With the debut of the all-new C7 Corvette Stingray, and the 2014 Holden VF Commodore (and soon the Chevrolet SS), the keen may have noticed the absence of an element that’s been part of most, if not all, GM performance cars: a manual handbrake. Some of you may view the elimination of the manual handbrake in the same light as the deprivation of a manual transmission, and some of you might care less, since a little switch takes up less room, and adds extra space for the important things, like cup holders, and Big Mac trays (probably).
Ultimately, it all comes down to preference: the sophistication and small packaging of a motorized, electronic parking brake versus an analog, controllable lever that makes that clicking noise when yanked upwards, like a giant zip-tie. Feel free to hash it out in the comments below, and to participate in our reader survey.
Comments
Too much reliance on “powered” devices already. What happens when either battery (remote control & chassis-vehicle) fail…either one dies, the whole system STOPS.
As if the wire in a handbrake never suffered from fatique from tension or had the bead bend the forks.
Manual handbrakes aren’t bulletproof either.
True, but a manual may be easier to adjust yourself.
Haha I’m just going to be echoing myself from the C7 and SS articles..
This whole discussion is based on hand brakes application for RWD vehicles. Does a handbrake allow you to slide the car sideways, yes. That is great if you are wanting to have fun in the snow or lunch trays in a FWD car.
But in a rwd car you don’t need it, the handbrake, to get the rear end out (actually you can flick a FWD car to kick the rear out too, which is much more fun).
Power control and steering input supersedes “ripping” the hand brake in a rwd street car.
Why in the hell would you want to lock up the rear tires?? Not to mention using the cars power provides a much more predictable slide that is easier to both control/maintain and exit from. You don’t have to deal with weight transfer being thrown around from side to side.
Like I said in the Chevy SS article, Formula Drift cars (or anyone set up with a serious ‘missile car’) is likely to have the steering geometry increased as well as negative camber, and toe and caster adjusted to allow for more a controlled aggressive slide upon utilizing the hand brake to initiate the slide. But the SS is not that, the C7 is not that, the 911, M3, M5, RS4, LFA, F-Type, any Aston, the MP4-12C, 458, SLS, C63 AMG, P1, CTS-V, etc etc.. All rear wheel drive, all having electronic parking brakes.
Unless you want to do the historic “bootleg turn” or attempt parallel parking and risk caving in your wheels when you slide in the curb, a hand brake isn’t need on street-going rwd cars, performance rwd car or otherwise.
If you handbrake with a manual trans and don’t depress the clutch you stall the car in RWD. Now this is a simple thing to know, but if you are a no-talent-ass-clown who is using a handbrake to get a rwd car to over-steer you likely don’t know that and will be stalling a lot.
How about flat spots in the tires from handbraking?
The driver’s “purist” cars like the M3 or 911 don’t have handbrakes, and they are both revered vehicles.
I would ‘love’ to see someone taking a turn at speed and yanking the handbrake, doesn’t take a physics professor ( 😉 ) to know the outcome of that.
Actually as someone who used to regularly drift and do extreme maneuvers; a manual handbrake (hydraulic or cable operated) is essential in a RWD car with high or low hp. The e-brake allows you to instantaneously change the car’s direction and or angle of attack before, and while initiating a four wheel drift. Simply rolling-on/stabbing the gas as you go around a corner or a curve is not drifting. That’s a power slide. Usually easily identified by the fact that the car is only sideways as it exits the apex of the turn. A proper four wheel drift will have the car fully sideways entering, apexing, and exiting the curve. Having a good manual e-brake makes it infinitely easier to adjust the cars angle while doing so.
That’s my point:
“Like I said in the Chevy SS article, Formula Drift cars (or anyone set up with a serious ‘missile car’) is likely to have the steering geometry increased as well as negative camber, and toe and caster adjusted to allow for more a controlled aggressive slide upon utilizing the hand brake to initiate the slide. But the SS is not that, the C7 is not that, the 911, M3, M5, RS4, LFA, F-Type, any Aston, the MP4-12C, 458, SLS, C63 AMG, P1, CTS-V, etc etc.. All rear wheel drive, all having electronic parking brakes.”
I only want an interactive computer voice , that when I park the car it asks me in a friendly empathetic voice , would you like me to put on the emergency brake for you , and all I have to say is yes or no . This is too much to ask , I know , but it beats hands down to carry on a lengthy conversation with my wife , in the car , while she takes 10 to 20 minutes or infinitely more , to explain some trivial matter , such as why I’m going down the wrong street , in the wrong neighborhood , in the wrong state . Why oh why did God give them such an extensive vocabulary ???
Growing up, I was never quite sure if my cars were even going to start. And when they did, would they stall??? Today’s cars are so worry and maintenance free it’s ridiculous. But, that doesn’t mean I like how they’re outfitting them. Satellite radio: great, but there’s no comparison to the sound quality of a CD. Electronic instruments: cool, but they’re not always easy to read (don’t get me started on CUE). Cheesy Auto Zone quality LED lighting: cool if you’re 12. And I could go on, but I’ve got to go…
White LED interior lighting, or even the ‘cool blue’ Buick uses add a crispness that ugly incandescent bulbs can’t achieve with their yellow hue.
I swap out all my cars interior lights with crystal white LEDs from superbrightleds.com high-ish prices and high quality with lifetime warranty.
Best sound quality/option will come from a digital audio player or on board SSD with songs compressed using the lossless FLAC audio format (as long as the original source was of high digital quality). But with that said I find it hard to believe someone can complain about audio quality out of a Bang&Olufsen system playing MP3s from a phone via AUX input/ USB/ iPod cruising down the highway at 65mph VS CD VS FLAC (If the song was copied to it’s digital source properly).. Or even listening to internet radio
my understanding of a handbrake if used propery and not abused is first to hold the car still when parked and second to stop the car during a brake fluid line failure, does the abs provent lockup of the rear wheels during a brake failure stop or is it a on/off system causing rear lockup proventing any chance of stopping safely.
if it’s a lockup system, shove it.
if it works with the abs to maintain control during use at 50mph + it could have a future.
That’s just it, a handbrake is a parking brake, not some emergency brake you pull if your brakes go out. Not only does a hand brake not have much stopping power to stop are car going 50mph, the chance of things going much, much worse is pretty high. If you lock the rear tires up at 50mph you can flip the car.
ABS has nothing to do with a handbrake, whether it is mechanical or electronic. In fact, every car I have driven with an electronic parking brake turn it off for you if the car is put into gear and you attempt to drive (not because I have forgotten, but because I am curious lol).
A parking brake, if it is using the disc brakes, is very similar to the V-brakes on a bicycle. Some cars have a completely separate set of mini brake pads and own calipers for the parking brake system.
My old 2006 CTS actually used a drum brake for the parking brake and then obviously disc brakes for regular braking operations. The drum was part of the rear disc rotors and was on the back side of the rotor. I haven’t even thought to look and see what the set up is on my 2008 CTS or 2006 Mazda6S
You can easily use a handbrake to stop a car from 50mph and higher without locking up the rear wheels. I’ve done it. In newer cars and in my old 66 Bonneville when the brake cylinder went out. You don’t just yank it, (or stomp on it, if the pedal is on the floor) you apply gradual pressure.
Side note: locking up the rear wheels on a car will at worse just make the rear wheels slide in the direction the car is traveling. In order to induce a spin you have to swerve the front wheels left or right, or have pulled the e-brake while simultaneously changing direction (like going around a curve). The front wheels HAVE to be traveling at a slower rate of speed than the rear for the car to start rotating while the rear wheels are sliding. At speed, in a straight line all you will get is alot of noise and smoke as the car stops in a more or less straight line.
Go out, find any random, tell them to get their car going 50mph and solely use the hand brake to stop.
I’ve had a brake line rust out and used the 3 low gears (was an automatic) and foot-parking brake to stop. Ya it’s not hard, but you have to already know what you are doing and need 600% more room to perform the same braking operation.
And actually, if an unsuspecting person pulls the hand brake locking up the tires, what do you think their first reaction is. Panic. They try pushing the hand back down, but forget about pushing the button. They are probably moving the steering wheel slightly so the car it starting to sway (induces a moment/ rotational inertia about the front wheels) and get into a fishtail scenario (as inertia increases), at that point, with the rear wheels still locked, it’s probably game over for them.
Also, depending on the grade of the crown of the road, the rear end could still swing out with no steering input.
I post based on the general public, not for people who already know what they are doing. If I posted the other way around, there would be a lot of “do not try this at home” warnings.
A hand brake is not intended for the average person to stop their car at highway speeds. I bet car manuals have the warning
Electronical handbrake is already a trouble maker in many cars. So let’s keep it simple and reliable.
Definitely Manual if with a FWD car.
Depends on the transmission. If manual trans, then mechanical e-brake. If automatic, then do away with the lever or switch all together. Have the parking brake engage automatically when the vehicle is placed in park.
the handbrake is an emergency backup and needs to be fully independent of the main system only using the rear pads and rotors, only an idiot would pull hard and lockup, driver holds the release button and uses enough pressure to slowdown without locking the rear, driver needs to read the road conditions when doing this.
if you can stop great, if not you can atleast cut some speed before the impact.
in a manual you can use engine compression downgearing too fast, in an auto your up $%# creek without a backup brake system.
failure may be rare until it happens.
Of course I’m a BIG proponent of a manual hand brake! That said, it’s not a deal breaker with the electronic one. 99.9% of the people who will by this car would have no idea what to do with one should the situation arrive, nor have the skill to do it properly anyway. To them it’s just a “parking brake”.
Us hardcore Honnigans, Drifters, and Stuntman wannabes will just rip open the center console and install our own.
That was the point I was going to make, that so few of the buyers would actually complain of missing it or knowing what to do with it that the tradeoff made sense.
It’s like people who buy very expensive DSLR cameras and never take the dial off auto. They’re not going to care if the viewfinder is electronic or optical, what the aperture is, etc. because over 70% of DSLR owners never take the camera out of auto mode…just like most Corvette buyers wouldn’t use the handbrake –> so use that space for more/bigger cupholders which almost every driver will use.
I prefer a manual pedal on the floor.
Every Electric brake has a back up system that allows you to bypass it. You just have to know how.
With Auto boxes few people ever use the E brake or hand brake as some still call it.
Stick shifters, use them more.
I vote for Electric if only to release more center console space to other things
The e-brake looks fancy however it doesn’t do you good when you’re trying to drift plus I don’t like everything in my car to be done electronically I prefer to do certain things manually.
I’d rather have more room for my feet or seat than that obtrusive lever.
Push-button, please.
I prefer a hand lever parking brake, regardless of trans type.