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Date:         Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:56:16 -0700
Reply-To:     Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: More brakes.
Comments: To: Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net>
In-Reply-To:  <000801c7c873$ffbfc2a0$7ab2d8d1@dhanson>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Don, our education on brakes and how they really work come from the same source, racing. My experience was limited to a couple of days of classroom and two days on the track to get my novice license (which I never used in competition).That was a real eye opener on two of the dynamics of handling a vehicle at the edge of performance: What really happens when you put on the brakes and second, throttle steering or how to learn to keep your foot in it when you over cook it going into a corner. I can only thnk of a couple of times on the highway that any of this paid a dividend but then maybe, because of the experience, I've avoided a lot more bad situations. As for hand brake turns, I think I still have a couple of trophies I picked up in Autocross with my Spitfire, back in the late '60's :). And does any of this apply to a Vanagon? Damn straight it does. With the weight distribution, high center of gravity and marginal braking capability the limits are far closer than in a conventional car and especially closer than cars like my '90 T-Bird daily driver. And all this conversation has me thinking more than usual about going to 15" wheels on the next tire change and adding a Big Brake kit to the front.


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