[njsteve]

The problem was he did practice for weeks with a power disc brake equipped car. He didn't find out that the race day car didn't have them til he pressed the brakes hard while coming down pit road. Back then there was a big difference in the lack of stopping ability between those two systems.

I've had a few 71 E-bodies with that exact same 11x3 four wheel manual drum brake setup. You had only one good five second heavy application of brakes at any high speed before they would fade to nothing.

From a forensic accident reconstruction viewpoint, the violent yaw of the front to the left side (into oncoming traffic) was a unique idiosynchracy of this brake system. Trying to stop a fully loaded 4,000 lb car with that setup from 120 mph would have been a completely futile effort.

It is a scary thing, and from experience, it would happen at any speed over 40 mph or so. My old 71 hemicuda ragtop had that same brake setup. I ended up replacing the linings with full metallic shoes at all four corners. Took a while to heat up but it gave me at least 5 panic stops before they would fade out. (That was one of reasons I sold it - too dangerous to drive.)

The actual pace car had a 383/300 horsepower engine - not much power at all to impress anyone. Good for about a 15 second 1/4 mile.