Brakes are perhaps the easiest thing to take for granted on a car, and yet in many ways the most important tool in your arsenal. We just expect them to be there and to work when we push that pedal, but so often don’t think about how important those stoppers are to the overall performance of a car.
GRRC Garage: Caterham 310 S – the anchors
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It’s the extraordinary nature of the brakes on our long-term Caterham 310 S that has been taking up a fair amount of my thoughts recently. You’ll no doubt be tired by now of us using the word ‘pure’ when it comes to driving the Caterham, but using the middle pedal is another experience unencumbered by modern additions. The 310 S is not gifted with servo assistance, or ABS. The only things helping to drag you to a halt are the pressure you can put into the pedal and good old-fashioned friction.
And what an experience that pedal is. When people talk about ‘brake feel’ this is exactly what they mean. Once you get used to punching the metal a little harder than you do in a modern servo-assisted car you’ll struggle to find a braking experience that brings you so much confidence. The longer you spend with a Caterham the later you will begin braking for each corner, and the more relaxed you will find yourself should you round a bend and find something dawdling in the way.
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It's a pedal you can really hit hard, but that provides some wonderful range for modulation, trail braking into corners is easy as you can roll the pressure back and be sure that the car isn’t going to be unsettled, but it’s the characteristics under heavy braking that are the most astonishing. Recently I was pulling out of a slip road with a Rover 200 in front of the 310, with vision always slightly compromised in a Caterham a quick glance over my shoulder to check nothing was there was enough time for the rover to slam its brakes on. In a situation where most cars would have raised the pulse as they tried to haul themselves to a stop, the Caterham calmly pulled up easily, with just a hit of of rear-axle lock to make the experience more interesting.
It’s not just the force that will leave a mark on all at GRR when the Caterham finally departs us, but the wonderful usability of these incredible stoppers. Sure the Caterham is light enough to nearly be blown away by a strong wing, but its still been blessed with a set of brakes that could probably have avoided all that Titanic/iceberg kerfuffle.
MPG this week: 34.1
Photography by Tom Shaxson.
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