az55

Here are the candidates.

ATE.....................$38.00

RACING BRAKE......$98.32

POWER SLOT.........$109.00

BREMBO...............$77.00

FROZEN ROTORS....$111.00

Does anyone have experience with any of these? Which ones? What did you think?

I know the prevailing wisdom is "NAPA is only $25 so why bother with anything else". But for those of us who don't have the time/desire/patience to constantly change cracked rotors, do any of the above last twice as long as NAPA's?
Does heat treating(racing brake) or cold treating(frozen rotor) really make a difference?

If I can find rotors that will stand up to PFC 01's for twice as long or more, it would be worth spending more.

Cheers,
CV

Sidney004

I am even cheaper than everyone else. I buy USED street driven rotors. They are well seasoned and already heat cycled; but here are some other pricier alternatives that might last longer and would(the Hurricane) run substantially cooler and presumably crack less.
http://www.thebrakeman.com/hurricane
http://www.thebrakeman.com/convo_e_m_
Realistically, I don't think the metallurgy, design or fabrication of the other alternatives are going to provide any benefits, including the cryo treated rotors(which I have tried and provided no noticable increase in longevity.) I think a careful cooldown lap will do more than anything else to increase rotor life by minimizing cracking.

Joy of 6

I had power slot slotted rotors and they cracked at the slot areas. The NAPA's dont have a weak area to crack and I have been quite happy with them. You can get a whole set of NAPA's for the price of just one Powerslot. I use Carbotech 10's and 8's for pads which is what many T1's racres use. (althought they are upgrading to 12's and 10's)

John Shiels

1 piece rotors will all suffer from the same expansion and cooling flaw. So do you want to buy a two piece Stoptech for 300+ each with a rotor replacement cost of 150+ each? They willl not last 6x as long as a NAPA. I cannot say how long but I have 600+ track miles on mine and some good heat checks are visable in them. Not sure if they will just continue to heat check or split at some point until I put more miles on them. To be dollar even on even just the rotor ring replacement cost I would need to get 6X the life of them.

No matter what rotor you run you need to season it properly for some extra life. You also need LGM spindle ducts.

vetracer

The problem with the NAPA rotors is they are smaller than the Z51. It may not be by much (1/2" smaller?) but the difference in braking was noticeable to me when I went from the stock Z51 setup to the base NAPA rotor with Carbotech X12's front/X10's rear which I had heard nothing but good things about. Not to mention I have to change the abutments also to go from street to track. I would be interested in a better alternative as well.

John Shiels

There are plenty of better rotors out there but then get into 14" rotors and then bigger wheels which all cost a ton of money. Then you are into an entire brake kit for $$$$$

01C5fan

Stay with the NAPAs. With the money you save you can buy a good cordless impact wrench that will make it much easier to back out the caliper bolts.

VetteDrmr

For C6 maybe, not for C5.

Have a good one,
Mike

96CollectorSport

I tried the Frozen Rotors and they lasted no longer than NAPA's actually I think they cracked sooner due to the slots. I think that the cryo treatment would only be worth it if your spending big $$$$ on rotors, like some of the $300 plus Porsche rotors out there, and they would still be 2 piece units.

The only way to get more life is to go with a 2 piece from Stoptech or Willwood and see how many events you get out of them, once you buy the hat's the cost of replacement rotor rings is about half.

wtknght1

I can change pads and rotors on all 4 corners of my car in 1 hour. Time can't be the issue.

Trust me on this one, unless you are willing to spend HIGH 4-digit numbers for a completely new braking system, cheap rotors and Carbotech brakes will stop you faster and more consistently than anything else out there.

You should be checking your brakes (bleeding, etc) before you go to an event anyway...so just put on new rotors (and maybe new brakes if needed) before you go to an event and you should be able to get thru the whole weekend with no trouble at all. There are a few tracks out there that might vaporize a full set before the weekend is done, but not many...especially not a DE weekend.

Don't waste your money on cryo, slotting, drilling, snake oil or anything else like that. Bed in a set of new pads and rotors before you hit the track and you won't have any problems.

craig-o

I put on a full set of Ate rotors with Hawk HP+ pads before my last HPDE day at Sears Point/Infineon. The combination worked great. Although due to the elevation changes at Sears Point, I'm not sure the braking is as punishing as at other venues.

The written material from Ate suggested driving them on the street for several hundred miles before subjecting them to the high temps reached at the track. I don't have a background in material sciences or metal casting, but it seemed to make sense to me, so I drove them to work and back with my street (ceramic) pads, and then changed to the track pads the weekend before and bedded the new pads. No problems at all.

The Ate rotors are also coated, so no rust on the hats like the stock (after the paint gets vaproized from the heat!) or the Napa rotors. The Ate rotors are still cheap, and the "slots" are cut to the minimum rotor thickness, so you know at a glance when they're in need of replacement. At $38 for the fronts and $36 for the rears, I thought it was worth a try, and I'm very satisfied.

Craig-o

vms4evr

Those ATE rotors may be $38/ea but you need to add shipping since it is part of the total cost. For me it is $12/rotor or $17/pair. So a set of front rotors is 85$. I can go to NAPA and get a front pair for about $60 (including tax). I'd pay the extra $25 if I thought I could even get one more weekend out of them.

Now as far the wear and tear with Hawk HP+ pads. Those aren't race pads and are much easier on rotors. Hawk HP+, PFC-Z, stock Z06. You should be able to get a number of events on any rotor with those pads. Put a race pad on and the picture changes dramatically. Throw some Hawk Blues or HT-xx pads on those same rotors and let us know how they stand up. I'd be curious how much more abuse they will take.

jkonkle

I'm currently running the baer two piece solid-face rotors bought from MSI (c5stein)

I complained about the slotted/drilled set that I got from C5STEIN last year, I cracked and warp'd those in about five months. He sent me some new ones that were solid faced and they are working great!

I'm currently running the the non-slot/drilled rotors on the front and have had them on since August 2006. I've driven in Sept, Nov, Dec, Feb, Mar and Apr. I had to swap back to stock Z51 on the rear, but they are taking a beating and cracking with 01 pads. I'll be ordering a new rotor set for those on my next purchase from MSI of Bear rotors. I may get slotted this time, but the solid face work fine!

I run PFC 01 pad's and have burned through two full set's on these rotors.

I paid about $150/each for the rotors, I already had the hats. Here is my cooling setup (by www.lgmotorsports.com)


JK

Cbntmn

I dont mean to be blunt here but with all this info its kind of a no brainer. Ask anyone in the pits and they will tell you the same thing.

I just got two track days at Sebring last weekend from my Napas that had just about 500 miles of weekend driving on them and used carbotech 10s (for the first time and I was pretty impressed) and Hawk dt 70s on the rear. (its what i had in the tool box)

The rotors are pretty fried but not split. The pads are gone. but when im behind a porshe 996 and im OUT braking him, i think ill stay right where im at. They never faded, never gave up, and stopped me on a dime.

The other upgrades are SS lines, ducts front and rear, spindles, SS pistons in the calipers. That combination seems to do pretty well. I ran 2:30.2 laps, my best ever, at Sebring with those and some slightly used Hoosier A6's

SO, to sum it up, buy Napa. My local Napa store doesnt stock em so i always get two sets at a time. When you go to the track, have an extra set with you. If they crack, replace them. Like someone said, all four of them and the pads can be replaced in about an hour.

fastfb350

Another vote for NAPA . You can't go wrong for $25 a rotor. Use the money you save to buy better brake pads and feel a bigger difference.

rws.1

Rock Auto offers two Raybestos rotors a PG and a PG + for about the same price....

Cobra4B

Napa for me... I can change a cracked rotor in 10 minutes.

What the hell do I do when/if a 2-piece cracks? I have to take the rotor off the hat and deal w/ all that crap.

John Shiels

That is why I bought the Stoptech direct replacement rotor. If it goes I drop in some NAPA's. Otherwise you need two sets of two piece rotors. Even with no safety wire like the Stoptech you would miss a session bolting a new ring on the hat.

Cobra4B

^ Good call... stoptech replacement units up front... and spare napas if they brake. Then repair the stoptech at home!

You're a genius

So how much are those stopechs again?

QwickerRon

I've been using standard NAPA rotors on 02 Z06 for a/c and HPDE use and not one has cracked. Dont think higher priced rotors will give you higher performance.