I'm not familiar with Mark7 brakes. I am not sure they had ABS,.. did they?

ABS helps stop faster because it allows you to stand on the brake,.. hard as you can and still maintain control by not allowing the wheels to lock up. You would think that locked up wheels will stop faster then a rolling wheel. This has been proven false. You will stop faster with the tires at the edge of losing traction then you will if the tires are frozen in a skid type situation. Not only that,.. you have no steering or control once in a skid. This is why in the rain you will stop faster with ABS then not.

I used to hate ABS. My brothers 1991 E150 wheelchair MarkIII conversion van and my 1993 F250 both had rear wheel antilock brakes. I understand why they rear ABS vs no ABS,.. but it used to piss me off when the front tires would lock up and the thing would just plow through the snow. I was pulling my car trailer in the rain once with my father inlaws 49 Chevy on the back. The light turned yellow and the car in front of me decided to brake hard to stop for the light. I hit the brakes and started to slide,.. I let off and steered around the car and ended up running the light. They used rear ABS so if the rear locked up it would not put the truck into a spin where the rear wants to come around to the front. If your ever in a deserted parking lot in the rain or snow,.. you can practice this theory by getting up to 30 or 40 mph and then jamming on your parking brake. It is very difficult to keep from spinning out.

It was not until my 96 Mustang that I had a car with 4 wheel ABS. I was here in Fla and this old fart in an S10 pulled out in front of me. I jammed on the brakes,.. the ABS kicked on,.. I felt the pedal get hard,.. I let off because my instinct was to pump the brakes and then I remembered the rule for ABS so I jammed my foot back on as hard as I could. I didnt lose control and I didnt run into the back of the old fucker. I was madder then Hades,. but I survived unscathed. From that moment on I learned to like ABS. If I could figure out an affordable and practical way to get ABS on my 93 I would do it in a heartbeat.

As for the Mark7,.. didnt they have a larger front rotor then the Fox? That may or may not contribute to it being able to stop faster. I know the hot trick back in the day with 69 - 92 Camaros used to be swapping over to Caprice front brakes for better braking. Used to do the same thing to GTO's and Chevelles. Throw on some 80 - 87 Caprice brakes and you had much better braking then what came factory. Kinda scary to think that an 85 Caprice had better brakes then a 85 Iroc.

Hurst