Agreed...when modding a car, it's best to do the "whoa" before doing any "go". The sad fact is that many into USA muscle don't do that. I've often thought of going Brembo on my original '09 Bullitt 'Stang. But that would mean having to go different wheels, so it stays stock. Brakes are fine for street & highway with the stock 315 horsepower, but would probably fade on a track after a few hot laps. Bigger brakes aren't all about shorter stopping distance...they're more about preventing fade under heavy use.

Watching the impact from the dash cam made me wince, especially the passenger hitting the dash (and windshield?). If I've got a choice between a lap belt and a four-point harness, no way am I choosing the lap belt. But, as others have pointed out, the biggest thing that struck me about the video is that he didn't say a word about the occupants of the vehicle that was hit.

Yes he did. Said the minivan occupants were okay thanks to more modern safety features...

I watched the video twice....I still didn't catch him saying that?

Watching those videos is to tedious. Have they determined how and why the brakes failed? A new car should have solid brake lines. How does a dual master cylinder brake system just totally fail?

I can't fathom that he did not have a dual master cylinder. And why in the world did he stop pumping the brakes? I would have been doing the two step on the brake pedal until I hit something. And of course, downshifting to first would certainly slow the car up far better than park. Of course put it in first, and turn the engine off would be the smart thing.

My guess is that he boiled the brake fluid by riding the brakes and overheating them.

I believe most normal automatic transmissions, if you drop into a lower gear, may not actually go into the lower gear if the car is going over a certain speed. If you rebuild the transmission and convert the valve body to full manual, you can force an auto into a lower gear. I certainly would have tried dropping down a gear or two, and if that didn't work, then neutral would have been the next stop.

If they were smelling the brakes, and the guy said that he was riding the brakes for whatever reason, then it seems the brakes were overheated. A little more time and more heat, and they were likely overheated enough to stop working altogether.

I have not watched the video, but I would like everyone to know that the title of this thread has been nominated for the "Best Thread Title of the Year" for the upcoming prestigious, "OT's Award Show".

Ratchet shifter didn't allow for downshift- and those things have a Reverse/Park manual lockout lever.

LIft the lockout, slam it into park, blow the trans into 1,000,000 pieces. Would've been better off.

PS- hate those things.

rjp

Lots of comments under the video...most of them similar to this one...

"I counted more red flags than brain cells in that video"

^^^^
Yes, I understand the OP found the title of this post within those YouTube comments.
I think he tried to make it clear in the first post - "not my line"

:-)

^^^ Yep...I got that. I was reading some of the hundreds of comments sharing the same sentiments. (which I agree with)

Also a few replies from Russ saying that they didn't tell him anything about the van occupants other than they were going to be ok.

my goat was real and rare 68 with 350/350 a rare but unwanted gto
but the 350 was replaced with a 72 455 and the 455 blown by the time I got it

then I got lucky and found a 455 ho 71 block out of a race firebird
the 71 ho was the ONLY ROUND PORT HI C 455 HEAD 4 bolt trick crank ect

FOR SOME ODD GM reason no gto got an 455ho only the firebirds
and it was only a 71 year motor

I once had a stuck throttle doing WOT runs for MFI tuning, with PeterFrans who was also on PP.
But it was A an empty road in the country
all the room I needed
killed the ignition
used the brakes and that was just a bit of a scare to the Peter who didn't know what I was doing when i tried to pull accelerator pedal back as turn approached..

And yes it was a mistake, some ignition line had gotten in between the mfi linkages..
but it was just one and not a series of choises with blatant disregard for common sense.

This guy is an idiot, if you spend all that money (I don't even see how can spend that much).. on a car, for that many years.. why the hell would you take it out on the road to show it off if its not ready and not safe???

probably didn't even properly bleed em like so many other things he did poorly
I don't think driving slow riding the brakes will fade em that quickly with properly bled lines

I certainly have not driven auto trans cars and tried to go to a lower gear. With my El Camino and the 2004R with lockup, if I drop to a lower gear it will certainly go to the lower gear, but it is a standard column shift. I will not be trying to go to first while going fast.

And I can't imaging any logical reason to ride the brakes. Even the best brakes made will overheat if you are driving along with engine power and riding the brakes. Trucks brakes catch on fire when they malfunction and lock on.

I believe most of the American autos like you would find in a GM have a safety feature that keep you from doing the automatic equivalent of a money shift.

If you're 1st gear maxes out at 40mph, and you try or accidentally hit 1st gear at 50, the tranny will stay in 2nd gear until it's somewhere in the 35-40mph range.

But, it's possible to install a shift kit that will allow you to perform the shift.

I agree, but you would have some more warning..
they don't go from workign to nont working in no time, while driving.

note he was not braking , pulling to impress
braking nothing

I think that's to do with old fluid, full of moisture

with good brake fluid, he would have had "some" braking and it would have been just enough (IF he had also cut ignition)

He said he’d been riding the brakes for a couple miles. The passenger smelled overheated pads, what more clues do you want?

Sadly, too common these days in the world of hotrodding. People are spending 1 million to win the Ridler award.