Volvo/Audi/Jag brakes...

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

Kevin Bent remembers single-circuit brakes on his P1800:

Kevin, if your P1800 was made before about 1968, your memory is correct
-- it had one line to each front caliper, and one line to the rear axle
which split to each of the rear brakes.  (Did the P1800s get drums or
discs?)

The really wild braking setup started with the 140 series in 1968, and
did in fact have two completely separate hydraulic circuits to each
front wheel.  Each caliper has four pistons.  The idea was that if for
some reason one brake line went, the car would still have braking on all
four wheels.  140-series cars also stop like they've run into something,
at least if the system is kept in good working order.

The irony of all this is that Kevin's P1800 was (if it was actually a
P1800 and not an 1800ES or even 1800S) assembled at the Jensen plant in
England, and -- in the early Sixties, at least -- used the same calipers
as the Jaguar E-Type, the Lockheed-Girling setup common to the Volvo 122
series which donated its mechanicals to the 1800 line.  

Finally, to Audi brakes: I'm going to be upgrading the worn stock pads
on the '83 GT I'm driving, probably in the next week or two.  My
favorite brake pads, when I used to have British sports cars, were the
Repco Metalmasters -- good compromise for quick street warm-up and they
practially eliminate fade at the speeds I drive on the street (not on
track, where Ferodo DS-9s were the order of the day, at least when I was
racing -- today I'd use carbon/Kevlar pads, I assume).

But I find it amusing that as I've moved from British cars to a blend of
Italian and German, Repco changed their name to "Axxis." :-) 
Coincidence or conspiracy?

--Scott "Rome-Berlin, Milano-Ingolstadt, what's the diff?" Fisher