Yeah, for a strictly drag car drum brakes can be an advantage. You can adjust them so they don't rub the drum and keep the wheels from spinning freely. Disc brakes always rub some.
Never had a problem running 2 classes back to back for 5 years. So I guess you are right they will not hold up.
I've held off on getting disc brakes (which I eventually will get) because I've seen guys do 140+ mph in the quarter with drum brakes and be just fine. That's not to say that disc brakes aren't safer - just saying it's been done safely millions of times on drum brakes. I plan on running 1/8th mile only with my Maverick. I'll problay do 110-115mph tops in the 1/8th. If I feel I need disc after running that, then I'll park it until I get the discs, otherwise, I'll keep on going with what I have - until I can easily afford the discs.
Lets go do some auto crossing:evilsmile and see if those drum brakes hold up. In a drag race you get cool down time between rounds. Drums will not come close to even a stock disc setup much less a performance disc set up. Drum brakes have some advantages. Great for drag racing as you can set them loose to have less rolling resistance etc.... Like I said do 5 hard stops from 100mph in a row with no cool down heading toward a cliff if you trust them that much. I certainly do not
thats exactly right....thats why I have not switched over yet....well that and I am lazy But if you jack the front up on PINKY spin the wheels by hand...comeback in a fw minutes to watch them stop I have been 128 in the quarter...which means I probably hit top speed somehwere in the low to mid 130's....never had an issue stopping. Disc would be much better probably for safety reasons....and the rolling resistance is minimal at best compared to a loose set of drums.
WOW!!!!!! How did we go from drum to disk conversion to Thelma and Louise cliff driving????????????? 1) He wanted to know if he had to use a booster with disk brakes---NO!!!!! 2) He is drag racing, not ralley, road, or NASCAR racing---Drums are fine for that
We strayed from topic a bit. I'm also going to be a maverick here and say this. Drum brakes are dated. If they were so "safe" manufactures would still be useing them consistantely today. I had a wheel cylinder blow out on the frt of my maverick at a high rate of speed. The mav almost bit the dust that day(I have 4 wheel disc now). I have never had a caliper blow out and in all my years of being an A.S.E master Technician the ratio of blown calipers to wheel cylinders is astronomical. Disc brakes are much safer and sure footed. I'm just looking out for the well fare of the cars. People can be replaced mavericks can't J/K
Drums are actually better for drag racing because, as someone already pointed out they don't drag like disc brakes do while you are trying to cut fractions of a second off your times.
Now that was truely funny. I laughed out lound on that one. I too was under the assumption that all I had to do was change the front drums to disks and that is why I only got the spindles. I planned to buy the calipers, rotors and the lines from the auto parts store. So are you guys saying that I cant use my original master cylinder?
Drums and discs require different residual pressure valves in the master cylinder. Drum brake wheel cylinders need around 10 psi to keep from leaking. Disc calipers don't have that problem but usually have around 3 psi to keep the pads close to the rotors. Plus calipers need more fluid so the MC fluid resevoir is usually bigger for discs.
