Why the sudden popularity of 12 inch arms

Sir Albert,
(oohh! I like that!) Sir can always be used to great effect. Apparently, not good enough to land me a 312s, however. The Alka-Seltzer link reminds me of a song...(hey, you have your show, Sir) I won't rest now until I dig it out. Is it STYX? "Too much time on my hands". Mr Porter Sir, don't you think time would be better served disassembling and carefully packing the 312? We, Sir, are also dealing with a very serious matter here in this thread; A gentleman with perhaps 10k total investment, along with HUNDREDS of hours of wasted time, claims his system approach is the ONLY way to go, and further Sir, that it performs better than what you and I have achieved COMBINED! Alright Sir, I should leave you be. Remember: righty tighty, lefty loosy! Tracking # ? Z.

A well executed 'drum brake' does indeed outperform a poor disc brake and there is nothing 2nd rate about drum brakes, if used in the appropriate application.
Sounds a lot like audio, too.

Bob P.

Inpepinnovations...When my cars had drum brakes the shoes had to be replaced at about 60,000 miles. At that time the drums would be turned (remachined). Nowadays, with disc brakes they go in as few as 25,000 miles, and the rotors are so thin that they can't be remachined, so you need to buy new ones. But the disc brakes do work well.

Disc brakes were first used in aircraft, and next in race cars, where light weight compared with drums, was the main advantage.

Okay, This ought to be good! Please tell me what I am missing here. I can't find a drum anywhere. My '67 XKE had discs. (poorly executed) That was, by my math, at least 40 years ago. That's "19"67... Let's check in shall we; this IS 2008, right? A Nissan Sentra has discs. A Hyundai has discs. My BICYCLE has discs... Back to fifth grade science again; metal expands as temp increases, with me so far? Drums GROW when used, (the whole idea behind brakes!) The shoes get FARTHER from the drum the more they are used. Becoming ineffective. (opposite of the whole idea behind brakes) Ever wonder why those runouts are built on the DOWNHILL side of the road? Got any idea how they slow a FREIGHT TRAIN down? An Airplane? You are just messing with me, right? Discs are bound by the same physics (sorry, it's true) they also GROW when hot, getting CLOSER to the pads. Becoming MORE effective. You are laughing, aren't you? Same goes for carburetors too, right? Blows fuel injection away, when it's done right? How about you rattle off a few examples where that applies! If you are still using a quill pen and an Abucus, how did you access this thread? OH NO, not utilizing modern technology! NNNOOOO!!!!! Z.

Mr E, Back when your cars had drums (I think they were actually called Horseless Carriages, right?) the vehicle didn't last 60,000 miles, come on! Your perception of increased stopping power is correct. As power increased, and traction improved (or are you in the bias ply camp too?) wear, temporarily increased. Ancient history. Lighter weight, not so sure... Certainly not today. (Think ceramic) You posted from a computer, yes? The "good old days" really weren't, were they... Z.