Anyone who thinks four-wheel manual drum brakes are “good enough” for his car must have never driven it in Los Angeles. Sure, Southern California is an old-car mecca, but traversing the overcrowded freeways crawling with half-baked drivers puts our old iron at the brink of disaster every time we turn onto an entrance ramp. What’s a car crafter to do?
Avoidance is key. Like your first ski trip, urban driving is a dicey, unpredictable situation until you learn to safely stop yourself. Likewise, we figure Honda CRX and Ford Focus drivers must feel like bowling pins when our ’65 Biscayne comes creeping up from behind, so we decided it was time to call up Year One and order a Stainless Steel Brakes disc-brake conversion kit for the bulbous B-body. At $579, it’s a serious bargain. It’s an especially easy swap, because it reuses the factory drum-brake spindles—so there’s no need to break the ball joints or steering linkage loose. Swapping to discs won’t alleviate the nervous feeling that econobox drivers get when the ’65 is out on the prowl, but we like it that way. As long as we know we can scrub off our speed, we can live with our intimidating presence and continue to educate lesser vehicles on what’s really “fast and furious.”