[Rory McNeil]

Prior to NHRA allowing lightweight, aftermarket disc brakes, many racers s swapped out the factory disc brakes for manual drums. As Mark said, less weight, and could be adjusted for zero drag. Funny, how, when many of the fast, higher classed cars, that had replaced the factory discs, for drums (and often to very light, small, 6 cylinder drum brakes), started lobbying for "Better" (read that as even lighter) aftermarket brakes, it became all about safety. Kinda like when lightweight racing seats were requested , again for "Safety". Have to wonder how many racers would have installed the aftermarket seats if they had to be the same weight as the seats being replaced, or heavier. I would guess "safety" would not have be as much of a concern in that case! As for the drum brakes, my buddys SS/F 66 Chevelle ran 9.7s at 138 MPH, on the stock 9 1/2" drum brakes, and another buddys 67 Mustang bracket car ran the same numbers with the original 10" drums. Neither had stopping issues, despite both being stick cars that went into neutral at the finish line, so no engine braking. Of course that also depends on the shut down length of the tracks being raced on. Cold drum brakes also often hold the car in the burnout box better than some manual disc brakes as well.