I took my van out yesterday, the poor thing had been sitting for almost a
month.

After about a 45 minute drive, I got into down town Vancouver and noticed a
burning smell - a bit like burnt plastic.  I checked the mirrors to see if
there were any smoke coming from the side air vents (no, phew).  Then I
noticed heat coming up from the wheel well below my seat.  I found a place
to pull over and nearly burnt my hand when I put my hand inside the hub cap
and touched the rim of the tire.

It is not like I just came down a mountain pass.  While there was a bit of
braking coming off a bridge and so on, but mostly stop and go city traffic
- and I'm not the kind of driver that alternates between stamping on the
gas and then brakes.

I noticed the brakes go a bit soft, which alarmed me.  Pumping them
improved it.  After stopping for 15-20 minutes, I didn't have any further
issues.

Is it likely this was something stuck from having the van sit for a while?

Tom