When it comes to the essentials of any car, brakes rate right up there with things like wheels and gasoline. A solid, firm brake pedal is a good place to start checking that your brakes work properly.

The new braking system eliminates hydraulics, and marks another step towards more software-defined vehicles.

While many hot rods are driven with rough-running engines, suspensions that are too stiff, or horns that don't work, no car, hot rod or not, should be driven with brakes that aren't 100 percent. Since ...