On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:57:03 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Most people probably don't realise how much the servos (brakes or
steering) are assisting them these days. Yes you still have brakes
or
steering without 'em but boy do you have to put some serious
effort
into them. Brakes can catch people out as there can be enough
vacuum
in the system for the first application to be normal but once that
vacuum has been used...

...assuming they are vacuum assisted.

Lots of systems these days have hydraulic pumps I think. Easier to make
ABS work.

Vacuum pumps or hydraulic pumps can fail or there are other method(s)
of losing the servos.

There was a recent comment about getting tow from someone when the
engine had failed, but it had a smilely so I didn't comment at the
time.

I wouldn't want to geta tow in a modern car, it would be very hard
work not to keep ramming the towing vehicle and steering without the
servos.

Ramming might be avoided with a solid tow but I'm not sure I'd trust
the towing points strength or your average Halfrauds solid tow bar...
Doesn't help with the steering though.

--
Cheers
Dave.