Steve,
As others have commented, the TR wasn't the first car ever to have front disc
brakes, though it was
certainly the first British sports car in the more budget price sector to have
them. In that regard,
it was a bit of one-upmanship against the likes of Austin Healey, MG and
Sunbeam Talbot.
I'm surmising here - and I'm sure Paul Richardson would confirm from the
extensive records he has
from his late father, Ken - that TR3 heavy braking with drum brakes on the
European Alpine rallies
of the early 1950's led to serious brake fade and possible boiling of fluid?
Although it wasn't a
TR, my own bug-eye Sprite had terrifyingly inadequate front drum brakes
(through fade) when used on
those same roads. Needless to say, the Sprite wasn't being driven nearly as
fast as a TR but the
lack of effective braking was a good alternative to an effective laxative!
Don't construe this response to indicate that drum brakes per se are
ineffective. Rolls Royce and
Bentley used excellent four shoe front drum brakes for years and I think up to
the end of the
1960's. An uncle had a RR Phantom which I drove on occasions. I recall that
stopping about three
tons of the best English drawing-room from around 80mph in a somewhat urgent
situation was both
impressive and very effective.
Cheers, Jonmac
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Preiss" <spreiss@verizon.net>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 10:56 PM
Subject: [Fot] automotive design
>I am of the understanding that the 1957 TR3 was the first production car in
> the world to come with front disc brakes as standard equipment. Can anyone
> provide the story of how this coup came to pass? It seems so "un-Standard" for
> them to have been ahead of the curve in the application of modern automotive
> design at the time.
>
> Steve P.
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