[TR] Brakes vs. clutch

[Randall]

> I've never (knock on wooden dashboard and wooden head)
> had brake failure

Lucky you!  I've been through it several times now, not my favorite
experience.

70 Audi inexplicably had a caliper break, such that the seal pushed out of
the cavity.  Trying to limp home with just the rear brakes provided an
excellent object lesson in just how little they do on a FWD car ... I
must've slid a quarter mile when that woman pulled out in front of me and
stopped.  Fortunately it didn't hurt her bumper when it broke my headlights
<G>

58 TR3A was parked at the top of a hill ... I didn't notice the brakes
didn't work until after I was going downhill into an underground parking
garage with no outlet.  Did everything I knew to stop, including literally
dragging my feet ... still hit the wall at the end hard enough to push the
front apron back into the radiator.  The car wound up getting crushed (but
that's another story).  I've become rather religious about making sure the
handbrake is in A-1 condition.

71 Stag literally on the way to the shop to have (among other things) the MC
rebuilt.  Total failure of both hydraulic systems, followed by the handbrake
fading into uselessness.  Fortunately there was no one coming when I sailed
across the intersection off of the I-10 freeway.  Only casualty was the bent
handbrake lever (it's amazing how strong sheer panic can make one <G>)

Randall