Someone once said that "youth is wasted on the young", I sometimes think he might have been right!! If only I had the energy to go with a lifetime of learning
.
It also occurs to me that those of us of a certain age remember the 50's and 60's, and saw the cars that we simrace today being used in anger. Strangely enough the brake fade in the 55's reminds me of my first car, a 1956 Ford Prefect 100E. 1172cc of pure 60hp power, 3 speed gearbox, 4 door, leather seats that were so hard and slippery you could jump in one side and slide right across the car, and no seatbelts!!
But the brakes, ah yes the brakes drum brakes all round ( and probably not in mint condition
).
Well of course my car was actually the fastest car on the road and when I had it sprayed Aubergine with a black leather effect roof, it went even faster
. Stopping it was sometimes an adventure and I can still vividly recall a couple of occasions after several miles of hard driving when the next corner was approaching a little too quickly for comfort, pressing harder on the brake pedal had zero effect, and I was fortunate that there was no traffic and I could use every inch of the road, a little opposite lock ( and some grass
). I think I kept a toilet roll in the fridge for these incidents.
There is a steep hill in Somerset at a place called Porlock. The public route up onto the moorland is famous for a hairpin bend. you might think that you have been driving up a steep hill for the previous half mile, but as you turn the corner you discover that someone has built a tarmac covered wall across the road!!! My mighty Ford just about crawled to the top in 1st gear and it almost stalled the engine trying to negotiate the hairpin.
Being smarter than the average bear, I reasoned that going back down was likely to be "interesting". But, there was a private toll road that claimed to offer a less perilous descent for around 2/6d ( if you understand that currency you ARE old!! lol).
It was a very scenic road to start with and we were enjoying the drive, but of course we still had to drop from the same altitude. The road was longer and the gradient was on average less than the public road, but there were a lot of bends as it descended through the woods. About half way down I could smell my brake shoes burning. Then the brakes became less and less effective ( just like a Lancia at Monaco). I pulled on the handbrake and pressed as hard as I could on the brake pedal and managed to slow the car enough to double declutch down to 1st gear ( no fancy synchromesh gearboxes in those days!). I don't think that engine had ever revved that high before, or after, but the engine braking was enough to bring the speed down and although we passed the exit toll gate at a less than prudent speed, we survived. It seems humorous now, but at the time I think I had cramp in my ass from all the buttock clenching!!
