a few things I might add here
first off, there is a reason why Ford SWITCHED to a solid rotor from the vented one.... when you up your performance as noted below, and are approaching rear temps that your rotor cannot handle with the proper pad heat range already installed.... then I would say it might be a good idea to switch to rear vented rotors.
second off, to improve your braking performance, switch to a stickier tire
third point- crank up your brake bias until you loose traction during braking on the rear brakes. if you are wearing out rear pads before front pads, you are doing pretty damn good in this department. Stock they will last a lot longer then the front pads, but start working them as much as the front pads or more, and they will wear out faster because they are a smaller setup. if you gotta add a little weight to the rear to help out with traction and change alignment settings have at it, the SHO can use some weight on the rear, just remeber to take some off the front while you are doing this.....
all of what I said above can damn near be negated depending on what you actually do with the car
if all you want is a good panic stop out of your car, forget about rear vented rotors, forget about hot brake temperatures(unless u are savvy at picking pads) and go with some 11.6" brakes from a gen3 SHO with the proper OEM Ford brake pad for that application on your front axle.....
if you want repeated race car type stopping power, bring on the high temps, the race pads, and the bigger rotors..... but too big can be a bad thing, you actually want some heat in your brakes.... that is why Ford whent to a solid rear rotor, to retain more heat in the rear brakes for city driving/panic stops... even race teams block off brake ducts until they find a happy median where they cool the brakes to stop overheating components, yet keep the temps up where they want them so the pad stays effective.... Nascar teams run specific tests just for these purposes on race tracks...nice to have money huh.....
