This is “Gumby,” my personal 1959 Bugeye that I have owned since 1978. We restored this previously ratty Bugeye a few years ago with the best of everything, in celebration of our 200th Bugeye sold, which was an unimaginable milestone when I started this business. Without Gumby, Bugeyeguy would never have existed. 300 Bugeyes sold is not far off… this week, we sold our 277th.
Thanks Gumby!
Lately, we have been trying to add some empirical data to the performance parts we build into our cars and we have been informally measuring the stopping distance with various brake configurations. Gumby has the best brakes we have built yet, with larger front rotors with twin piston calipers in front and disk brakes fit in back.
Come for a drive in Gumby below, you can see the stopping test near the end of the video:
From 30 MPH, Gumby stopped in about 38 feet, almost 10 feet shorter than our red car “Zippy,” which is fit with stock Spridget single piston front disk brakes and stock drums in the rear.
In case you missed Zippy’s brake test, you can see it below:
That 20% reduction could make all the difference in a panic stop. Sure, it cost a whole lot of money to accomplish this but isn’t it always that way? The last 20% of anything always seems to cost 80%!
To be fair, Gumby has an advantage with 175/70 tires while Zippy rides on 155/80s. I’ll do some more testing in the coming months to determine how much difference we gain with a wider tire when all other variables are equal.
For now, if you want the best brakes in your Spridget, our big brake front kit mated to rear disks and good fresh tires is your ticket. We sell all this in our parts catalog, call or email for details!
