[DeTomaso] Vented brake rotor update

Mike Drew MikeLDrew at aol.com
Thu Mar 23 21:29:18 EDT 2017


All,

Having a rare day off, and with the knowledge that Hiroshi Miyata, a Pantera owner from Tokyo, was wrapping up a business trip in LA and had allowed himself an extra day, I hopped on a plane and flew down to have lunch with him, and also to visit some of the vendors. 

It was nice chatting with Bev and Tara at Hall Pantera, and with a heavily bearded Steve Wilkinson. Steve was kind enough to loan me a stock rear rotor, which I then brought with me as our next stop was Centric Brakes, the source for the custom/not-so-custom vented front brake rotors I'm having custom made. 

(For those who haven't been paying attention, the original 1965-67 Ford Mustang uses a vented front brake rotor that is dimensionally all but identical to that of the Pantera, but sadly now they are all made as a combined hub/rotor in a single casting that wont work well in our application--I am having a run of old-school discs made that I will then be offering up to the masses; the price will be more than reasonable)

I had inquiries about getting rear discs made, so I took a stock rear rotor to them in the hopes that some other Vehicle would have stock rotors that more or less matched Pantera dimensions. 

Short answer--no. They have over 2700 different OEM rotor designs, and not a single one would work for the rear application in a Pantera. 

If one truly wants vented rear rotors to use with stock calipers, Wilkinson has a small pile of them (about a dozen). Turns out the optional vented disc first used on the Euro GTS was also used on the GT5 and GT5-S. It's oddly narrow, measuring 19mm/.75 inches in thickness, and somewhat larger in diameter than you would expect (294mm I believe). If you want them, be prepared for an eye-watering expenditure. I don't know the exact price but I think $500 would get you something less than one full rotor!

Wilwood makes rotors of the appropriate thickness and diameter, and also makes Pantera-specific hats, so you could probably get some of those for $250 each or thereabouts. (I have a set of those on my garage floor waiting to go on Lori's Pantera). 

So anyway, we are SOL with respect to simple, cheap bolt-on vented rear rotors, but the front ones I am having made are getting cryo treatment this week and should be shipped to me next week sometime. Of the 20 sets (20 each left and right), at least a dozen are conditionally spoken for, so if you haven't already indicated interest, let me know soon!

Cheers!

Mike

Sent from my iPhone


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