Brown trousers - the first time you cooked the brakes!
Discussion
So when and where was it???
Mine was in the Jag a couple of years ago. A mate had just spent 6.5K on a small engined Z3. Insisting it was faster because it was a 'sports car' I proceeded to embarrass him around a loop of quiet country roads. After a long straight is a roundabout. Went to stop... s
t!
Luckily could see all was clear and sailed straight over it, stopped up a hill the other side and watched smoke pour from the front wheel arches.
Lesson learnt there!
Mine was in the Jag a couple of years ago. A mate had just spent 6.5K on a small engined Z3. Insisting it was faster because it was a 'sports car' I proceeded to embarrass him around a loop of quiet country roads. After a long straight is a roundabout. Went to stop... s
t!Luckily could see all was clear and sailed straight over it, stopped up a hill the other side and watched smoke pour from the front wheel arches.
Lesson learnt there!
My m8's Metro with us all in it(4 up) going down the Burway.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1043862
By the time it got to the bottom the thing was on fire. I kindly pissed on them for him to cool them down
Oh to be young again.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1043862
By the time it got to the bottom the thing was on fire. I kindly pissed on them for him to cool them down
Oh to be young again.Picked up an MOT failure Capri to take it from car park it had been left stood in for ages and en route via my sister's place to the garage. I knew it had failed on a few things, brakes being one of them. Got in the car, drove it around the car park, brakes were ok but not brilliant. Decided it was safe to drive it and off we went.
However, the brake issue was caused by the hoses being knackered and I discovered that after a few prods of the pedal there was fk all left. This discovery was made following my sister through Guildford on a busy Saturday morning! Car ahead braked for the lights, so I tried to do the same. There was a bit of brown trousers as I pumped the pedal, then used the handbrake and crashed it into 1st. Car stopped with about 6" to spare.
Nursed it back using gears and handbrake to my sister's place. She said she'd seen my face in the rear view mirror and knew exactly what had happened!
However, the brake issue was caused by the hoses being knackered and I discovered that after a few prods of the pedal there was f
k all left. This discovery was made following my sister through Guildford on a busy Saturday morning! Car ahead braked for the lights, so I tried to do the same. There was a bit of brown trousers as I pumped the pedal, then used the handbrake and crashed it into 1st. Car stopped with about 6" to spare.Nursed it back using gears and handbrake to my sister's place. She said she'd seen my face in the rear view mirror and knew exactly what had happened!
louismchuge said:
So when and where was it???
Mine was in the Jag a couple of years ago. A mate had just spent 6.5K on a small engined Z3. Insisting it was faster because it was a 'sports car' I proceeded to embarrass him around a loop of quiet country roads. After a long straight is a roundabout. Went to stop... st!
Luckily could see all was clear and sailed straight over it, stopped up a hill the other side and watched smoke pour from the front wheel arches.
Lesson learnt there!
It was back 2003 (I think), driving my first Impreza one blazing summer's dat on the way to a big meet in North Yorks - I had no idea where we were going so had no choice but to make sure I didn't lose the convoy I was with who certainly weren't hanging around. At this point there are two pertinent facts (your honour!)Mine was in the Jag a couple of years ago. A mate had just spent 6.5K on a small engined Z3. Insisting it was faster because it was a 'sports car' I proceeded to embarrass him around a loop of quiet country roads. After a long straight is a roundabout. Went to stop... s
t!Luckily could see all was clear and sailed straight over it, stopped up a hill the other side and watched smoke pour from the front wheel arches.
Lesson learnt there!
1. I was driving the only standard car in the group so was having to work rather hard to keep pace along some high-speed twisties
2. Standard brakes on a UK classic are rubbish
Heading for a tricky looking right-hander at a fair rate of knots I went for a dab of the brakes to scrub a bit of entry speed off - nothing. Pressed pedal a little bit harder - nothing. Tried slamming on - something, not a lot but something. Of course in the time taken to work out that I effectively had f
k-all in the brake department the corner had arrived and I hadn't really shed any worthwhile speed so I had no real choice but to come off what was left of the brakes, turn in and pray (in that order). What happened next is that I learnt two things - first that unintentional four-wheel drifts are about 1 part excitement to 2 parts pure terror and secondly that when your passenger grips the door handle so hard as to leave fingernail imprints the marks never really come out. Similar to doogz above my passenger thought it was just me being a dick, strangely I don't think me explaining that I had no real brakes at that point made him feel any better!Suffice it to say up-rated pads and fluid suddenly became a very high priority job on the car!
The first trackday I did in the CRX at Croft was interesting. Was more of a shakedown to see what needed doing to make it track-slag worthy.
The original brake fluid, pads and disks were in attendance. Just not for long...
Did a couple of sighter laps, then went for it. Big stop for Tower, through the Esses, big stop for Sunny in, then into the complex. Down the start/finish straight, begin braking after the pit exit. Well, try to begin braking. Not a lot is happening. At all.
Managed to back the little bugger in with a bit more opposite lock than I (or my passenger) were expecting, just to make sure we didn't understeer straight into the tyres.
Took it easy for the rest of the lap.
The original brake fluid, pads and disks were in attendance. Just not for long...
Did a couple of sighter laps, then went for it. Big stop for Tower, through the Esses, big stop for Sunny in, then into the complex. Down the start/finish straight, begin braking after the pit exit. Well, try to begin braking. Not a lot is happening. At all.
Managed to back the little bugger in with a bit more opposite lock than I (or my passenger) were expecting, just to make sure we didn't understeer straight into the tyres.
Took it easy for the rest of the lap.
DavidCane said:
Heading down the non-hairpin side of Stelvio in a 306 S16. Scared the cr@p outta me.
Me too... I knew it was coming but didn't make it any less frightening. Brakes were smoking for about 20 minutes when I pulled over and my mate in front though I had locked the wheels every time.
Rabbo said:
DavidCane said:
Heading down the non-hairpin side of Stelvio in a 306 S16. Scared the cr@p outta me.
Me too... I knew it was coming but didn't make it any less frightening. Brakes were smoking for about 20 minutes when I pulled over and my mate in front though I had locked the wheels every time.
Edit to add -
I flashed my mate in his MX5 in front to pull in to the next layby. He did, I went to stop and sailed past him! Had to reverse up the road... "I thought you wanted to stop?!!"
"I was trying to!!"
Edited by louismchuge on Thursday 3rd March 15:34
Ford Fiesta over Kirkby Moor in the lake district, was enjoying myself a little too much on the downhill and wasn't really thinking. There is a sharp right just after a cattle grid, couldn't slow down as much as I would have hoped and it all got a little slippy and scary over the cattle grid with dry stone walls lining the road. I won't do it again...
Driving down the south side of the Pyrenees in a fully laden S14 200X overtaking all the locals in their wrong wheel drive econoboxes. Managed the first twenty or thirty hairpins then the brakes went very spongy and virtually failed as I pulled into a convenient layby. Sat there with smoke billowing off the brakes for 20 minutes or so as all the locals re-passed me one by one, slowly.......
Edit; well that was the first time in a car with proper brakes. I used to run out of brakes all the time in my 1973 Stage II Mini and my Fiat 128 3P. I used to be able to get my Alfa Sud's and Sprint's brakes glowing dull red and smoking but still working. My mate's Mk II 2.0 Crapri used to run out of brakes at the drop of the hat but that was no surprise as it was crap at anything that involved stopping, going cornering or anything in between.
Edit; well that was the first time in a car with proper brakes. I used to run out of brakes all the time in my 1973 Stage II Mini and my Fiat 128 3P. I used to be able to get my Alfa Sud's and Sprint's brakes glowing dull red and smoking but still working. My mate's Mk II 2.0 Crapri used to run out of brakes at the drop of the hat but that was no surprise as it was crap at anything that involved stopping, going cornering or anything in between.
Edited by angusc43 on Thursday 3rd March 15:34
First trip to the Ring for me.
Was in my mom's Passat VR5 with my cousin in the passenger seat. on the first stretch out of the gates, a SEAT alhambra in full on vacation mode with roofbox settles in behind me. Not having been at the Ring before, and before really playing it on a game, I totally missed the turn for the original pit straight, instead going straight for the divider between the nordschleife and the GP circuit.
As I stopped out there, I see the passengers in the rear of the Alhambra laughing hard as they negotiate the turn... only for me to give chase.
The Passat was faster in the straights, but not knowing the twists and turns on the Ring I was still trailing hard. By the time we were going downhill the brakes were fading and the Alhambra was beginning to be a shadow around the next corner of every corner.
The brakes never completely let out, as I started nursing them and controlling my speed by the time it started going uphill. But still leaves me amazed that in 3 miles of hard driving I had them down to only a suggestive whiff of braking power when the pedal was fully trodded to the floor.
Not something I want to experience again.
CK
Was in my mom's Passat VR5 with my cousin in the passenger seat. on the first stretch out of the gates, a SEAT alhambra in full on vacation mode with roofbox settles in behind me. Not having been at the Ring before, and before really playing it on a game, I totally missed the turn for the original pit straight, instead going straight for the divider between the nordschleife and the GP circuit.
As I stopped out there, I see the passengers in the rear of the Alhambra laughing hard as they negotiate the turn... only for me to give chase.
The Passat was faster in the straights, but not knowing the twists and turns on the Ring I was still trailing hard. By the time we were going downhill the brakes were fading and the Alhambra was beginning to be a shadow around the next corner of every corner.
The brakes never completely let out, as I started nursing them and controlling my speed by the time it started going uphill. But still leaves me amazed that in 3 miles of hard driving I had them down to only a suggestive whiff of braking power when the pedal was fully trodded to the floor.
Not something I want to experience again.
CK
First time I exited the motorway in my 2008 Lancer GS3. First application of brakes to slow from 1.1 leptons to 0.5 leptons about 300m from the stop line at the roundabout. Second application of brakes resulted in nothing. Mitsubishi, 276mm front brake discs on a 1650kg 170hp diesel saloon is not sufficient.
I think the first case for me was going down the northern side of the Buttertubs pass in my Focus a couple of years ago. Since cooked them in the same car on a fantastic little B-road in Snowdonia. And, somewhat less fantastically, overloaded with books and magazines on my way to the Autosport Show this year going along the roundabout-strewn dual carriage from Oxford (again the Focus). It seems to be chronically underbraked.
Never managed it on the track, but I've always been in more sporting machinery and I tend to be quite light on the brakes.
Never managed it on the track, but I've always been in more sporting machinery and I tend to be quite light on the brakes.
Hurtling down the roads between Sevenoaks and Edenbridge in my Charade Turbo, had been tanning it and was working the brakes heavily.
Came up to a sharp right hander, applied brakes - nothing.
Luckily a lane split off the middle of the corner so I dived down that, cleaned my trousers and drove home. Slowly.
Came up to a sharp right hander, applied brakes - nothing.
Luckily a lane split off the middle of the corner so I dived down that, cleaned my trousers and drove home. Slowly.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff