When I bought my ‘55 331 Hemi New Yorker it had ZERO brakes. I was about 19, stupid, just happy to have a Hemi, so I drove it home anyway. I did go as slow as I could, dropping it into low when needed, but the last stretch was downhill. This thing was built like a tank, so I strategically would click it quickly into reverse for braking down the hill. We used to beat the snot out of cars back then and do R/D’s(reverse/drive), but to keep them from stalling, you had to really rev the engine while doing this. Not the ‘55 New Yorker, at idle I could click it into reverse and it would chirp the tires and give a little braking! Fun times!