> As someone who has long enjoyed '60's muscle sedans, I think you all
> are loosing perspective on the braking qualities of a stock MGB. IMHO a
> stock MGB has better brakes than many of the cars of their era, just
> by virtue of disk brakes combined with a low weight car. When I think
> you should worry about brakes vs. HP is when your talking about cars
> like a '62 Galaxie- 4500 lbs, four wheel drum brakes, potential to
> have 400+ HP. This is a situation when you really need to upgrade
> the brakes!! A MGB is never going to really be able to develop the
> HP to brake ratio that you need to worry about brake upgrades, unless
> you're racing it. On the street I think that the brakes are more
> than adequate, especially if you have at least half a brain and pay
> attention- which will make you brake better than %95 of the zombies on
> the roads out there. Or, in other words, most of the time it's the
> drivers behavior that overpowers the brakes, not the engine.
>
> -Aron Travis-
> "always in a automotive frenzy"
>
Aron,
Good point. I also read somewhere that you can spend thousands of
dollars on brake upgrades and not really get the car to stop much
faster from any given speed. What you're buying is protection
against brake FADE, so that you can brake repeatedly in a short
period of time without losing effectiveness. Very good for
racing, but IMHO, the stock brakes, in good condition, will probably
do just fine for the typical user, as long as you don't have to do
repeated panic stops or do something silly like ride the brakes.
I always thought that braking distance was more a function of tire
adhesion, how much the nose dips upon braking, and how easy it is to
keep the brakes right on the verge of slipping the tires.
Scott
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