ChattanoogaJSB

Interesting thread- responding to Dan, I use my car on the interstate as here in the Southeast, outside of Atlanta proper, I feel I'm much more likely to be involved in a wreck at an intersection (light or no light) than I am On the interstate. Fatalities may be a little higher on the interstate but occurrences I bet are less common. Just a different take on it.

I prefer the back roads, but I don't mind the interstate.

That and I've already been smacked once by a big rig- here's hoping lightning doesn't strike twice.

Frankie the Fink

Sadly, that's about where I am now.... All those long, glorious trips in the 61 and 63 are over. Central Florida with the tourists, crazy, distracted and aggressive drivers is a commuting hellhole now.

In rush-hour traffic, fully 3 out of 4 drivers are texting some days while underway.

tuxnharley

....and most likely texting or talking on the phone while doing so.......

USMC 0802

I'm going to hide in my basement so none of those damn young whipper snappers listening to their rock n roll music can't hurt my Fabrege Egg of a car... LOL

AZDoug

Yes. The SoCal freeways are where I started two foot driving all the time, vs the dragstrip in ET brackets.

Driving down I-10 in City of Industry, in a pack of 30-40 cars all doing 100 MPH, about 10 AM, so close that you can barely see asphalt under the rear bumper of the car in front of you (reminds me of NASCAR), makes having the left foot hovering just over the brake pedal, somewhat of a necessity.

Even in std shift car, being able to stab the brake RFN vs lifting your foot from the gas, makes the diff between rear ending the car in front of you, or not if something up ahead causes a sudden braking.

And, as noted, if you back off a little tiny bit, someone will squeeze immediately in front of you, with less than 10 feet between you and them. And if you back off some more, someone else squeezes in there.

More than 20 feet between you is an open invitation for someone to make that space theirs. At 70 MPH or more.

Excpet for teh occasional idiot who doesn't know how to drive or what is going on around him, i will say SoCal drivers were some of the best/most attentive drivers I ever ran across. That was before texting, of course.

I wouldn't even think of wanting drum brakes on those freeways.

Doug

Westlotorn

I work in LA several times per year. The dumbest thing in that town is how they treat a turn signal. If you use your turn signal in LA the surrounding drivers floor their car to cut off your lane change. They all do it. Locals tell me if you see a gap you gas it and dive in and don't hit your turn signal till it is too late for others to cut you off. I ask why bother at that point.
They answer, " so you don't get an illegal lane change ticket"!!!
I hate the place but there is a lot of business down there.

AZDoug

Yeah, they can get quite territorial and not want to let anybody in front of them.

Doug

kolsen911

Well this subject sure got a lot of responses. So here's mine. Disc brakes are a great improvement. No adjustments as they wear, less worry in wet conditions, etc. But they still have their issues. Put some heat in them and then pull over and sit for awhile and you have a warped disc that pulses with application, brake dust from some pads, and some that squeal.

As far as the braking system goes they will both heat up and you will lose your pedal from steady braking down a long hill or heavy braking on a race track with not enough straights to let them cool.

After owning numerous sports cars with front disc brakes I loved my first 65. Cool, 4 wheel disc brakes and I put on spoked wheels so everyone could see them, ha.

63Corvette

I only drive my C2 on weekends, and on the roads that I drive, every driver is going the same direction, and to the same destination, and with the same focus and intensity

tuxnharley

And I'd be willing to bet none of them are texting !

SWCDuke

My J-65s never had a problem hauling the SWC on 6.70-15 Michelin X radials down from 140 to 80 MPH to enter Turn 2 at Kent back in the sixties via two heel-and-toe double clutch downshifts, 4-3 and 3-2.

But they required an acquired skill. The hotter they were the better they actually worked, but when really hot from hot lapping a track, they felt like power brakes, so you had to learn good pedal modulation skills. Who needed disk brakes? In fact, who needed ABS? The controller was my brain and my foot the actuator.

The HD brake system was so full of gremlins that the Washburn Team (Bondurant driving) essentially ended the'63 season with the J-65 system because it worked better than the HD system. Go figure!

Duke

kolsen911

SWCDuke
I belonged to the Corvette Club in Seattle back in the mid 70's (lived in Port Angeles) and went to Kent and Portland with them several times. May have run into you.

Kent Olsen

SWCDuke

Probably not... I left Seattle in the summer of '68 after graduating from U-dub (BSME) and only visited every few years while my parents were still with us.

Today's Kent (Pacific Raceways) is nothing like it was back in the sixties... no barriers and "chicanes" on the main straight, which was effectively about 3/4s of a mile long.

From the exit of Turn 9 at about 50 MPH in second gear the road course blended onto the dragstrip, and I could accelerate at WOT though that bend... shifted to third once I was on the drag strip and fourth at the drag strip finish line at close to 130 (3.08 axle).

Beyond that the road assumed a 0.5 percent upgrade, so speed built slowly to Turn 1 about another quarter mile down. Beyond Turn 1 the road drops off, and the first time I went out I had a tough time seeing the apex and always lifted because there was no turn-in reference point. The second time I brought a traffic cone and broom to mark the apex and was able to do Turn 1 flat.

Back in the eighties and nineties when I was running events at Riverside and Willow I told the guys that if they ever went to Kent they better install at least a ten percent taller gear or they'd run out of revs before Turn 1.

Yeah, those were the days!

Every track has a "pucker turn"... fast and unforgiving. You have to do it "just right" for a decent lap time, but there is virtually no margin for error. Even a small mistake, like turning-in a little too early, can send you into the weeds... or worse. At Kent back in the sixties it was Turn 1. Riverside was Turn 2, and Willow Springs is Turn 9.

Duke

kolsen911

I remember Kent raceways in my days as well when the last turn went right onto the drag strip. I could drift my old 65 right up to the grass just before you went down hill. Since you now need a roll bar I won't get to take my new 65 on the road track, maybe some autoxing.

OC-1

Another Friday another dangerous jerk driving NJ roads.
Took the coupe for a ride, in 40mph zone, double yellow line, blind curve, same bad insection. the idiot passes me on the left.