Q: Brake Rotor recommendations for 95 Ford Thunderbird (3300Lbs)

We race a similar weight car 3200lb SHO, 60/40 weight distribution.

We tried fancy drilled slotted rotors on the front, result? Waste of money. One race weekend and they were cracked to hell. Now we use $30 auto parts OEM rotors, they last a couple races easy.

We used Porterfields R4 pads 4 times. They last the whole weekend with a little pad left but not enough for another race. Then we found out about Raybestos ST-43's. They wear like iron. 3 races and they are still good. Easy on rotors, relatively speaking. They are expensive but not if they last 3 races they aren't.

Get braided stainless lines, cheap insurance against rubber hose failure.

Rebuild the calipers or get rebuilt ones. Same with the master cylinder.

For brake fluid we use Ford Heavy Duty DOT 3 stuff. Cheap at any Ford dealer. I know people are going to say ATE Blue has higher boiling temp, yeah 36 degrees.

Search "Brakes", there's been some good threads about what to use.

The 3100lb 928 runs just under 12" vented + slotted rotors...they are stock.. work great

Can you get the Police Interceptor brakes?  They should be fine...since you will be over 1000lbs lighter than a Cop car....

To make things easier you can always run the stock rotors, with race pads & fluid..then TEST the car and see how well they work...if they are holding up and not destroying rotors or pads...then leave it....

Holes and slots reduce surface area.  That is bad.

We get about 3-4 races out of a set of porterfield r4-e pads.  Solid rotors are the way to go.

I always use Brembo if they're available.  Watch out for less expensive options that may not be made to the same standards as some of the more well known brands.  I've seen aftermarket vented rotors that had the same overall width as the OEM rotor, but the air gap down the center was wider, meaning less material...less mass.  They were noticably lighter, too.

The best advise I got from a seasoned Lemonor was get well made solid (no slots or holes or dimpled) rotors, with a proven "enduro" pad (i.e the Carbotech RP2's/ Porterfield R4e's you mentioned above for example), some brake ducting, DOT 4 fluid and $60 eBay steel lines.

As long as you can lock the wheels at all times the brakes are fine.  If you mash the peddle and the wheels never lock, then you have a brake problem (unless ABS equipt).  The actual stopping power occurs between the tire contact patch and the tarmac, so if you brake hard enough to keep the tires just at the threshold of locking-up, they brakes are working fine.

IMO good pads are far more important than fancy rotors.  Be sure to get race-quality pads, don't cheap out on "high-end" street pads, the heat will destroy them.

We ran "Chinese" rotors (stock), Wagner fleet/severe duty pads on the front and plane old riveted shoes in the rear, DOT 4 fluid, new hoses,lines,wheel cylinders, master cylinder and rebuilt calipers on the van and G-prix with 0 brake issues.