On Thu, 19 May 2016 12:00:34 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Nearly happened to me once, but more from worn discs than anything else.
Downhill stretch of te A1, and needed to pull up. Might have been doing
more than 70mph ;-). My beloved old opel manta.

I got it down to about 30mph, and then half the brakes simply didn't
work at all. Rear drums still worked but the front brakes essentially
gone.

Good condition brakes shouldn't fade just stopping a bit quick from
70+ mph, once.

I have had good brakes fade, Mondeo, nearly at the bottom of a
"spirited" decent of Hartside to Melmerby, 1300' decent in about 4
miles. Great driving road, mix of straight bits long enough to get to
70+, with a mix of 40 mph bends and a few 2nd gear hair pins thrown
in. Once the brakes had faded, they partially come back fairly
quickly but it ddin't take much braking to make 'em fade again. They
didn't come back properly until they hadn't been used for a couple of
minutes.

If you feel the risk is worth taking, be my guest, but please don't
tailgate me.

Aye, brakes and the few square inches of contact patche between the
road and tyre is all that is stopping you hitting a tree at 60 mph...
Tree's, even small ones, do not have any "give" when you hit one.

--
Cheers
Dave.