Book Review – Brake Handbook

Brake Handbook

Authored by Fred Puhn

176 Pages Paperback

I found this book by Fred Puhn to be a good read. He does a good job of explaining technical subjects at a level that we can all understand. This book is fairly comprehensive and covers the subject very well. Fred has also written a book How to Make Your Car Handle, which was equally informative and well written.

It has been a while since I originally read this book so I took a minute to review it before I wrote this report. The copyright date is listed as 1985 and the book indeed dates back to that timeframe. As a consequence much of the info is dated. But that said, I can’t remember running across many books that do such a good job of explaining the design considerations of a good braking system. Yes, the brake pad materials have improved load since then and you may not be interested in the discussions of drum brakes. But let’s face it, the physics of brakes haven’t changed in the last 100 years. What has changed is the quality of the products we have to work with, at affordable prices.

In summary, I think this book is a worthwhile read.