Nickey Z-28 Sold

[Supercar_Kid]

[ QUOTE ]
The disc brake setup was replaced by drums for weight-saving/racing reasons.

[/ QUOTE ] How much weight could you really save by switching to manual drums? I've heard of old time racers doing this in the 60's as disc brake technology was fairly new and not entirely accepted as being "better," but I can hardly imagine the weight savings would offset the time/effort/expense of swapping from discs to drums. We're talking spindles, lines, master cylinder, backing plates, drums, shoes, the whole works here.

There's got to be another reason why racers preferred drums. Any thoughts?

[Enoch]

You could also back of of the shoes so there was not as much drag as with the disc pads...so I heard

[budnate]

looking for a tenth or two with no drag of the discs..

[rsatz28]

I was going to say that's there always some drag with disc brakes, compared to drum brakes.

[Jeff H]

There's also more rolling inertia or something like that just to get the wheels/tires/rotors moving. So it's a combination of weight savings, no drag and less effort needed to get the wheels moving.

[bwag]

In 1969 we used to load a spring on each caliper retaining bolt, positioned between the brake pads,to push the pads back upon brake release. The modification was worth 1 tenth and 2 m.p.h. in the quarter. It also stopped better repeatedly from over 120 m.p.h. than any drum brake car.