It was a warm, sticky summer afternoon at Maryland’s Capitol Drag Raceway back in the mid-1970s. I was fresh out of high school when a ’63 Chevy II roared up into the staging lanes for a smoky stage.

Brake technology has come a long way in the last 20 years, and the aftermarket is really catching up to the level of performance offered in modern vehicles. Today's high-performance braking systems ...