96superZ

I am considering a set of drilled and slotted rotors for my 96 z and they say the holes are chamfered to prevent cracking but i am still nervous about it so i thought i would use the forum members experience for advise. Anyone see a problem with using them for street? I drive about 50/50 ratio highway to street

95LT1conv

i personally haven't used them, but i have a couple of friends that have used the powerstops and have had no problems at all.

Bowen292

I have cross drilled slotted rotors on my 97 Z28. Using them with the Ceramic brake pads i noticed a significant difference in my stopping power..... they have saved me slowing down onto exit ramps more than a few times.... lol

Injuneer

Some interesting pictures of cross-drilled brake rotors:

http://www.ws6.com/cryo.htm

Dave K

Slotting/Drilling looks cool... just make sure you get good quality. Even with good quality the drilling does create stress points and you should keep an eye on it.

Don't expect improved performance though... drilling and slotting has no positive benefit to modern brakes, if anything it reduces contact area by a few percent and will hurt performance proportionally.

Greed4Speed

If you want better braking, get some good replacement blanks and good pads. Axxis works great.

If you want bling, this is the ONLY reason to get x-drilled.

nfa

agreed.

CALL911

I have got 13 inch cross drilled and slotted rotors that were zinc washed, of high quality. They look awesome under my Baer Claw two piston set up. The whole set up showed a huge difference in stopping power from the stock ones. With the rotors there is pretty much no brake fade.

My brake set up (the whole Baer Claw system including the rotors listed above) has been on now for about 25,000 miles. Almost all use has been on the street with probably 30-50 track runs over the 4 years they have been on. I have gone through one set of the Baer brake pads, and unfortunatly, with recent close examination of the rotors, "yes, there is some cracking in the rotors". It is minor, and hasn't caused any issues yet, but I eventually plan on changing them. If you talk to anyone at Wilwood, Brembo, or Baer, they will all say about the same thing, that no matter what the quality of the rotors, if they are drilled, eventually they will crack. They also have told me, that just by slotting the rotors, it should do the majority of the cooling (and as a result, no brake fade), and that X-drilling the rotors won't really do a whole lot. That being said, I love the cross drilled look too much to just have the slotted ones. Knowing that new ones will eventually crack, I will still put them on my car.

RE AND CHERYL

Interesting how the holes on both those rotors were chamfered.

I personally use Power Slot rotors. They are only sloted and not drilled. Looks cool, but not as cool as drilled rotors. People will tell stories and say their drilled and slotted rotors drastically increased their stopping distances. It's all crap. In almost every case they also installed performance pads which is where the real stopping power came from. Thruth is on the street your not going to generate enough heat to make outgassing a problem. Also the pads you would typically run on the street would be destroyed by the temps required to make a pad outgass.

They look cool, but holes and slots reduce surface area which reduces braking power.

wdtiger

Absolutely. And any good racing pad won't gas out anyways so you still wouldn't need, or want, drilled/slotted rotors. All things being equal, it's the pads that make the biggest difference.

CALL911

I guess it would depend on your usage on the street. True, pads make the stopping power, and cross drilling and slotting the rotors do take a percentage away from the surface area of the rotor. However, if you have ever done a really hard brake at over 140, then your performance brake pad will be virtually useless on a plain rotor after about a second. Plain rotors will get hot under hard braking from high speeds, and thats where all the brake fade comes from. By primarily slotting the rotors, and to a lesser extent, cross drilling them, the heat is dispersed easier, making them much cooler under harsh conditions, and as a result, there is little to no fade at high speed braking.

But if only used for everyday driving under 65 mph, then I would say don't waste your money on different rotors, but then again, if you don't drive it faster than highway speeds ever, then you probably don't really need much better pads either.

Greed4Speed

There are 4 ways of obtaining cooler running temps. More mass, more surface area, directional vanes, and air ducts.
All this will help with fade due to too high temps. There is another way to alleviate brake fade. Run a higher temp range pad.

Slots do nothing for heat dissipation or brake fade except remove mass. Granted, it minutely increases surface area too, but not enough to mention. I doubt there is enough mass removed to worry about it either.

Dave K

*** Greed said... slotting and cross drilling do not cool your rotors, venting cools your rotors. I suppose you could argue that the reduced contact area would reduce the heat generation... but only by the same proportion as it reduces braking force (not what you want).

At any speed, modern brakes get zero benefit from slotting or cross drilling... they are strictly cosmetic modifications.

jerminator96

So what you all are saying is that the only reason you could possibly need slotted rotors is because your brake pads suck? I appreciate you all saving me some money

Greed4Speed

No, the only possible need for slotted is for looks.