Rotors

[Boosted2003]

Every one tells me that drilled rotors are better but im like no so which are better slotted or drilled for every day car i know they use them on f1 cars but thats different story... I perfer slotted less wear increased surface area over drilled and less warpage...

[trip]

Originally posted by Boosted2003
Every one tells me that drilled rotors are better but im like no so which are better slotted or drilled for every day car i know they use them on f1 cars but thats different story... I perfer slotted less wear increased surface area over drilled and less warpage...


dont the slots prevent the layer of gas/heat between the rotor and the pad? i think that the new power slot design is superior.

[GreyGT-C]

Do cross drilled look pretty...yes
Are they worth a fuck............No

Do i have to post the pics of mine again?


The design of the slotted or drilled is to let the gas escape from between the pad and the rotor.
Do most people here need to worry about that....NO

If you are getting your brakes hot enough to start boiling the gases from the pads.....you are using the wrong pads. Buy real brake pads (not the special sale they had at Advanced auto, etc) Use real high grade brake fluid, COMPLETELY flush your system. I used drilled for a while, (with no noticable results other than they looked cool) After i started getting faster......i cracked them. I now run STOCK blank rotors w/ cheap home-made cooling ducts. MOST of the people you see at the track are using blanks/solids.
As far as i know of.....PhookaGt is one of the fastest track guys on here. I beleive he is running STOCK mustang brakes....and a mustang is a heavy car that is gonna generate alot of heat braking. He hasn't mentioned any braking probs to me.

My advice.... good fluid, good pads,maybe SS hoses.....and spend your money on something else.

[trip]

Originally posted by GreyGT-C


My advice.... good fluid, good pads,maybe SS hoses.....and spend your money on something else.

that is what i am doing also but i dont know what pads to do just for race not street.

this week im doing ate super blue fluid and spending my money on ss lines.

[GreyGT-C]

Trip.

I like Ate super blue alot...i'm currently using it.

As far as pads.....are you doing auto-x or road courses?

If you are doing road courses......and this is your first year (or maybe second) you probably can use a high-grade street pad. I don't know enough about your car to make that judgement. The best advise i can give is.......ask questions of the people at the event you are doing. Rarely do i see anyone being a dick...these are car guys.....if you have a serious car question of them ...they will answer (you may get shunned if you are asking kiddie questions *wow, i bet your porshe is fast*, *what does it do in the 1/4mile*etc..) You drive a bmw, yes? Look on the web for the BMW forum or mailing list and ask them about your setup. While i have knowledge about what MY car needs......yours will differ and i have only marginal, basic info on that.

If you are Auto-Xing......i have no fricken clue what kinda beating the brakes take under those conditions.

If i can help any......let me know
Also hoping Dale (phooka) chimes in here

[trip]

Originally posted by GreyGT-C
Trip.

I like Ate super blue alot...i'm currently using it.

As far as pads.....are you doing auto-x or road courses?

If you are doing road courses......and this is your first year (or maybe second) you probably can use a high-grade street pad. I don't know enough about your car to make that judgement. The best advise i can give is.......ask questions of the people at the event you are doing. Rarely do i see anyone being a dick...these are car guys.....if you have a serious car question of them ...they will answer (you may get shunned if you are asking kiddie questions *wow, i bet your porshe is fast*, *what does it do in the 1/4mile*etc..) You drive a bmw, yes? Look on the web for the BMW forum or mailing list and ask them about your setup. While i have knowledge about what MY car needs......yours will differ and i have only marginal, basic info on that.

If you are Auto-Xing......i have no fricken clue what kinda beating the brakes take under those conditions.

If i can help any......let me know
Also hoping Dale (phooka) chimes in here


thanks a lot man i appreciate it (now back to james's rotors ;) ) :beer:

[98sr20ve]

Originally posted by GreyGT-C
Do cross drilled look pretty...yes
Are they worth a fuck............No

Do i have to post the pics of mine again?


The design of the slotted or drilled is to let the gas escape from between the pad and the rotor.
Do most people here need to worry about that....NO

If you are getting your brakes hot enough to start boiling the gases from the pads.....you are using the wrong pads. Buy real brake pads (not the special sale they had at Advanced auto, etc) Use real high grade brake fluid, COMPLETELY flush your system. I used drilled for a while, (with no noticable results other than they looked cool) After i started getting faster......i cracked them. I now run STOCK blank rotors w/ cheap home-made cooling ducts. MOST of the people you see at the track are using blanks/solids.
As far as i know of.....PhookaGt is one of the fastest track guys on here. I beleive he is running STOCK mustang brakes....and a mustang is a heavy car that is gonna generate alot of heat braking. He hasn't mentioned any braking probs to me.

My advice.... good fluid, good pads,maybe SS hoses.....and spend your money on something else.

:thup: Finally a voice of reason. :thup:

[roadRacer]

As far as drilled or slotted brake rotors for the street (the original question), they look cool but don't do much else. Even in upper levels of racing it is something that is not really very popular anymore. There are a few applications where the brakes are critical and space constraints are small where it has a small effect (read NASCAR cars at Martinsville). Slotted rotors are just as effective as drilled rotors at a fraction of the machining costs. The brake gurus (Fred Puhn, Caroll Smith, etc.) all think the eccective way to slot is two groves across the rotors, one of each side of the hub, simple and as effective as anything else.

As far as pad selection, read this:
http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/warped_rotors_myth.htm
written by Caroll Smith. I do believe in his recomendations in the article about pad choices.

In autocross full race pads will not work, but any high performance street pad is going to be fine. I like the Porterfield R4S. I think this is a pad that you can autocross, drive on the street and get away with at track events if you have good cooling, good fluid, and a fairly lightweight car like say a Civic, Sentra, or first gen RX7. If your car is significantly faster or heavier (say a 3rd gen RX7 or Mustang GT) you will have to change over to a better pad at the track. I have used the Hawk HP+ pads and think they are good. Phooka uses a Carbotech pad with success. Most of the pad manufacturers that stay in business any amount of time are producing a good product.

[roadRacer]

Originally posted by GreyGT-C
As far as i know of.....PhookaGt is one of the fastest track guys on here. I beleive he is running STOCK mustang brakes....and a mustang is a heavy car that is gonna generate alot of heat braking. He hasn't mentioned any braking probs to me.

My advice.... good fluid, good pads,maybe SS hoses.....and spend your money on something else.
Phooka and I have virtually the same brakes on our Mustangs.... His brakes are stock brakes for a 95-98 Cobra or Bullitt Mustang. These are pretty serious brakes for a production car with 13" x 1.125" front rotors and rears that are > 12" diameter. But they are stock for these cars, but a healthy upgrade from a regular Mustang GT.

[98sr20ve]

Originally posted by roadRacer
His brakes are stock brakes for a 95-98 Cobra or Bullitt Mustang. These are pretty serious brakes for a production car with 13" x 1.125" front rotors and rears that are > 12" diameter. But they are stock for these cars, but a healthy upgrade from a regular Mustang GT.

Aren't those things Brembo's or something also sold over the counter aftermarket style. Kinda like the new track model 350Z brakes.

[roadRacer]

Originally posted by 98sr20ve
Aren't those things Brembo's or something also sold over the counter aftermarket style. Kinda like the new track model 350Z brakes. Brembo actually makes the rotors, and the calipers are the standard PBM that is used on Corvettes, Camaros, etc. When I put them on my car it was a big deal, now they are fairly common.

[growley]

Originally posted by Boosted2003
Every one tells me that drilled rotors are better but im like no so which are better slotted or drilled for every day car i know they use them on f1 cars but thats different story... I perfer slotted less wear increased surface area over drilled and less warpage...

James, they do have SS brake lines in IPD.

[LT1 TA]

From what I understand, and I am agreeing with others here, cross drilled/slotted are not needed anymore except for specific car/track conditions. I recently went through this with my car (94 T/A) which I just started running at track events last year. I do recommend buying heat treated rotors though. For any serious road course events I recommend race pads only, but for X-crossing and street, good pads are just fine.

[5.0 RACER]

Originally posted by GreyGT-C
If you are getting your brakes hot enough to start boiling the gases from the pads.....you are using the wrong pads. Not necessarly. When I started open tracking back in '90 I ran stock 10" diameter rotors on my 86 Mustang. I used hi-po fluid and R4 pads up front with ducts. I would regularly gas those pads, even after several hard sessions. I got one set so hot they crumbled upon removal. Now I have the 13" cobra brakes. and I still out-gas the R4 pad. But they last longer because I don't have to abuse them as much.

Most of my students think they have to barrel on into a corner and stomp the brakes so hard your eyeballs pop out. Most of them overbrake for the corner. They do much better when they squeeze the brakes. Not so hard on the system, brakes last longer, and the momentium helps them with their lap times.

[MeanGreenGSX]

I use power slot rotors, I did get a huge difference in braking at the threshold compared to before, i also got better pads at the same time though so not sure which it was. But I am to cheap to get better pistons yet.

Where can i get high po. brake fluid, and about how much to flush my sytstem?

[Boosted2003]

i know man ips ill get later on but im setting up my lcd setup rgiht now so

[GreyGT-C]

Originally posted by 5.0 RACER
and R4 pads up front with ducts. .



Are these the Porterfeild pads?? I've never used them before. I normally run Hawk Blues. When are you planning to do another track event?

[5.0 RACER]

Originally posted by GreyGT-C
Are these the Porterfeild pads?? I've never used them before. I normally run Hawk Blues. When are you planning to do another track event? I looked at the Car Guys 2003 list of events and HOPE (should I finish the winter mods to the car) that the March event at Summit will be driveable. I don't have an R-compound snow tire.... If not there, I'll be making my first NASA event in the spring (I have not looked at their schedule yet.)

For the 2003 season, the 86 is getting a set of T-bird lower front control arms (.75 longer than stock) with the Steeda ball joint and Energy Suspension bushings installed. I need some more camber up front. Mid year I expect to go to 275 wide tires (from the 255's I'm running now).

I've used the Porterfield R4 pads from day one. 10 years now. R4 in the front, R4s in the rear. They made the 10" and 11" factory rotors work. Not like the 13" setup, but they were very respectable with some ducting. I'm still re-learning my braking points with the Cobra brake setup now on the car.

[LT1 TA]

5.0 Racer - I also use the R4 pads and agree, they are very good.
Gentlemen, their is a NASA event @ VIR Feb. 22 (for which I can't attend) I am running the other VIR events. Right now sign up's are open for MAZDA days March 29th and 30th, north course. About $300 for the event.

5.0 Racer - Do you ever ever run VIR?

[5.0 RACER]

Originally posted by LT1 TA
5.0 Racer - Do you ever ever run VIR? Yes. All my events at VIR has been with Car Guys and have been on the long course; I've never just run a N or S course. I probably have about 1000 miles on the long course. Nice place. Clean, close, and much fun.

But I think I still like Watkins Glen just a bit more (except for the tow!). I probably have close to 2000 miles ontrack there.

[phooka]

On brake pads... I've run Performance Friction, Cool Carbons (where'd they go?), R4's, axxis (?), some goofy brand from australia (never again), CarboTech Panther plus and most recently panther XP's.. I have to say, the XP's take the cake.. Love em!!

dale

[MeanGreenGSX]

what kinda brake fluid you guys recommend and where can i get it?

[98sr20ve]

Motul RBF 600. Many others have a great dry boiling point but the RBF 600 has a couple things that really help the street/track driver. I great wet boiling point (this fluid was recently improved) and the ability to recover after going slightly soft much better then others without bleeding the brakes. All this means that if you have good brakes you will not need to bleed your brakes before every roadcourse type event. Some people will of course depending on the type of car/brakes. If you are going to bleed the brakes before every event then the dry boiling point of several should more then meet the needs of most people. Wilwood 570 is cheap but it has a poor wet boiling point.

[MeanGreenGSX]

cool, now where abouts can i get this stuff and a rough price guess, laugh all you want but im rockin the original brake fluid in my 95 so obviously it wouldnt hurt for some new juice.