b15 brakes same as....?

Pat Griffith griffser@hotmail.com
Thu, 24 Jan 2002 11:45:40 -0600


>Cross drilled rotors and slotted rotors are supposed
>to be better than a normal rotor because the extra
>surface area from the slots and drill holes help cooling the brakes, in
>theory anyways.

How does removing material by drilling holes give brake rotors "extra
surface area"??  Talk about contradictions ...

Also, there is a difference between slotting and drilling.

>All this can be found in SE-R.net under brakes. I believe it was written by
>Mike K.

Alright, Mike says: "I myself think that drilled stock rotors or sport
rotors may be somewhat questionable because since small stock brakes are run
close to their thermal limit with high performance pads, the drilling can
contribute to cracking  ... Drilled real racing brakes with sufficient
thermal capacity are functional and useful ... Overall, I feel that drilled
sport rotors are mostly a cosmetic trick and have never tested drilled,
slotted and solid back to back."

Is that the part in question?  I have not tested this, but in theory, a
cracked brake rotor will not help a car slow down better.

In most SCCA-level (i.e., amateur) autocross and road-racing classes,
cross-drilled rotors are not allowed, and nobody cares.  They whine about
rules on seats, ECU's, restrictions on air dams, tires, etc., but none of
them whine about not being able to use cross-drilled rotors.  Gee, maybe
because they have seen/heard real-world experiences (not "in theory") with
cross-drilled rotors and determined cross-drilled rotors aren't any better
than non-drilled rotors.

It's a free country and you can go ahead and buy cross-drilled rotors for
your car, but don't try and justify them as performance upgrades unless the
rotors you're replacing are worn paper-thin.

Pat