There are many names in the automotive industry that have very long histories and are respected brands - Dunlop is one of them thanks to being a major player in the tyre industry. However, Dunlop were also key inventors of other safety equipment and one such invention was Maxaret - the first Anti-lock Braking System to be commercialised. In the late 1940s, Dunlop developed … [Read more...]
Disc Brakes
A little while ago I wrote about drum brakes and it reminded me of the Le Mans winning Jaguars of the 1950s. One of the advantages the Jags had over their American, German and Italian rivals was their use of disc brakes. The other cars mostly still used drum brakes that were inferior in their ability to slow a car down. Thus the Jags could brake much later than the other cars … [Read more...]
Run-Flat Tyres
Over the years many companies have sold the consumer on the benefit of having a run-flat tyre. In fact for a while, they were standard fit on many Austin and Morris Metro cars in the UK during the 1980s. There are advantages and disadvantages of having these types of tyres fitted - the clear benefit is that should the tyre be punctured, the driver can still continue their … [Read more...]
Cross-Ply & Radial Tyres
I originally wrote this article in 2008 for my podcast after I had found an old TV advertisement on YouTube showing the dangers of mixing cross-ply and radial tyres on the same axle. The result could be circular driving with ends swapping direction! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrRz_ItWWDw The tyre as we know it today came from the minds of two Scotsmen: John Boyd Dunlop … [Read more...]