widebody boy posted:I bought my cmc speedster with disc all around and just put in a freeway flyer and would never look back, its a 1600 dp with dual carbs and aftermarket exhaust.
If you get a chance post some pictures of your car. I just finished rebuilding my rear drum brakes. The disc brakes wouldn’t work, don’t have the clearance. Also had a guy put together a 3.88 r/p transmission. I’m going to put it in over the Christmas holidays.
ALB posted:Re the discussion on whether you "need" a rear brake upgrade- @DannyP hit the nail on the head when he said it "depends on how you drive". Aggressively driving through some higher speed mountain turns and the brakes fading going into the 3rd or 4th turn in a row or panic stopping 80+ mph on the highway (hey, I was only going that fast for a moment!) and finding out (the hard way) that there's nothing left and you're only down to whatever mph can be a very scary proposition. I have personal experience with the 2nd scenario, almost hitting a stoned kid picking magic mushrooms on the side of the highway as he walked across to join his stoned girlfriend in the center median, all this in the middle of rush hour traffic at 4:30 in the afternoon! If someone had hit him he was so high he wouldn't have known what happened.
If you can honestly say that you'll never drive the car even a teeny bit beyond it's limits, even just for a moment, then it's a moot point (if that's the case, why bother putting discs on the front?). But if you really like to drive your car a little aggressively, even only occasionally (after all, as Stan says, "it does say Speedster on the side of the thing!), knowing you have a little in reserve isn't a bad thing...
Now, do you need discs or will bigger (type 3) rear drums do? How much money have you got? Al (who fortunately missed the idiot kid on the side of the freeway and then upgraded the rear brakes on his baja bug almost immediately after!)
PS- Even a completely stock 1600, driven harder than the elves at Wolfsburg ever intended will occasionally uncover the oil pump pick up and benefit from more oil available at the pick up. This is done by increasing the volume in the bottom of the engine (no, the oil in a full flow filter, lines and extra cooler do nothing to make more oil available at the pick up!), usually with an add-on sump. Running an engine dry (even for a moment or 3) even only once in a while will eventually result in a prematurely dead engine. Remember that most of the parts on your car began life on a humble commuter car and again, be honest with how you drive your Speedster.
Someone who lost an engine from autocrossing with only 2 1/2 quarts of oil-
Regarding ear discs, well stated, Alb. Like packing, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it! I experienced a panic stop on I-40 outside on Knoxville once when all I had was rear drums and front discs. I know the fronts take care of a major percentage of braking, but whatever I can have to add to safety in my overpowered Speedster and under powered brain is more than welcome. I will never forget that zig-zag, seemingly never-ending stop as I topped a hill at 80 and saw the 20 or so rear ended cars including smoke and smell of burning rubber with me headed possibly next into the pileup. Add in the surprise of such a scene on a major interstate where you usually can see ahead for miles and it wasn't fun. At that point of the highway there was a sudden dip or drop off so you couldn't see very far ahead, which is a rare condition on an interstate and add in the high speed and puny brakes are hard pressed to get the job done. I guess the light weight of the car helped some because many 4 wheel brake equipped cars had already gone into the pileup. I haven't had such an experience again and try to never speed where I can't see far enough ahead to be able to stop but I know that my 4 wheel discs add an extra level of safety even if my pea brain fails me again.
----back to the transmission thread.
