Leave two seconds between you and the car ahead...you should be ok. Unless you're going really fast in something that doesn't stop well, leave 3 or 4
Traffic doesn't work that way, at least in my state. Even at just two seconds following distance, someone will cram their overlarge SUV in the gap. When you back off, someone will do it again. If you try a bigger gap it just gets worse.
Interesting. I took a trip there last month, in a slightly OT car with 9" manual drum brakes....drove up and down the state a few times...on freeways and surface streets...wandered through downtown LA for a while too....and never seemed to have any trouble leaving enough gap ahead of me to feel confident in my ability to stop. Maybe I'm getting old? I don't know.
I would challenge that statement. Show us some data. I’m not anti drum brakes. In fact I have a truck and two cars with them, but if you think technology hasn’t improved braking dynamics since the 9” drum brakes of an early sixties, you should get some new meds.
One thing that occurred to me with the setup I have, a strictly manual 4 drum system - the brakes are adequate, though they take time to setup correctly. Most people aren't interested in getting off into the weeds. Drum systems have lots of fiddly bits & springs and geometry that cause people headaches. And you better have ate yer Wheaties that morning if you need to make a panic stop. People without any experience will not understand this. And I could be wrong on this, but it seems to me an improved braking system by itself isn't necessarily a "good thing", in the case of an old pickup we're still talking a solid front axle and leaf springs front & rear. What I'm getting at, it simply will not handle well at higher speeds and disc brakes might encourage people to get out ahead of their skis, so to speak. They may get into a dangerous situation that they otherwise wouldn't, by driving faster than they should. We see the same thing with modern OT cars anyway. Plush, quiet interiors, no "feel" or connection to the road, air bags, plastic foam nerf interiors, anti-lock brakes. All the improved safety technology is wasted to some degree by stupid drivers who ignore road conditions, traffic density, and push everything right up to the limit. There is something to be said for staring at a solid steel dash and steering column, without any seat belts that tends to keep you at full awareness when cruising on the highway.
I hat that I keep having to bust this one out, but I am actually an automotive engineer. While I no longer work for GM, but there exists there alone over 10,000 pages of detailed information, accounting for hundreds-of-thousands of lines of data, that long ago proved that disc brakes are vastly superior to drums. The superiority in the front is immense. In the rear, somewhat less, but still there. There is not any room for debate here. Drums are even disappearing from trailer trucks. By the time I left GM, it was a rarity that a truck arrived and departed at the depot with drums on the tractor. They are still out there for sure, and most of the flat land port trucks will have them forever. Even every set of axle assemblies that sits in our local rail service yard has a a pair of vented discs on it.
My car has manual drum brakes. I have no problem driving it. I admit I may not enjoy it as much driving somewhere with a ton more traffic. A traffic jam here is 12 cars.
Many of us drag racing these old cars have disc brakes, at least on the front. It is a no brainer on a fast nostalgia drag car, safety, stopping power and overall performance of the brake system. My chute also helps on the track. LOL
It is all about perspective. West Virginia has twice the population of just the city that I live in, and less than half that of the City of Los Angeles (not the County, or metro area).
On a full bodied car it could be a handful in the shutdown part with skinny front tires, 90/10 shocks, no front anti-sway bar. Not sure who would do such a thing on a street car though.
That’s been my experience, even in California. You sort of have to suppress your competitive pride and just roll with the fact that someone is going to fill that gap. It’s inevitable, and, at first, is really tough to back off a little more to maintain the gap. Just accept that most drivers are assholes, and roll at an interval that improves the odds that you’re not going to plow into someone. Easier to say than to do, though.
Or run discs. My Falcon has the largest rotors that will fit in the wheels, and still allow for calipers. It has no fewer than 14-pistons clamping the pads, driven by Hydroboost. It has little to do with the competitive pride of the driver of an old car, and everything to do with other driver's reckless incompetence. I have driven for about 10,000-days since I moved here. The drivers here are no worse than any other place. My the mere factor of population density, there are a whole lot more of them, and thus bad ones. It only takes one bad one to wipe you and your car out. I am pleased that both you and Jim have had good experiences here. If you stay longer, you won't. It's just a odds game. Here, they are not in your favor. You can just let folks fill the gap, and then back off, but eventually you will be driving backwards....
About 20 years ago I was doing a job in downtown Seattle and commuted 70 miles each way. Like Gimpy said, leave the 'recommended' space between vehicles and some a-hole would fill it. A real white-knuckle drive every day. If I drove my decrepit-appearing truck they wouldn't be so prone to do that, assuming (correctly) that I would hit them if they effed up. Unfortunately, the truck wasn't very economical so it wasn't my first choice. I arrived at work one day with the remains of somebody's taillight lens laying on my trunklid. I'd see rear-ender wrecks every day... This was the pre-ABS days, I wouldn't try it with 'vintage' brakes these days.
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