Sorry to be contrarian, but I did find the drums on my '51 OTS to be
lacking, especially during high speed rallying with disk wheels (not
brakes!). The only mod ad the time was a conversion to the later style
self-adjusters. Even with heavy-duty truck linings installed by a competent
source and radiused correctly, I found that after really thrashing, the
brakes became unreliable. The scary thing was that they didn’t just go
away, but they become very unpredictable. Sometimes they would pull right,
sometimes left, sometimes not at all. Of course, one answer was to put the
car sideways to scrub speed in a fairly controllable manner, but that didn’t
work too well with other traffic (or family members) around. I converted to
Wilwood calipers and vented NASCAR discs in the front and a full 150 axle in
the back (including limited slip) with carbon compound street pads; when I
went from open road to vintage racing, I also did a full dual circuit (two
master cylinders with balance bar) conversion. The stuff at the wheels is
all bolt on, but for the dual masters I ended up completely redoing the
pedals, so that’s not for everyone.
Jack Rubin
@Jack_Rubin
Chicago, Illinois USA