REALLY REALLY hard....why are the wheels so thin..the tire that fits on em is way to thin...it may be a small car but it's still hard to stop fast when some idiot pulls out in front of you when your going 115.... ...was just wandering how you stock guys make do......? just checked my stock II(parts car).... tire is 5 inches accross My daily driver..... 8 inches accross... wow that an extra 3 inches of tread per tire.... it really makes a difference.... sorry i rambled on so long..it's late....lol -James
It's not so much the width of the tire, it's the amount of brakes. I'm with Bad, stopping a II from triple digit speeds with 9" rotors is a bit more excitement than I care to experience anymore. However you do have a point, a narrow tire will squirm/ deform under less severe loads than a wide tire leading to loss of traction. How did I handle this? By keeping in mind I was driving a old tech car with dinky brakes and crappy tires and keeping speeds within operational parameters. It's called reality.
Don't expect to get much sympathy from anyone... going 115 is stupid.. and someone pulling out in front of you hints that this wasn't even on a highway. Don't get yourself in trouble.
put 245s on all fours and force 10s on all four corners and you would feel like you caught the 3 wire. 55 stay alive was the slogan in the 70s for more than one reason
Remember too, that you're trying to stop a car with brakes that were designed for a II and a Pinto without a V8 engine. Add the extra weight and a few extra horsepower to actually get these things rolling over say 100mph, and even the power assisted ones aren't going to slow you that fast. The weight bias on the II to the front only makes matters worse, especially under hard braking.
I run stock 9s up front, and 11" '59 T-bird drums in the back. Though I havent weighed my II since the latest mods, it's somewhere around 2500 pounds. Anyway, I tested the brakes on an open stretch at 120 and they did the job fairly well. (At least they did the first time, I didnt try it a second, after they had really heated up) I do plan to upgrade to bigger rotors up front, and seeing what another guy did gave me a similar idea. I have a parts-car Chrysler Concorde at my shop, with new 11" rotors, (concordes have the same 4.5" 5-lug bolt pattern as the Fords) I'm thinking of turning the brake rotor area from my II hubs with the lathe, and sliding the concorde rotors over. Then I will fabricate some heavy-duty steel brackets for the concorde calipers. The concorde rotors and pads are cheap and are usually in stock at NAPA. Easy brake replacement is a good thing. Things I need to check out; I have to measure the thickness of the chrysler rotors, to see if they will make my 7/16" wheel spacers unneeded, and two, examine the chrysler calipers and figure out which brake hoses to use. I drive one of those Concordes as my daily beater, and I can tell you from experience (a deer ran out in front of me last winter) those cars damn near stand on their front bumper when you nail the brake pedal. And they weigh 3500 pounds, 1000 more than my II. I'm thinking those front brakes will work nicely. We shall see.
It is all about perspective! After driving My 91 Mark 7 with Cross drilled and slotted four wheel disc ABS brakes the Mach feels kinda scary. After driving my 93 Mazda 323 with the 155/80/13" tires the II has great brakes So you have two options: 1. Do a brake and tire upgrade. 2. Quit driving a modern car as a daily driver. I recomend driving old *** scrap to truely appreiate stock Mustang II braking capibilities My Mach is gutted with many weight saving measures in place so I think that helps a bit. It is not so much the brakes are bad, its they were meant to woe 139 horses.
You know if it was not for Rebel's (sometimes posts here) $800 180kmph (in a 60) speeding ticket in the Mach 1, I would not have bought or restored it. I had a really rusty kinked Ghia at the time...... (12 years ago). With the 3.55 gears and 21.5" tires the Compression of the 306 slows the Mach better then the brakes at triple digits
A few points to ponder... 115mph in an uncontrolled situation is stupid in any car The $14.99 "lifetime warranty" pads sold at most chain stores are junk. Buy good pads, the few extra $$ are a lot cheaper than anything that happens when you come up a few feet long in a tight spot. Proper bedding of the pads/rotors makes a huge difference.Most folks just throw the pads on and go. Works, but not to optimum.
lol i was kidding about the whole 115 thingy.... i really don't go that fast on the streets usually...lol but the 101 here in phoenix at midnight is a different story.... hey if the freeway is empty who can help but push the petal to the floor....speeding in a II is fun! lol
I found it hilarious to read "some idiot pulled out in front of me while I was doing 115" Hmm who is in the wrong here? And isn't this your 3rd car?
Reminds me of a time last year, I was cruising in my flatbed on the NYS Thruway at 70mph carrying 3 cars on the back. I went to change lanes to pass a guy, and fortunately I checked my side mirrors more than once, because this crotch rocket came up at some unbelievable speed and passed me. I bet he was doing 140+. The first time I checked the mirrors, there was nothing but road, I click on the signal, check again, and <holy crap!> there's a yellow bike next to me. He was going so fast, the slight steady humps in the road were making the bike nearly get air under the tires. If you're going to speed on a roadway, make sure there's no possible way a person can pull out in front of you, make sure there's nobody anywhere in sight in any direction, and also, nobody else in the car with you. If you screw up and die, don't take anyone with you, just make a lonely grease spot on an empty road.
I too have 9 inch rotors and 11 inch drum rears, and i find it stops fine at the strip at 115 mph......i just wouldn't want to do a road course with them! I had a '89 Mark VII with stock brakes....and they were great!
