alrite, whats the deal with slotted vs drilled rotors????
 

im in need of new rotors.

i asked this same question on my local forum, and everyone said i should just get slotted...because "drilled rotors have a tendency to crack around the holes".

if this is true, then why do so many cars come with drilled rotors form the factory?!

i want whats best for performance. i plan on autox and a few track days here and there.

i have earls stainless steel lines, hawk pads and powerslot rotors. i love the pedal feel. and the car stops way better.

i know that cheaper made drilled rotors might crack, so to be safe i just got the slotted ones.. i give it 2 thum
bs up..

this has really been beaten to death, and im sure if you look around you can find dozens of threads on this topic. in short, drilled are for LOOKS ONLY. if you actually want to stop better, use blank rotors. tirerack has a disclaimer right on their website stating drilled rotors should NEVER be used for track use.

take it from people who actually race their cars. and im talking road race, autox, track days. use BLANK rotors and dont worry about anything else.

also, read the rotor section in the sticky right above your own thread:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspensio...brake-faq.html

At this level, holes and slots are driveway jewelry. Period. There are no exotic materials in a set of $100 rotors. So it's all show and no go.

Blanks with good pads and decent, fresh fluid will make all the difference.

Folks tend to attribute a new-like pedal feel to installing SS braided brake lines. It's most likely the fresh bleed of brake fluid that helps pedal feel more than the lines.

So do slotted calipers help any?

I'd just get the slotted, whenever you do hard breaking you pads release gases from friction and high temps, the slots will help remove the gases while you are breaking hard. Most drilled rotors do have the tendacy to crack over time.

^- this is all from the sticky
-slotted
"Slotts were intended to wipe away the boundary layer of gas created by older brake pads, back when pad compounds off-gassed. At the same time, slots also scrape a "fresh" surface of the pad. Now the only advantage to slots are replacing pads faster as they will QUICKLY eat through pads under aggressive driving."

-drilled
"Its a common misconception that with crossdrilled rotors that they help dissipate heat faster, and allow gasses created by the friction material on pads to escape. Heres a quote from stoptechs website that should do away with that myth.

Quote:
For many years most racing rotors were drilled. There were two reasons - the holes gave the "fireband" boundary layer of gasses and particulate matter someplace to go and the edges of the holes gave the pad a better "bite".

Unfortunately the drilled holes also reduced the thermal capacity of the discs and served as very effective "stress raisers" significantly decreasing disc life. Improvements in friction materials have pretty much made the drilled rotor a thing of the past in racing.

It has also been said from some rotor manufacures that with drilling holes in the rotor makes it lighter, thus reducing rotating mass, and and unsprung weight. What they dont tell you is that this weakens the rotor, and also with less mass in the rotor it reduces the thermal capacity.
You may have also heard about cross drilled rotors with the holes cast in them instead of drilled like on some of the Porsches to prevent cracking. These are the Porsche rotors in question.

With drilled rotors and todays pad compounds, there is no performance gain to be had. It weakens the rotor, and reduces the surface area of the rotor in which the pad comes in contact with. The only purpose they serve today is to increase the looks of the assemby behind the wheel."

the FAQ sticky EchoMirage posted has a lot of good info.

Just get blanks. Slotted rotors also crack, and its not really a benefit to them, unless you want the look. Blanks= more heat capacity, no stress raisers. The pads are the ones that make the biggest difference in stopping the car.
Slots and holes are purely for looks.

thanks to all.