It’s easy to think that cars haven’t changed much in the last 70 years. After all, they have the same basic parts and they work in much the same way . So, in some ways, we’re just doing what we’ve always done, but with electric power instead of internal combustion, right?
Basically, we had a 1960s car upgraded to have Tesla plaid power levels, but with most other things on the car only restored or mildly upgraded. In the case of the brakes, they weren’t factory 1964 brakes, because that would be even worse drum brakes. They had been upgraded to disc brakes, but they were fairly small ones that hadn’t been looked at in quite a while. But, even fairly weak disc brakes should be able to stop a car, eventually.
Before disaster struck, they did smell the brakes burning up, which means they were already getting too hot. The answer at this point would have been to shut it off and call for a tow truck, and get the throttle and brakes both worked on to prevent danger in the future. But, they figured it would be OK because they hadn’t been driving more than a couple of miles.