M-ManLA

I am looking at brakes (either Baer or EBC). I originally had my mind set on Drilled and Slotted brakes, but I have heard some horror stories on those cracking under pressure when you need them. What do you guys think? Have you have experience of either kind? Do you have pics of the brakes installed in your car? Which one has more "bite"? Which one is virtually better? Let me know what you guys think and what is your experience with them.

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

Rotors won't increase bite. Pad choice will. Blank rotors are best for high performance braking.

Now cue all the "I use drilled/slotted rotors and have no problems" people now..

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

Actually I would like to remove my vote for stock rotors. That makes it sound like I like the OEM "prone to warping" rotors. My vote is for high quality blanks (hidden choice D)

wannafbody

iTrader: (2)

Autozone blanks-cheap and effective

EchoMirage

iTrader: (3)

if you actually want your car to stop better, use blanks and blanks only. if you want the looks, then get drilled/slotted. brembo makes the best blanks. not that expensive either.

BassProCamaro97

iTrader: (10)

Blanks

Drilling and slotting weaken the rotor. Most drilled rotors I have seen usually crack at the outer most drilled hole.

I went with slotted rotors only because I wanted coated rotors and I couldn't find a coated blank.

~Jim~

wht01ws6ta

iTrader: (45)

Quality blanks like Brembo get my vote unless you don't get on your brakes much.

Here is what even Brembo drilled rotors look like after running them moderately hard for some time:

cmb570

iTrader: (2)

ive been using R1 cross drilled slotted rotors for a few years now. No issues what so ever. They cam powercoated black too. The slots and holes are angle to help avoid cracks. Dont get a rotor were holes or slots are straight cuts

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Drilled can get cracks, yes. I've had no cracks in my slotted rotors however. They aren't near as prone to it.

I don't have any pics of them on my car right now.

M-ManLA

Wow a lot of mixed results don't make my job easier lol. I do know a lot of the race cars use slotted brakes. I am kind of leaning for the EBC OEM replacement slotted rotors for the time being, with a brake upgrade in the front in the future. There is also some people that says they use drilled & slotted without any issues whatsoever.

So now let me ask this. Who actually owns or use to own one of these brake types? Like cmb570. It is one thing to say what it does, but it is another to actually own the product. Also what brake pads seems to be the best? Ceramic? This seems like a good topic. Any more takers btw?

RsSean

iTrader: (27)

Throw my two cents in here for you. The drilled holes in the rotor really don't do much, they are there to save some weight on the larger diameter rotor. On the other hand the hole decrease the overall surface area for the pads to contact. The benifits to the slots is that it scraps away the used up brake pad material as the rotor goes by the pads. That provides a less chance of gas fade. I personally like the look of the drilled and slotted rotors. It give the best of both worlds. Hope that help you out.

M-ManLA

Ok that is a good summary. I think that I am leaning towards the slotted brakes more. I do see some that EBC makes that has "fake" drilled holes. They call them dimples lol.

Brakemotive

iTrader: (73)

Wondering what brand rotors these are as I have seen blank rotors crack like this. The issue there is not because of the drilling that comes from a weak casting with lots of filler material, common issue with many cheap foreign rotors.

R1 just uses Centric Black Hat, they are decent quality and i would expect them to hold up well.

Correct about the slots, however not so much on the point of the drilling. They are not there to shave off weight, they are there to increase the air flow through the rotor to help dissipate heat. The hotter the brakes get the more important the airflow becomes. Many higher end cars have this from the factory just to help with keeping the brake temps down.

Nightrydass

yes, but the higher end cars also have brakes that cost damn near 2x as much as a full Baer Kit (or more), and are made of different material. My uncle told me he looked up the price of the ZR1 brakes at work and a whole break job (rotor and pads) cost $10K. I believe the ZR1 rotors are like a exotic carbon material. Same w/ Lambo's and ****.

n e hoo, i have "Powerslot" slotted rotors w/ about 6K miles on them with no issues. I like them.

wht01ws6ta

iTrader: (45)

These are crossdrilled Brembos, so not really cheapos, run for about 40,XXX miles, no track duty to speak of but I have a lead foot so they weren't babied by any means. The cracks didn't show up until about 20K probably.

EchoMirage

iTrader: (3)

the out-gassing of pads used to be a concern about 10yrs ago. now pads are made of a completely different compound, which does not create the gasses as in the past. as for airflow, if you dont have brake ducting, there is no way to get air into the rotor, which is incased in the tire/wheel. even with ducting, the most efficient way of cooling the rotor is to force air into the center, then out through the sides and over the vanes.....which is what they are there for.

the slots also dont do much other then wear down your pad even faster. they dont scrape away used brake pad. thats what the rotor does as the pad wears. read tirerack.com's article about drilled/slotted rotors. and check out any real, serious full-house race car. as in road racing.....they have solid, blank rotors. at the most, they may have a very, very shallow slot or two, running the circumferance of the rotor, not just radially.

the exotic cars with drilled/slots are there for looks. not for performance. why do you think everything is coming with 18, 19, 20+ inch rims? no, they DONT handle better. they weigh so much, and have so little sidewall on the tire (meaning less feedback/feel to the driver), they acutally handle worse then smaller rims. the best overal size, from what ive seen, is 17. its a good size concerning weight, tire size, sidewall size, road feel, etc. the huge rims just adds that much more rotating mass and puts more strain on the axles and brakes.

check out the lemans GT1 race cars......17in rims.

z28bryan

iTrader: (7)

I think even some of the exotic cars companies have admit the drilled rotors were for cosmetic reasons only.

7camaro7

iTrader: (15)

my slotted rotors and my new pads work better than my stock braking (which was awesome) and better than my friends ws6 with d/s rotors and pad setup.

wht01ws6ta

iTrader: (45)

My drilled rotors and new pads worked much better than my stock braking (which sucked bad because of warping rotors every few thousand miles) but I accredit the improvement to better pad and better rotor material than stock. However, the rotors didn't hold up too well after a while.

7camaro7

iTrader: (15)

my stockers were damn good... I finally took them off at a little over 85,000miles only warped rotor was the front driver's side. As far as braking goes, they were pretty damn good besides the fade I got out of them on rare occasion.

Now there's no warp and even better braking, also there's no fade yet