Yeah! They didn’t originally called them “emergency brakes” for nothing!
My ‘46 is all original with a one stage master cylinder and one brake line feeding everything. When I drive it, I’m consciously eyeing that ratchet sticking up right beside the shift lever when braking… especially if coming up behind another vehicle! I drive it as if I expect it to fail! Hahaha!
In my ‘56 on the other hand, it would probably catch me totally by surprise and take me an extra second to react and think to grab that parking brake ratchet under the dash. …coupled with routinely higher speeds it would be a more nerve wracking event. Fortunately, my brakes failed at very low speed in my neighborhood, not out on the highway. …or out in east podunk!!
