure to the right front brake. I replaced the line with a stainless steel line from Classic Tube and that permanently fixed the problem. It's the little things that can make a big difference.

Share This Share This

Add a Comment:   (Must Be Registered)
User Name
Password
Comment
  • RSS Feed
    • Add to My Yahoo!
    • Add to Google
    • Subscribe on Bloglines
    • Subscribe on NewsGator
    • MyMSN
    • My AOL
    • Add to NetVibes
    • Add to Rojo
    • Add to NEWSBURST
    • Add to Technorati
    SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOGS