Brakes instead of opening doors!
05/23/2025
Mexican racing driver Roberto Belmar only came fourteenth in his 1953 DeSoto Firedome V8 at the Carrera Panamericana of the same year. According to reports at the time, the reason for this was not the lack of speed of the 160 hp 4.5-liter Hemi-engined "big stock car", but its lack of braking power.
Although a brake booster was available on request for the first time for the 1953 model year for the big DeSoto - power steering was now also available as an option - this made little difference to the braking performance itself. To be fair, it should be added that the braking performance per se was not even that bad. At the time, it was even rumored that Chrysler had installed the best brakes among the "Big Three" - and thus also in the DeSoto. After all, there were duplex brakes at the front with double brake cylinders, one for each shoe and thus both actuated in the upward direction against the brake drum.
However, stability was and still is the problem. The wheels, which sat deep in the wheel arches, hardly had any cooling airflow. Belmar must have noticed this relatively quickly. His DeSoto - essentially based on the 1942 model - was simply overpowered at the time with the brand new, powerful Hemi engine. A top speed of 170 km/h was specified for the Firedome, i.e. more than 100 miles per hour. Only sports cars of the time could beat that. But the brakes were hopelessly overstretched.
My own 1953 DeSoto Powermaster is neither that powerful nor that fast. The brakes, however, have kept me on my toes in recent times, as already mentioned here . But now I've been lucky and found a suitable adapter from a specialist - who I'm happy to name here: Schacher Hydraulikin Inwil, Lucerne. This should solve the problems and I don't need to hire a co-driver, navigator and brakeman like Roberto Belmar in 1953. ...brakeman? Please? Absolutely! Because Belmar's car became so weak when braking that the co-driver had to make do with an "air brake": he pushed the door of the DeSoto open with both feet when decelerating! At least the car and the crew made it to the finish line in one piece!
