Brake Tech history

These became obsolete after the introduction of rubber tyres in 1890.

In 1895, Michelin introduced the "Éclair," the first car to run on pneumatic rubber tires, according to Michelin.

He created this first concept of the drum brake in 1899.

In 1901, Wilhelm Maybach designed the first Mercedes with a simple mechanical drum brake, wherein steel cables were wrapped around the drums of the rear wheels and is operated by a hand lever.

Four-wheel hydraulic systems were invented by Malcom Lougheed in 1918.

In 1919, a Spanish automobile company Hispano-Suiza used a single foot pedal to operate four-wheel brakes in its H6B model.

You can trace the roots of ABS all the way back to the 1920s.

The hydraulic brake system was first fitted into all four wheels of a Model A Duesenberg car in 1921.

At the New York Auto Show in 1923, only Duesenberg and Rickenbacker had cars with four-wheel brakes.

Anti-lock brakes were first introduced by French engineer and aeronautical pioneer Gabriel Voisin in 1929 for use in airplanes.

They had mechanical brakes applied to a drum inside the transmission and used these until 1938.

Brembo started selling disc brake conversion kits for cars in 1961, and then moved to developing brake systems for motorcycles in the '70s.

In 1962, Bendix impressed the industry when it supplied four-wheel disc brakes as standard fit for the high-performance Studebaker Advant and as optional extras for Hawk and V8 Lark models.

In 1968, Ford introduced the “Sure-Track” analog anti-lock brake system which operated only on rear wheels.

On the racing front, Brembo first got involved in Formula 1 in 1975, when Enzo Ferrari personally asked the company to design a brake system for its latest race car.