The effect of austempering treatment on the dynamic properties of a brake drum was investigated to primarily evaluate the potential damping advantage of an AGI (austempered gray iron) drum over a PGI (pearlitic gray iron) drum. This investigation provides valuable information for brake noise reduction since the brake drum is most often the outstanding component that generates the noise of the brake assembly. Test results show that the AGI drum provided slightly larger damping values than the PGI drum for the first few major resonances observed. A finite element model of a drum was also developed to aid in studying its dynamic behavior. A good correlation was obtained between the analytical results and the actual measurement data.