Reply to "Pantera Brake Improvements"

Ask 10 people, get 10 opinions. The weight of the test, the cost of the Pantera in relationship to the others was a large factor in it winning.

I'm not familiar with The last Panteras but are their brakes the same as the original US Ford imports?

Incidentally, I won't necessarily value Hill's opinion as the ultimate. He has shown me on more then one occasion that he always has an ax to grind.

To my memory, he always had a high regard for the F cars?

As far as front to rear bias in the design vs. the production, don't forget that the Pantera is and involvement of a car from the Mangusta.

Anyone who follwed the development of the Mangusta should note that when first tested by the auto press the car was close to a nightmare to drive because of it's trailing throttle oversteer.

A term incidentally that was coined because of the Mangusta.

It is also a big reason why Ford backed out of the original verbal agreement to DT about importing it and the reason DT called it the Mangusta.

The Pantera design all but eliminated the oversteer but part of that evolution away from the 'goose problems was the braking system.

If you look at the Pantera brakes the rear caliper and pad is so small in regards to the front that it is impossible to make the rears lock up first, with or without the stock proportioning valve.

That valve is merly extra insurance as far as the Ford engineering involvement was concerned, in my opinion.

Granted the brakes aren't normally going to make a car oversteer, snap oversteer as it were, but the slightest tendency in a turn for the rear to lock up COULD in the mind of some, launch this thing into the weeds like a tornado spinning.
Paranoia would likely prevail to all legally responsible for unleashing a lethal weapon upon the public considering the liability lawyers like Ralph Nadar sitting waiting for the next sacrificial lamb.

Ford simply wanted no more of the "Unsafe at any speed" press.

Maybe consider it an early mechanical ABS design?

No one to this day has produced an iota of documentation even suggesting the removal of the valve is a negative.