Studebaker first with disc brakes ?

[63t-cab]

Was watching American Picker today.they dealt with a fella that had a collection of Croslys,"and went on to say they were the first American car with disc brakes"

Joseph R. Zeiger

[studegary]

That would be Crosley (with an e). Crosley and Chrysler both had disc brakes before Studebaker. The distinction comes in with the type of disc brakes. I believe that Studebaker was the first with modern caliper style disc brakes in the US.

Gary L.
Wappinger, NY

SDC member since 1968
Studebaker enthusiast much longer

[barnlark]

[Milaca]

I have a 1950 Crosley Super sedan with the original four wheel disc brakes made by Goodyear-Hawley. These are a hydraulic caliper with 2 inch diameter (or approximately 2 inch, I dont recall exactly) brake pads. For a parking brake, the rear calipers have an additional mechanical actuated cam for applying the calipers. In 1951 Crosley reverted back to drum brakes. The basic design of these brake calipers are still being manufactured today by various companies with a choice of hydraulic or air actuation and I designed automation machinery that used them where I was last employed. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that disc brakes were common on WWII aircraft.


Flo (she loves Studes because they are progressive)
In the middle of Minnestudea

[okc63avanti]

Studebaker wasn't the first car with disc brakes but it is correct to say "They were the first car company with disc brakes standard" The Studebaker Avanti was the first car in the US to have the disc brakes standard instead of as an option for an additional cost.

John


63R-2386 under restoration & modification

[barnlark]

Actually, as stated above, there were plenty more cars with front disc brakes standard overseas well before the Avanti:
First American car company with standard disc brakes (short lived, but the first)- 1949 Crosley Hot Shot

First company with standard brakes at all four corners was Austin-Healey in
'54 with the 100S. My cousin's early 100S:
[img]/img]

Studebaker was well ahead of the big three with standard disc brakes, though! [^][^]

[Milaca]

My 1950 Crosley Super sedan has four wheel disc brakes as standard equipment. Drum brakes were not offered on Crosley cars in 1950.


Flo (she loves Studes because they are progressive)
In the middle of Minnestudea

[barnlark]

Were those standard, or an option on all four corners, Brent?
Edit: I see you had already answered that, sorry. [B)]
"Crosley was still in a class by itself on price -- $872-$984 that year -- and for engineering. Disc brakes, for example, had arrived for 1949-50, a first for series production shared with Chrysler's 1950 Town & Country Newport.

Unfortunately, hasty development caused the Crosley brakes to deteriorate quickly after exposure to road salt and grime, causing tremendous service headaches. Since the firm was still smarting from the woes of its unlamented sheetmetal engine, this new problem was the last thing dealers -- or customers -- needed. Conventional drum brakes were reinstituted for 1951." [8D]

[Milaca]

Just for confirmation, I went to the Crosley automobile club website: http://crosleyautoclub.com/Crosley_Q-A.html#Brakes
"From mid 1949 to mid 1950, all Crosleys used the Goodyear-Hawley Hydra-Disc airplane type brakes, on all four wheels. The first American auto company to use modern Disc Brakes. The disc brakes were short lived due to corrosion problems in parts of the country that used salt. Since they were adapted from airplane use the alloy used was not appropriate for road use."


Also of interest, being that Crosley also built pickups at this time based on the car chassis, they would be the first pickups (utes) to have not only disc brakes, but four wheel disc brakes.
Crosley, a fine car built in Marion, Indiana.

[CrosleyClub]

From the Crosley Car Owners Club (CCOC) www.onelist.com/group/Crosley : Crosley is known as a pioneer in the use of modern disc brakes. Most vehicles these days come with disc brakes on the front. Many even come with disc brakes on the back as well. However, not all that long ago disc brakes were not widely available and they were typically only found on high-end sports cars.

Actually, disc brakes have been around almost as long as the automobile has been. They were developed in the late 1890s in England and patent by Frederick Lanchester and put to use in Lanchester cars in 1902. What should have been a great innovation was not, as the choices of metals in those days were very limited and this forced Lanchester to go with copper for the braking part that acted on the disc itself.

Because the roads then were very crude and consisted of little more than dirt trails, the copper proved to wear out much too quickly, and disc brakes were put back on the shelf. It would be almost another fifty years before disc brakes would begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel and begin to be implemented into certain automobiles.

The first modern style disc brakes were produced in very small numbers and used in the 1949 Crosley Hotshot. The design was flawed, as road salt and grime entered the hydraulic mechanisms and caused problems. At the time Crosley engineers said a simple rubber dust cover would have prevented these conditions but that Powel Crosley would not approve the change, and they were discontinued one year later due to complaints. As a result, Hawley Brake Corporation of Corning, New York filed suit against Crosley Motors for $156,076 in damages, alleging a breach of contract for the order of 25,000 sets of disc brakes. The contract had been signed in December, 1948 but Crosley canceled the order in June of 1950, leaving Hawley with 9,250 sets of brakes on hand. The suit was settled out of court for a reduced amount.

At that same time, Chrysler was offering its version of disc brakes from 1949 to 1953 on their Imperial model. These brakes were greatly different, however, and were fully-enclosed. It wasn't until 1953 that Dunlop would change the world of braking as it came out with what was considered to be the first reliable disc brakes.

Disc brakes began to catch on as the years rolled forward and they could be seen in a number of automobiles such as the 1953 Jaguar C-Type Racers, the 1954 Austin-Healy 100S (first model with four wheel disc brakes), the 1955 Citroen DS, the 1956 Triumph TR3, the 1963 Studebaker Avanti (optional on other Studebaker models for the year), the 1965 Rambler Marlin (optional on other AMC models for the year), the 1965 C2 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, and the 1965 Ford Thunderbird.

Very quickly the auto manufacturers began to see the advantages of disc brakes over traditional drum brakes. Stopping distance was greatly reduced, and the disc brakes performed much better in wet conditions. Disc brakes also had a much greater resistance to overheating which caused "brake fading" to occur.

Soon, more and more models of various nameplates used at least front wheel disc brakes as standard equipment. Today one would be hard-pressed to find a vehicle that doesn't at least have standard front disc brakes, and many of today's sports cars feature disc brakes on all four corners, and even non-'sporty' cars use four-wheel disc brakes as standard equipment. Though the technology had existed for over a century, it took quite a while to catch on, but catch on it did, and now almost every vehicle on the road today is stopped courtesy of disc brakes.

[Da Tinman]

quote:Originally posted by barnlark

Actually, as stated above, there were plenty more cars with front disc brakes standard overseas well before the Avanti:
First American car company with standard disc brakes (short lived, but the first)- 1949 Crosley Hot Shot

First company with standard brakes at all four corners was Austin-Healey in
'54 with the 100S. My cousin's early 100S:
[img]/img]

Studebaker was well ahead of the big three with standard disc brakes, though! [^][^]

Nothing real to add to the thread, But I gotta say, thats a purty car!

http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff198/Da_Tinman/

http://www.datinmanjay.com

[klifton1]

Nice lines. Must be why they bring so much money today.
Klif

55 Speedster
63 Avanti R2
63 Lark R2