Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
Yes, a drum can stop as fast as a disk - once. Then they start overheating and fading. Overheating a set of brakes on even a modern vehicle with discs is not that uncommon. Maybe you don't see in in Florida were passes are 3 feet above sea level but in mountainous areas where crossing a pass is thousands of feet up and then down people ride their brakes and overheat them all the time. The smell of cooked brakes is an every trip occurrence when I head across the Cascades and I've actually stopped and used a fire extinguisher to put out a fire where someone is an old 80's Chevy Malibu had ridden their brakes for so long that the brakes caught on fire.
Cars got front brakes first because the front axle does the bulk of braking so that is where strong and fade resistant brakes are needed most. Rear brakes rarely do enough braking to require disks outside of performance cars. Drums are also cheaper than discs so budget cars generally got drums. Combine these together and cars that don't need discs in the rear got them because the public (and automotive editors) complained about perfectly adequate drum brakes.
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Your first comment here is cherry picked. It's extremely rare condition a drum or any brake will fade in its first application. Nobody is arguing a disc brake can have better heat dissipation, but a large drum brake has more thermal mass and both can eventually catch fire when abused. The point few here are noting, Drums by design have a hard time cycling when ABS is activated, which discs excel at. Rear wheel lock up is the most difficult skid for the average driver to control and can be where most skids begin. Proper rear wheel ABS control favors discs greatly and helps the driver driving beyond their skillset.
If somebody here is repeatedly overheating their brakes in familiar driving locations, they likely IMO have a driver issue of not knowing the limits of their vehicles braking system in whatever conditions they face and should correct that before focusing on a brake shortcoming.