It doesn't matter; it still involves too high of an RPM, which can cause engine damage.
I try not to habitually downshift for engine braking, but that depends on the car. If a car has a weak or failing braking system, I'm more likely to downshift, but not anywhere near where the red line would be. Weak clutch, and you'd better be more generous with the brakes.
Plenty of rebuild shops; many folks, especially near me, drive older cars. It's still common to see 90's cars driving around in my town. About all of my cars are older than me. Of course, some of those rebuild shops also do custom work, racing, and work for restoring classic cars.
That's a pretty rare occurrence these days with disc brakes; many cars now have rear disc brakes also. When I first drove a car (recently) with 4 wheel manual drum brakes, I quickly learned why people (especially older drives) teach you to pulse the brakes on steep hills.
When you overheat those old drum brakes, which isn't hard to do, you might not be able to stop... especially if they get hot enough to vapor-lock the brake fluid near the wheels. When I drive that 60's car now, on a steep couple mile hill near my house, I put the 3 speed auto into second gear, rev-matching a bit before it downshifts. Fortunately, it holds a steady 40 MPH in 2nd gear, and I don't have to tap the brakes once on that hill.
So does driving that saves wear and tear on both brakes and clutch. If a driver has a need to brake hard, either way, maybe it's time to re-learn how to drive.
*All* brakes are energy converters hence all brakes can potentially overheat. Brakes, of any type, can only shed heat at a set rate. Exceed the rate of heat input that the brakes can accommodate and you will overheat any kind of brake system.
Change your driving habits!
I repeat, change your driving habits.
Once again, change your driving habits. Better still, go take a defensive driving course. Not for your benefit but the benefit of others around you.
1950 Olds 88. Did they even have disks then? I really should have known better, but I'd never driven a mountain road before. I was lucky.
Later on I drove a car with brake problems. I still pulse the brakes, mainly to make sure they still work before I NEED to use them. Some habits just don't die.
I used engine braking far more than the brakes on my 2000 Ford Ranger.
150,000 miles on the clutch, two sets of tires and the only engine related problem was a failed alternator at about 67k miles. Best truck I ever had (transfered to brother-in-law and crushed by a tree during a derecho a couple years later, sadly).
Used properly, and with a sane gear ratio, it works fine. My
2016 Colorado (the only manual still being sold at the time) gear ratios aren't as good, and downshifting into second will rev higher than I like, but there are ways to ameliorate that as well.
Engine braking is useful, however over-reving by abusing it, as noted by others, is dangerous for your engine and transmission. It’s called money-shifting for a reason.
You and Jacob can come with me the next time I make this trip, maybe in a few days, and then you'll have enough facts to maybe be in a position to tell me stuff like this.
The rentacar companies ought to give include a little primer on driving when they give you the car. It wouldn't only have to be 5 or 10 sentence. The roads and the laws are a little different from the US.
I don't think disc brakes were even an option until the late 60's, but perhaps someone else could be more certain.
Out of curiosity, did your Olds have power or manual brakes? I owned a '56 Olds 88 with power brakes, but I never drove it (except onto/off of a trailer); the booster was gone, as well as other parts. Hopefully the next guy restored it as the car deserved. It had manual steering.
Most of my older cars still have manual brakes. I currently have a '65 Ford Galaxie with manual drum brakes around. I also have a '75 Dodge Dart with manual brakes, but it has manual discs in the front. The Galaxie has manual steering, and it's a bear to parallel park.
I do the same thing, even in newer cars. That's a good habit to have, either way.
I had a '50 Olds also. I don't think they came with power brakes. But it did stop okay. They did have the possibility of Back-up lights. I found some at a junk yard and installed them. And they did have the possibility of an automatic headlight dimmer, based on the lights from the on-coming car. I only read about that.
The new or nearly new features of the '50 were a high-compression (8.5 to 1, iirc) production v-8 engine, and an automatic transmission.
This new Citroen has brakes so good, I've knocked the phone once and the laptop twic off the front seat. I'm glad I put a solid state drive in. Even when stopped, I can imagine one could damage a mechanical drive. I think I've gotten used to the brakes and don't do that sort of thing anymore.
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