R Code wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:48 pm
My point with the brakes was that (given the small tires) if the rear brakes lock up with the stock drums, what do you gain with more powerful rear brakes? Of course disks have better modulation/heat dissipation, but most folks don't use the car that way.
The rears lock up because they're drums, which tend to keep increasing their braking force under constant pressure until they
do lock up, and which is why the proportioning valve cuts them off with enough forward deceleration (a metal ball slides up a ramp and closes off the line). The whole key to four-wheel discs
is that modulation ability, which forces all four brakes to work together as a system. The shortcomings of the stock brakes are most noticeable under panic stop situations, when the proportioning valve actuates, puts everything on the front brakes, which then overwhelms the front contact patch (as you say). The fade kicks in under high-speed braking, as in, say, mountain highway driving, or of course, the track. These cars were released in the days of the double-nickel... today's speeds on highways and the Interstate are considerably higher than they were then.
EDIT: In summary, the car was sold and marketed as a performance car, yet it was released "unfinished." It seems almost a crime to have sent this fine and capable platform out into the world to compete against BMW, SAAB, etc., without 4-wheel discs, an intercooler, flabby suspension, and a wheel/tire package that was small even for its day (my VW Beetle had 15 X 5.5" wheels, fer Chrissakes). Again, by doing a few simple (and reversible, if by some miracle, these should happen to start moving the needles at Barrett-Jackson or Pebble Beach) and relatively inexpensive mods, you set the car free... and put it on a par with plenty of modern machinery. I think in terms of what it
should have-- and could have-- been, with my mods for the car.
