I have 9" drum brakes on my drag car. Mainly because that's what it came with when I bought it. The good is that it's a nice light setup and there's no problem with fade on just one stop at the end of the strip. They actually have pretty good swept area, but, no way I would use them on the street for a number of reasons, some already mentioned. The clamping action of disc brakes over the expanding shoes design is just far superior. Cooling to prevent fade is also far superior with disc brakes. As AJ mentioned, you lose an outer wheel bearing (those crappy set# 1's), break a spindle, or have the nut come off, and the tire/wheel/hub/drum is going to fly right off and probably pass you by. Disc brakes for the most part won't allow that to happen. As for the argument that 9" brakes will work just as good, is just not valid. If that were true, the B,C,E, etc bodies would be using them too. The same lame argument is sometimes made with the single system master cylinders. Sure, when they work, under normal conditions, there's no problem. They're just not the safe ticket when sh*t happens.
