>>...A  person would have to be clueless or dense to get heavily into serious
brake fade...<<

   I drive in the Smoky Mountains quite a bit, and it's my experience
that there are plenty of cluless people out there- you can smell them.
 <EG>   They're often seen parked in the turnouts staring at a smoking
wheel.

Ahhh, yes, reminds of the one and only time I have experienced it. It was back in 2002, had just bought my first Vanagon Westy, an '84 with an automatic, and I bought it on Ebay. Had to go from Virginia to Lancaster Ohio to pick it up. After meeting the seller and going to the DMV to transfer the title and get temporary plates, the seller then tells he had rebuilt the trans himself-his first time ever working on a transmission. From Lancaster I went down and picked up Rte. 50 heading east to Virginia, which of course took me through West Virginia. In West Virginia I encountered some pretty steep grades, and in a vehicle I knew and trusted I would have downshifted to use engine braking, but I was afraid to manually shift this trans after he told me he had rebuilt it. I could just picture ATF all over the highway with parts falling off. Had to ride the brakes more than I would have liked to. Made it home, though, and the trans never did give me any problems-just about everything else
 did, but not the trans!    Jeff