jkonkle

First of all, they won't warranty the warping on the rotors.

The rotor's are also inherently UNSAFE FOR ANY USE, take a look at how close the "cast" holes are to the edges. There is a good possibility anyone using these could be involved in an accident of monumental proportions.

My recommendation is DO NOT BUY THESE AT ANY PRICE.

Thanks










JK

Miaugi

PA Z06

how many miles on those rotors, or track days

Wicked Weasel

c4cruiser

Good question; what track?. What pads were you running? Looks like a lot of heat was generated. Do you run brake cooling ducts all the way to the hub?

Lancer033

that's why I jump into every drilled rotor discussion and start ranting

95jersey

overpriced garbage

96CollectorSport

Almost everyone will go through this before they "see the light".

Unless you know people who have gone through the rotor game it's easy to get caught up in all of the flash and salesmanship of gas slotted and cross drilled rotors. Porsche still uses them, Ferrari uses them, they have to work. Not if you can get replacements at a fraction of the cost.

However besides Gary @ Hardbar does anyone offer a C6 Z51 rotor without cross-drilled holes? I didn't think you could get Z51 size NAPA's.

jkonkle

all texas tracks, pfc-z, then pfc-01. few thousand miles track and limited street. No spindle ducts, stock brake cooling. However, you can see the material in the rotor here is about to explode into chunks...



a bit of heat is generated - hence the point of 2-piece rotor's.

The problem is the reason why the crack so badly is the proximity of the outside "hole" (as they are cast) to the edge.

I don't drive that hard and after a couple of phone calls found out the same thing is happening on street-only cars. they are poorly designed; no matter how you look at it. And the warping of the warranty-backed rotors is horrendous.

JK

jkonkle

Yup - I knew I was going to have problems; but I figured I could make it through a season!!

The only Z51 rotor I know are Gary's. However, I liked the idea that one other forum member took. Buy the stock abutments, put on stock one piece cheap rotors or go with 2-piece rotors for stock sizes. The difference is the total swept area for braking, but the heat reduction could/should make up for the reduced area!

JK

jkonkle

this is simply my point; if you intend on DRIVING the car like it should be driven. The baer replacements aren't worth a penny.

I can't even reuse the hat's at this point; because the replacement would be another 'cast' hole rotor.

JK

NewC6Toy

I've been trying to get C6 Z51 rotors from Gary all summer. He always said he wanted to perfect the Z06 rotors 1st, then he would work on the Z51 size. I haven't e-mailed him recently, but last time we traded e-mails he hadn't started them yet. Does he actually have them now?

I also found a company, DBA that at least has the Z51 size in their catalogue.

http://www.dba.com.au/dba_catalogue_...005_v3_web.pdf

Those you can get without cross drilling. I haven't found anyone that uses them on a Vette, so I don't know how good they are.

BQuicksilver

Thousands of track miles with no cooling ducts and track pads? Honestly I think they look better than I would have expected. You must have been pretty easy on the brakes for them to last that long. I'm pretty sure I'd have them looking like that in one day or less.

All drilled rotors are unfit for track use.

NewC6Toy

You might still be able to use the hats. One of the vendors was offering slotted only Baers a while back. Good luck...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...z51+EradiSpeed

jkonkle

yup, I was taking it easy. The initial pad's were PFC-z rated. PFC 01's at Texas World Speedway and about four lap's at Cresson two weeks ago.

As for the cast holes, that's not my point. I knew they'd crack. I'm annoyed because they warp'd and forced the breakdown of the material.

I don't have a problem with something I knew was inevitable.

Cheers

JK

95jersey

You can definately get slotted only versions...look around. It's just a shame because I know they cost $$$. On one had you want to keep them because of the investment, but on the other hand, sometimes it's good to take your loss and get out. See how much the rotors themselves cost.

0C5stein

Hi JK,

As far as I know, we can provide smooth finish or slotted only "outer rotors" as replacements for your Z51 drill/slot/zinc outers, as the holes are not cast into the rotors as you had indicated.

By your post, it would seem that you haven't seen many used race rotors, but truth be told, most real racers expect their brakes to look this way (drilled or not) and when it happens, we simply put some more on and go and thrash them too. It is just predictable wear and tear, not the catastrophic failure that you describe. Based on what I can see in your pictures, you would benifit from better air cooling ducting and I would only use the the PFC .01 or Carbotech X10 or 12 pad materials at the track.

Regardless, we can come up with a suitable solution for your brake needs, but you need to accept that parts used for high speed events (race or near race) will not be covered by any manufacturer's limited warranty. I'll look into replacement pricing for you tomorrow when I'm at the office. Next time just give me a call at the office and we can work through a solution pretty quickly.

I've said it over and over, Baer makes great rotors for specific usage. The Drilled/slotted/zinc rotors are not designed for "track use" and I try to remind everyone that buys them from us of that fact. For track or very aggressive drivers I recommend, smooth or slotted only rotors.

For those of you that don't know, the practice of drilling rotors began as an aid to venting the off-gassing of asbestos based friction material and in an effort to reduce unsprung weight. Well we don't use asbestos based pads anymore, so off-gassing is minimal and drilled rotors aren't that much lighter than non-drilled. So the only purpose that the holes serve now is that they look cool, at the risk of creating stress risers (which are simply a great place for cracks to start).

Mark

PS. I'll be out of the office at Hot August Nights all of next week, so forgive me in advance for not keeping up with this thread until I return.

jkonkle

Thanks for the post Mark; I was hoping my email would draw you in!

I'll call you at MSI tomorrow. If we can find a solution using replacement rotors that would be great!

I've seen quite a few used rotor's at the track; it's all good. Like I said what I don't like is the warping that occured on the one side. The passenger front is fine, only the driver front is warped and breaking apart!

Thanks again for your help!

JK

AU N EGL

NAPA rotors and the C5/C6 caliper mounting brackets - Long term are the least expensive and more importantly best stopping power.

Post some of these pics over in the C6 forums.

more cracked rotor photos for my collection.