I'm Dying To Know

In 2009 I posted the following photo showing Brad Kaplans #404 car with the co-piloto's passangers door open as they are coming into a corner. In fact this was a common practice to help slow the car on hard braking as well as save brakes way back in the early days of La Carrera Panamericana.


Does anyone know if Brad and his co-piloto were using the old method of using the door to help brake? Or was the latch broken? ;) Brad???








This picture was taken during the 1954 La Carrera Panamericanae and same as the photo above you can see the co-pilot is opening the car door to help bank the care around the steep curve past the guarding soldiers.






















This is a photo of Roberto Belmar's DeSoto who finished 14th overall in the big block stock class, certainly would have finished much higher if not for brake trouble like this: Belmar takes a corner at speed about 10 miles from Juarez as his co-pilot braces door open with his feet to create resistance.