Old performance cars to Oberon
Old performance cars are not particularly fast by modern standards. They are surpassed by a garden variety hatchback in performance. But while they might not be particularly fast, they are a lot of fun to drive on a winding country road. Today I met up with some of the members of the Topklasse forum for a drive to Oberon. I had never been there before – but I will be back. The road between Mt Victoria to Oberon has minimal traffic, is not clogged up with hoons on motorbikes and has wide sweeping corners and 100km/h speed limits.
On the drive we had a 300SEL 6.3, a W210 E55 AMG, a late model C class and I took my E-Type.
The drive was a lot of fun, even if the weather was iffy in the morning – starting from Richmond, up Bells Line of road, then over to Oberon. The Jag performed well, although on the way back I had the brake dragging issue I thought I had finally fixed. It got particularly bad about 1km from home and I had to limp back in 1st gear. Pretty much the entire braking system on this car is new or refurbished, so it is starting to get difficult to work out what to do. The symptoms were different here, a rock hard brake pedal and the calipers were dragging in general rather than a slow release like I had before. The car did go past 66,666 on the way there, so maybe this is the reason.
Bryce, we could very well discuss this topic on topklasse, but for the time being let me perhaps suggest a couple of things that may cause you these brake problems. BTW, I think your site and the way you log your activities is second to none.
Okay, are your brake lines internally swollen ? How old are they and are they troublesome because of lack of use age of the car ? Are they good quality items, even if they are fairly new ? The dragging brakes – both front and rear, or front only ? I realize it may be a little difficult for you to answer this on account of the location of the rear discs.
Your Master Cylinder – how good is it ? I a not really up to scratch knowledge wise on those units, but maybe a really good brake mechanic may be able to elaborate on that unit – you know, some of the issues one may encounter if they are faulty in some way. After that, I can only think of calipers – as I said, were they hot ? Did you pull up to check them on the way home ? Regards, Michael