(first posted 7/26/2011) One of the more obscure footnotes in automotive history is Chrysler’s premature fling with disc brakes, as fitted standard to the 1950 through 1954 Crown Imperial eight-passenger limousine. They were also a $400 ($3600 adjusted) option on other Chryslers, but that very stiff price and certain limitations with the unique Ausco-Lambert twin disc brakes meant few takers. Chrysler was ahead of the times, at least for passenger cars, because the Ausco-Lambert found another home as well, but it wasn’t a racing car like the first English Girling disc brake.
Yes, certain Farmalls also used the Ausco-Lambert. And good luck finding parts for them, Chrysler or International. These were something all-together different.
There were two discs with brake linings, inside a two-piece “drum”, and the discs expanded outward to make contact with those drums. Here’s an excerpt Richard Langworth: “The Complete History of Chrysler Corporation 1924 – 1985″
They were “self-energizing” in that some braking energy contributed to braking effort. When the disc make initial contact with the friction surface, small balls set into oval holes leading to the surface apart to augment braking energy. The effect was lighter pedal pressure than caliper discs, plus less fade, cooler running, and more friction surface than comparable drum brakes. Because of its high production cost, the all-disc system was standard only on the 1950 Town and Country and on Crown Imperials through 1954. It was a $400 option on other Chryslers, and thus rarely ordered. Current owners of cars so equipped consider the A-L brakes reliable and very powerful, but grabby and oversensitive.”
Wiki says:
Chrysler reportedly used either too few cones and balls, or cones or balls that were not hard enough given the number used; they could deform under brake load, leading to brake failures.
What became the modern automotive disc brake was first conceived and built by that radical Frederick Lanchester in 1902, but the lack of suitable materials stymied the disc until 1953, when Girling discs were first available on the 1953 Jaguar C-Type. Even Mercedes used British Girling disc brakes.
The 1971 Imperial again was a pioneer, with a Bendix “Sure Brake” electronic anti-lock braking system, the first four-wheel ABS system offered on an American car (the 1966 Jensen Ferguson had the first in the world). Once again, its high price meant that it disappeared two years later. What goes around (the disc) comes around.
I am fascinated by the Lambert-Ausco brakes. I can see why they didn’t catch on, but they’re interesting in the same way the old Cotal pre-selector transmissions were.
Caliper (“spot”) disc brakes appeared on the little Crosley Hotshot around 1948 or so — I have no idea how well they worked, but I think Crosley was the first in the U.S.
An odd thing about the Imperial’s later Bendix ABS was that it was offered only with disc/drum brakes. In 1974, it was dropped (the $344 price tag being the main reason), but four-wheel discs were standardized.
I am certain that I previously, perhaps in some in enthusiast magazine, read that the Crosley disks were done in primarily by the adoption of the use of road salt in winter. Given the rust issues, Crosley reverted to drums.
The 1950 Sebring (6-hour that year) Index of Performance was won by a Crosley Hot Shot with four wheel disc brakes. In 1949 and 1950 Crosley produced the Hot Shot, the Super Sport, the sedan, the station wagon and the pickup, all with four wheel disc brakes. The Crosleys and Crosley based specials were popular in SCCA H-production and H-modified racing in the 1950s.
Lincoln had Sure Track on the 69-71 Continental Mark III and on some later Continentals as well, but I believe that it was a rear wheel system only. I remember that my father was quite proud of the feature on his Mark III and Mark IV.
Was the Imperial 4 wheel system called Sure Track or Sure Brake?
Sure-Brake — I just looked it up.
Yes, both the Sure Track system Ford used on some Thunderbirds and Marks was rear wheel only. Ditto the system GM offered on the Eldorado and Toronado. (Olds called it True-Track, Cadillac Track Master, but it was the same system.)
Let’s not leave out the 4th MFG to offer anti-lock brakes, IH. Their name for the Bendix rear wheel system was simply Anti-Skid Rear Brake System. It was offered only on 2wd 1/2 ton versions of the Travelall and Pickup, for the 72-75 model years.
Yes; I fixed it earlier. It’s right there on that graphic!
Hey, I recognize these. This brake system was used on the front wheels of the Catallo coupe that appears on the cover art of the Beach Boys’ Little Deuce Coupe album.
Nice catch BOC, but the brakes on the Deuce Coupe are Kinmont Disc Brakes, which started out as airplane brakes but were easily adapted to early Ford spindles. Same principle of operation I think..
Good to know a childhood spent memorizing Rod & Custom magazines has paid off!
YouTube features lots of videos of the late 60s/early 70s “Car and Track” show. Amusing to watch (especially the Mopars) “lock ’em up” at speed.
Buicks on these videos would stop somewhat straight, but clouds of blue smoke abound.
This was clearly developed from a clutch mechanism, whereas conventional disc brakes were an off-shoot from the Aircraft industry in terms of metalurgy and friction materials, if not in concept.
I have a single disk with brand new pads for a 51 Chrysler Imperial limo. I owned one long ago and had this odd extra part that got left behind. Happy to give it to anyone who will possibly have a use for it – don’t want to throw out a good part from a vintage vehicle.
Email me at priestleydave@yahoo.com if you want it.
Dear Sir,
I am interested if this part is still available. I am in the process of restoring one, brake parts are non existant. Thanks
I have a complete NOS set of early Ausco Lambert Discs and Drums if you are in need.
Just E-Mail me for further info.
Please serious inquiries only.
Thanks
tomk@greenbergfuit.com
I have a 1954 chrysler new york deluxe/ grand father all orginal /restored/would disc brake fit on mycar/ Tom K
HI Bernie just wondering if you have the set of Ausco Lambert discs and drums it is for a 1953 Imperial limousine
If these are still available, I am interested. I would like to get my restoration finished.Thank you
Gratton, the odds of connecting via your reply here are extremely slim.
But… there’s a chance, so good luck with it.
The rest of this won’t help with anyone’s quest for parts, but I’ll mention that I attended the Ausco liquidation. Spent months there and foraged through a lot. The oddities in R&D, models, tryouts, patterns, tools, etc. were mind boggling. As far as I could tell there wasn’t any effort to save anything for posterity – it all went to the wolves. There were some “hey check this out” moments, but after a quick impromptu review of some oddity, off it went. Lol
LOOKING 4 DIsKS???? …NEED FOR deSOTO PROJECT…?
……CLIFF…….
Chrysler tinkered with brakes again on the 1974 and 1975 Imperial, trying to show some engineering leadership. The fitted the cars with standard four wheel discs, I believe the only American car to do so at the time.
And don’t forget the (infamous) four piston Budd Disc brakes that are fitted to the front of my 67 Imperial. Trying to find the D-10 pads for these brakes is an adventure in itself.
That is really fascinating- and good information. On the off chance someone eventually comes into the auto parts store I work at looking for information on their project 1950-54 Chrysler’s unusual disc brake system, I might now just have an inkling of an idea what they are talking about. Never mind that the parts won’t be available anywhere except Hemmings : (
Interesting. I’d read about this but hadn’t seen a picture. It really isn’t a disc brake at all; it’s a drum brake with the shoes moving axially instead of radially.
That is a fascinating disc brake design. No wonder it was so expensive, just look at all of those parts including a drum. Looks heavy too.
I believe that it was Studebaker that began to popularize caliper discs in U.S. cars starting in 1962 or 63. It is funny that after Chrysler led the charge, it seemed to lag in the widespread adoption of discs.
By 62/63 disc front brakes were standard fittings on some UK cars even the cheaper low powered models like Hillmans had discs available while larger 6 cylinder cars Like Ford’s Zephyr,Zodiac twins had them standard, nothing wrong with good double leading shoe drum brakes but single leading shoe as fitted to Australian Holdens are just a joke as far as stopping is concerned.
There is a lot wrong with double leading shoe drum brakes. The are extremely grabby. How do I know? How did the American std one leading, one trailing drum brake behave? Put leading on both shoes is a recipe for disaster.
On the contrary, I had a mid 60s Peugoet wagon with all trailing drum brakes and they performed phenomenally.
Can’t speak for American cars, but the Australian Mark II Zephyr had Girling twin leading-shoe front brakes all the way through to its conclusion and it pulled up just fine, with my ordering ever-so-slightly harder linings eliminating the fade for all normal driving down mountains, etc.
The Achilles’ heel was, ironically, in the leading-trailing shoe rear brake with its rubbish rear brake adjuster which periodically stripped its die-cast mounting studs in everyday use.
(1953): “the entire automotive industry is eyeing the revolutionary stopping device for possible use on a large scale”:
And the $5447 for the car was some *real* money back then (1950):
Well, they had to get the cash somewhere to sponsor “Treasury Men in Action” every Monday night!
Very complex system I can see why it was expensive compared to the caliper system, Ive just overhauled a classic age disc brake setup and installed it on my Minx, theres nothing to them, the entire front axle assembly Ive installed mirrors the front brakes and suspension available on the 3a Sunbeam Rapier, it drives well.
The 1950-54 Imperial disc brake system may be the answer to a question that I had recently. I got a close up look at the brakes on a B-52 Stratofortress bomber at an airshow recently, and I noticed that it had an unusual design with a disc inside a finned drum, with mounting bolts and what looked like multiple brake linings around the outer edge of the drum. I was wondering what kind of brake design it is, and it looks related to the Imperial’s setup. The late 1940s/early 1950s timeframe of the B-52’s design being contemporary with the Imperial’s makes a relationship between them likely.
Although I’m not familiar with the B-52 system, I have a bit of experience with older military aircraft, and more often than not, a multi-plate disc system is used in the braking system. Conventional rotors are interleaved with stators that pick up on keyways cast into the wheel rims, with hydraulic actuation pushing the whole shooting match towards the ‘outside’ of the system (depending on how the undercarriage leg is configured). This gives lots of swept area, but they do all get warm, but more often that not, you’re only doing one big stop per flight, so the issue of fade is less of a problem. Heat build up is another matter entirely, and fusible plugs in tyres that blow at high temperature are very common, as are magnesium rims, for lightness. Combining these is a recipe for brake fires, which are bad 🙂
Looks to me like an engineering team was taken from the clutch department and reassigned to the brakes department.
There are a lot of similarities between clutches and brakes, really, and many of the configurations applied to one have been tried at some point for the other. Aside from the multi-disc brake Brad mentions above, there were also some experiments in the thirties with drum-type clutches that work basically like a drum brake.
Case had similar brakes on some of their tractors as well.
The 1949 Chrysler brake system was named “disk”, and it was of the disk design, indeed. Yet, it is not the name that matters here…
The thing is that caliper disk brakes eliminate the fundamental weakness of the drum brakes, – that is, the warpage of the drum face under the one-sided pressure of the brake shoes. Under the heavy braking, the drum is strongly heated and, therefore, it loses its stiffness. Under the one-sided pressure, the hot drum deforms considerably, and the brakes badly fade. A shame.
As distinct from the drum, the disk is squeezed by the caliper symmetrically, and, even being hot, it isn’t prone to deformation. This is the crucial advantage of the caliper disk brakes as against these drum.
From this point of view, the Chrysler “disk” brake system doesn’t differ from the drum system since the “disk” stands the one-sided pressure of the brake shoes. That is, the Chrysler “disks” are prone to deformation – just like drums. In other words, the Chrysler “disk” system hardly exceeds the conventional drum system, and this is why the pointless design has been dropped once and for all.
That said, the 1949 Crosley models were the world first production cars equipped with true disk brakes of the revolutionary caliper design. My apologies for too many words…
I had a 20 year old 1956 Plymouth convertible with recently renewed power brakes. I drove down the Divisadero St hill to the Marina in San Francisco with five people in the car. It had Powerflite, so no low speed engine braking. At the bottom of the hill I had both feet pressing as hard as I could on the brake pedal, resulting in a minimal bit of braking. Chrysler products use a different drum brake system from the others through maybe the sixties, “Total Contact”. I think they were even worse for fading than others.
Back then my uncle told a story about driving his family in an early fifties New Yorker across New York state on route 20 (pre-Thruway). It has lots of hills along he way. He said at one point he was getting toward the end of a downhill approaching a town and had pretty much no brakes left but fortunately the light was green.
At least the Plymouth’s emergency brake was a completely separate system, consisting of a drum brake on the driveshaft.
I don’t think there was anything about those Total Contact brakes that made them more fade-prone. The main difference was that each front shoe got its own wheel cylinder. Their biggest weakness was that you doubled the chances for a leak or an air bubble in one of the front wheels (Ask me how I know). Your biggest problem may have been San Francisco.
Carden shaft parking brakes used to be common but as an emergency brake are almost useless as they operate via the differential.
I had thought that this type of ‘disc brake’ was only on the REAR of certain Chryslers then.
I read that the Crosley disc-brake was adapted from the tail-wheel brake of a Piper Cub airplane.
Happy Motoring, Mark
I have owned 2 Chrysler products with the Ausco-Lambert brakes, a 1950 Town & Country, and a 1955 Crown Imperial 7 passenger limousine, both systems were similar, but there was enough of a difference between the early and late versions, so the internal parts were not interchangeable.
And YES, these were installed on ALL of the 1955 Imperial CROWN series LWB 7-passenger cars. My Imperial Crown came out of the Washington DC area, it was serial number C70-110. My limo was the 10th built of a total of [I think] 127 cars. It was sent to Derham Coachbuilders by Chrysler and customized to match another one Derham had just completed, it was serial number C70-101, the first one. It was made for Ike, and my car was built for Mamie. Ike’s car was also equipped with the A-L discs. There is rumored to have been a 3rd Derham limo conversion, but I believe it was an Imperial sedan that had a division window installed by Derham.
I bought my car is 1976, and in my quest for brake parts, I had an old guy in Bethesda, MD, who suggested I visit an old auto and truck brake supplier on New York Avenue in N.E. Washington called May’s Brake & Clutch. I walked to the parts counter and set out the disc parts. Before I could say anything, one of the old guys behind the counter said “Oh, did you end up with one of the White House’s old Chrysler limousines?”
Turned out this company was tasked with taking care of all the White House garage requirements when it came to brakes, and they stocked a full selection of A-L disc brakes, including the cast iron disc halves, cylinders, pad rings, springs, even the steel balls. The guy takes me back to a shelf, and it was literally filled with Ausco Lambert cardboard boxes covered in dust, with new parts inside!
There were several dozen new hydraulic cylinders, repair kits, bags of springs by the dozens, small manila paper bags filled with the ball bearings. None of the parts were in Chrysler boxes!
I asked him if the parts were available, and he said, yes, you can have them all, we don’t need ’em anymore! So I loaded up everything he said I cound have, and that included a bunch of additional obsolete stuff that was no longer in their active inventory. All for free, and I filled the trunk of my 1967 Imperial crown coupe! The guy’s name? Joe Mays, the founder/owner of May’s Brake & Clutch.
I did a total brake overhaul of #110, and drove it to various shows for many years. I ended up selling it to a friend, and I included the few extra parts I had, as many of the NOS pieces I sold to other Imperial Crown owners. Sadly guys, I have nothing left but memories. I think my friend ended up selling it to Saudia Arabia, there is a guy over there who buys any 1955 or 1956 Imperial Crown limousines he can find.
Ike’s limo belonged to a long-time friend of mine, Mr Jim Jones [his real name]. Mr Jones’ only son died in Viet Nam war, and he & I shared a special friendship as I was the same age as his son. I spent a lot of time convincing him and his wife to donate Ike’s limo to the National Park Service, and today the car sits in the garage at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg, PA. There were more than a few classic car dealers in the area who were not happy, as they didn’t get a chance to buy the presidential limo.
As for the 1950 Chrysler town & country, it was one of only a few made, and because it was equipped with the disc brakes, and it had major wood damage from insects and rot, I decided to sell it on. A friend of mine ended up with it, his father was a diplomat from Portugal, a he arranged to ship the car to Portugal, and have the wood replaced over there where “old world woodworkers” were cheap and plentiful.
I found these limousines, when the brakes were working properly, stopped those 3 ton vehicles faster than a 1956 Imperial Crown limo with regular power brakes. I believe the 2 reasons Chrysler stopped using the disc systems is twofold. First is because of the cost involved, and second, many of the Chrysler dealerships didn’t have the tools or equipment to repair them. Only dealers in the big cities would have the parts and knowhow to keep them stopping. It’s the #1 reason my limo was parked.
One interesting sidebar for these brakes; My longtime friend Dave Cammack had the Tucker Auto Museum, and he had found evidence that Preston Tucker was interested in both the Kinmont and the Ausco-Lambert Disc brakes, but never did use either one.
And to the guys who own a car with the Ausco-Lambert brakes, I can be contacted at billmccoskey@aol.com if you wish to make contact. And do be aware those ball bearings need to be made of a very hard steel, with a heavy industrial chrome plating.
Wow that’s an amazing story about the brake & clutch place – I’m happy when the parts counter person knows something about my commonplace car and the parts it uses, much less something as obscure as early 1950s Chrysler disk brakes.
Joe Mays was an amazing guy, he ran a huge facility that bought old brake shoes for cores, and rebuilt them in the shop. He had a huge machine called a Wheelabrator that produced crazy levels of decibels, you could hear it a block away as it tumbled brake shoes until they were 100% clean, then they dipped them all in a huge tank of clear lacquer & hung ’em up to dry.
Mays Brake specialized in truck brake systems, and when he died the company was sold to one of the big brake rebuilding corporations and Mays Brake ceased to exist. To my horror, I found out too late that ALL the obsolete N.O.S. brake inventory for automobiles and light trucks, going back into the 1930s, was scrapped because so much of it had asbestos linings.
One time I was talking to Mr. Mays and he said the pending EPA requirements were a waste of time and money, he said his workers who inhaled the shop air [it was always “smokey” in the shop] never died of, or had, lung cancer. He was in his late 70s when he made that comment, and I suspect he wasn’t sick with lung cancer, he was to active and obstinate!
Thanks for the insights on the Ausco-Lambert disk brake system and your experiences with it. A 1951-’53 Crown Imperial limousine appeared here in Western New York about twenty-five years ago after decades of storage. The owner was totally perplexed what the brakes were until I told him what the Ausco-Lambert system was. He fortunately found them to be in great condition since the car was low mileage.
Derham also converted a 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine to that semi-hardtop configuration which may be the third limousine you’ve heard about. I’ve kept my copy of the Car Classics article about your Derham Imperial for reference since its the only time I’ve seen in featured in print.
58L8134,
First, let me ask you about your 1958 Packard. You still have it?
Now about the ’55 Cadillac series 75 Derham hardtop. It’s not listed in the White House garage paperwork from 1953 to 1959. I was lucky to have grown up in the DC area, and I went to a private school a few blocks west of the White House. Since early childhood I have been fascinated by limousines. One day I was walking down a side street in DC when it began to rain very hard, and I ducked into an open garage area. I saw a 1953 or 54 Packard limo by Henney, and I was walking over to see the limo when a guy in a uniform stopped me.
I explained how I loved big limousines, and only wanted to see it closer. I was only about 11 or 12, and I figured he didn’t think of me as a threat, so he said I could look, but not touch. He said the limo was a “Staff Limo” for the White House. I must have spent a long time just gazing thru the window into the back area. I asked how the seats unfolded, and he came over & opened the back door and said if I was real careful I could sit in the back seat, and he would open up the folding seat so I could see what it was like. This was the first time I ever sat in a Packard, and it was a limousine!
I would use every excuse I could think of to get out of school a bit early to “sort of” drop by the White house garage. I learned the man’s name was Walter, and sometimes when I would visit, he would give me special presents like real 8×10 photos of the presidential cars, and even paperwork showing all the vehicle lists for the facility. So I ended up with lists of vehicles.
There were NO 1955 Cadillac vehicles listed in the White House garage lists thru 1959. There were 2 1956 Cadillac series 75 open phaetons built by Hess & Eisenhardt, these were known as the Secret Service cars, and were often seen in parades, driving directly behind the President’s car.
I know that Ike didn’t like Cadillacs, and he always was a MoPaR man. It helps to have had a close long-term friendship with K.T. Keller, the President of Chrysler. On Ike’s election, Keller arranged to have a special limo created by Derham, and then the second car for Mamie. Ike did use the bubble-top Lincoln for special events, but he preferred the ’55 Imperial limo.
That said, Cadillac Division DID build a Cadillac series 75 limo with a hardtop back, no jump seats and a rear sunroof. [Just like the Imperial being built by Derham.] The car was created without any agreement with the White House people, in the hopes they could get back into providing Cadillacs instead of Lincoln. It was rushed thru Hess & Eisehardt coachbuilders in the hopes of getting it to the White House before Derham finished the Imperial for Ike. When Ike was offered the Cadillac, he politely turned it down, explaining he was expecting the Imperial to arrive soon.
As far as I can tell, Ike never used it, and I have not been able to find any photos or White House paperwork that indicates the car was an official vehicle, leased or purchased. The car you refer to was owned by a French car collector for many years, and in 2011 it was offered at auction, said to be a White House limo for Ike, but without any substantiating paperwork.
I’m told that the car was considered by GM execs to be kind of an embarrassment, and it was sent to Europe to be sold off. I am including a photo of this one-off Cadillac.
Photo of ’55 Cadillac limo didn’t show up. Will try again
Bill: I only use the serial number of the last South Bend Packard as an on-line identity. I don’t own it, though I have been told it is still extant in a private collection, albeit pretty rough condition.
Thanks for the history of the ’55 Cadillac 75 ‘hardtop’ limousine. Humorous how history works out at times! Lucky you to have gotten into the White House garage in those years. The Cadillac appeared in an auction listing a few years ago, I assumed it was by Derham but its creation is more intriguing!
Once again, thanks for your insightful comments.
Bill, I have a customer with a 1950 Chrysler Town & Country who would like to convert to a modern disk system. Do you know of a conversion kit or what would fit?
The parts to repair the Ausco-Lambert system appear to be “Hens Teeth”, & he would like to drive it.
Ed,
When I had my cars back in the 1970s and early 1980s, Ausco-Lambert brake parts were just as hard to find. Finding hen’s teeth will be easier. I wish I had more good news, but I suggest your friend go with a GM light truck disc system, and make suitable mounting brackets [or modify ones to fit].
Also forgot, in the late 1980s David and Julie Eisenhower came to Washington, and as a surprise, I worked with Julie & Jim Jones to surprise David with his grandfather’s parade limo. Here’s a photo of David and Julie standing up in the rear sunroof, with Jim Jones sitting next to them.
I was the driver, as I was the only person Jim would allow to drive the car once he got too old to drive safely. It was a very emotional reunion, and David sat in the middle of the seat, right up on the front edge of the seat, because he sat like that, right between his grandparents many years ago.
I guy I went to college with in the mid-’80s drove a car originally owned by Julie Nixon Eisenhower (or at least said it was; he was one of the least honest people I’ve met, but I doubt he’d make up something like this). A 1969-71 Mercury Marquis four door, light yellow if I recall correctly.
I have stayed in contact with the Eisenhowers, They have sent me personally signed copies of their books, and Christmas cards, so I sent a quick email to Julie, and she quickly replied: “Hi Bill, sorry, but I have no recollection of such a car.”.
Not surprised. This guy was a habitual liar, but mostly that was confined to made-up rumors about people he didn’t like, which sometimes included me. He was always telling stories about weird and embarrassing things he saw his foes doing, but was very good at making these made-up stories seem believable, always filling them with details about minor random events and other people who were there who saw the same thing, always people that we knew but had moved away and fallen out of touch with so they couldn’t confirm the story. I didn’t, however, expect to ever learn conclusively whether his old, giant Marquis really was once driven by Julie Eisenhower; he likely assumed none of us would ever run into someone who knew her.
The Chrysler disc brake system on early 49 to 54 and 55 cars was Avery interesting story. I have enjoyed reading all the comments too. I just uncovered a set of disc brake hubcaps that I purchased in the 70’s. They are finned on the inside. I just posted on eBay for sale.