This is one thing that was really annoying me on Thursday - the road was flooded outside my work, and people were still doing 60km/h through it.  Obviously these people have never heard of aquaplaning, and its amazing that no-one hit anyone else, and only one or two cars conked out.  If you must drive through 'deep' water, then a steady pace is much preferred - if you are kicking up a bow wave, you are going too fast, and forcing water up higher in your engine bay than would otherwise occur, increasing the likelihood of the car stalling.

Yes, big bow waves are cool, but ultimately its better for the car if you just walk through in first gear - by the looks of it, the water wasn't much past the hubs on your GTV, and if it was then it was probably too deep, and you would have gotten close to sucking a big gulp through the air filter, as well as filling up the distributor.  There's a bumper or two lying on the road near my work from people going roaring through deep water and ripping them off.  As you noted, brakes tend not to like water in that quantity, and neither do clutches.

I drove through at least a foot of water, if not more like a foot and a half - but I was doing about 2000 rpm in first gear, in a modified Range Rover which meant that my hubs were only just in, and I had my distributor pressurised with air to keep the water from getting in, and I have a snorkel which means my intake air comes from the height of my roof.

you were quite lucky.
a certain ex member of AROCA Vic killed his 147 GTA doing that!  If it wasnt for Shannons looking after him, he would have been in deep water! Get it