MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - MG2006 Gatlinburg & Brakes??

Hey Guys,

I have a quick question. I am planning on making the Gatlinburg trip. My car is a stock 1500 with drum brakes. As I recall, the last trip I made to Gatlinburg was in our mini van a few years ago, and even then, you could tell that the 4 wheel disc brakes were heating up on some of those long hills behind slow drivers. How well are our drum brakes going to do on these hills? Will the heating up of the brakes and the brake fade be an issue?

Also, as I recall, our V6 200hp mini van struggled on some of the up grades as well. Will my stock 1500 be able to make those long steep climbs at sklower speeds?

DT
Danny T

Use your gears while going down hill to avoid over heating your brakes. Just don't ride your brakes down hill and you will not over heat them. Use your gears for going up hill too and you will make it. It might be a slow drive up, but you will make it. Make sure your cooling system is in top condition.
JEFF BECKER

I was out for a drive in my 54 mgtf in the Smokies last weekend. From Townsend over to Gatlinburg and driving normally up and down the hills, the stock 1250 did excellent. No overheating, no brake problems, hugged the curves perfectly. Don't worry about it, you'll do just fine.

Mark
Mwhitt

The rule on mountains is that you use the same gear to go down that you used to go up. That way the engine does the braking and the brakes are just used in the tight turns. Keeps everything much cooler!
dominic clancy

Recently us Brit Iron folks went on a 400 mile trip through some of the steepest, curviest (if that is a word), and tiring run though the mountains of Japan. Up, down, up, down all day long. We were not taking it easy by any means. I pushed my A harder that I thought I could. It was great.

Even though my car is unmodified, sans a front anti-sway bar, it did OK considering the heavily modified cars I ran with including an MGB RV8, a super fast Eunos Roadster (Miata), a Sprite, and a couple of race ready midgets.

In a nutshell, I was more than pleased with the drum brakes. Some fading but it wasn't too bad as I followed Jeff and Dominic's driving method. I considered swapping to discs, and I may still as I have all the parts to do so, but I may just wait until the brakes need major work.

While climbing the steep hills, I just had to keep the RPM's up a bit and run in lower gear. Once I got used to it all was fine.




Tom Baker

Danny

You can still fade the disc/drum set up on a 1600. When I had my first - two year old "1600" back in the early 60's, the brakes used to fade really easily in the traffic lights Grand Prix round London's North Circular - before the days of a motorway round London that was...

Reckon you might as well go with the comments above.

Pete
Pete Tipping

This thread was discussed between 20/05/2006 and 22/05/2006

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.