Drove this cool OT original 25 Willys yesterday for the first time. As I jammed through the three forward gears I found myself cresting a rather large hill by my house. Immediately all those years of "first time driving" hot rod experiences roll back through my mind (no brakes, wheels falling off, steering arm breaks, carb fires etc)..... and I slowly start pumping the brakes. I'm pumping away like I was rowing a canoe down the Russian River and about halfway down the hill I realize - "well you dumshit these are mechanical brakes and all your doing is building heat" I say outloud in the car to myself, laughing So is it just burned into my brain by all those hot rods Ive first timed before? Or am I pumping away like a gym machine on the "hydraulics" to see if I still have a prayer left? epilogue - "Brakes are fair"
Simply a learned response to a given situation, my aunt would reach for the tractors gear shift at stops in her Desoto for a few weeks after haying season.
I learned a long time ago that a hot rod really needs good brakes,,if your pumping them they ain't right. Last time I had anything on the road with mechanical brakes was a 1956 HD Panhead. HRP
Habits. A friend of mine is a forklift driver and will somtimes honk the horn in his daily driver at a stop sign. I've slammed both feet on to a brake pedal in an automatic vehicle after driving a standard for a long time. I've nearly ripped the windshield wiper stalk off the column in my wife's suv looking for the gearshift lever. My wife bought her first brand new car in the mid 90's when we were still dating (auto, fuel injected, with all the goodies) and I giggled when she pumped the gas pedal a couple times before starting it (after years of driving her dad's old carbureted cars).
Many years a go I had a 33 Ford coupe, we lived 29 miles out of town on a very stright road. I would air that flat head out, the front end would shimmy and dirt would be coming up through the floorbords. Hell I though I at Bonneville. Drove that car 4 years with just oil pressure gauge and temp. That was 1965
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