---- David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote:
> At 08:35 AM 7/4/2010 Sunday, Dave Mcneely wrote:
> >Now, if drum brakes are less effective than disc brakes, why do so
> >many vehicles have rear drums?  Vanagon content here in that
> >vanagons are built that way.
>
> Drum brakes were the standard automotive brake for many many years,
> although my grandmother's Studebaker still used band brakes.  Some
> time in the sixties IIRC disk brakes began to be available, and there
> was discussion in the magazines like Motor Trend and Road & Track as
> to whether the handling problems from increase in unsprung weight was
> a greater disadvantage than any increase in brake performance would
> make up for.

As I recall, disc brakes were a high dollar option on high dollar cars when they were first available in this country.  They were on European cars well before any American vehicles adopted them.
>

> But if you want my bet as to why cars are being built with rear disk
> brakes (leaving aside race cars) -- I suspect it is purely cosmetic.

So, if there is no real functional advantage, other than no need for an adjustment mechanism, then it is probably the "cool" factor, or the idea that folks who don't know better might think they are better -- in other words a sales gimmick.

DMc