I hang out here just to watch the fights!

 

I drive spirited most of the time. Run about 120 miles Wednesday night with alot of it at 100 mph taking curves at up to 3 times the posted speed. Run organic pads too. Never noticed any brake fade.
No $35 dollar rotors here. Bare they were $700 plus tons of machining.
My wifes car and my truck have metal and neither stops as well as the vet. Wish they made organic for them

 

You don't get the fade because you drill your rotors to let the pads outgas. Most guys just aren't going to go to the trouble to do that and i don't think you are going to get the same performance had you not drilled.

 

I always feel driving is about smoothness. You try to maintain as much smoothness as possible. I don't go into corners if I can help it and then jam on the brakes. I try to straighten the corner out and at the same time maintain as much speed as possible. This is good smooth driving with less wear and tear on the engine and brakes.
I also don't come up to stop signs and hit the brakes really hard. Sure I am moving and usually take the stop at a 2nd gear roll but agian I am trying for smoothness.
While turning the rotors in the lathe I found the 32 curved vanes really pumped the air. The air comming off them was like a strong fan. They really do pump air from the center out.
As for maintaining the car I seem to go over it almost weekly to try and spot a problem and that includes a visual brake rotor inspection.

 

Read the original post. I said autocrossing or similar. Sprited mountain driving is similar.

I do not show 'n shine my car. I drive it, but I don't autocross it and there are no mountains around here that require enhanced braking components.

I know it's difficult for you, but you should really try to be polite for once instead of being a troll. Which you often are.

 

this right after you called a good post Nonsense?

we're just a bunch of opionated ole farts disscussing a subject in a spirited way. I'm sorry i hurt your feelings but it is often necessary to be dramatic to drive a point across.

 

S'alright. I think we're just coming down on different sides of the equation. My opinion stands that organics are good under normal -- which includes somewhat sprited -- driving. Anything beyond that, including autocrossing, mountain driving, etc., I too would recommend heavy-duty pads of one composition or another.

You just managed to push my "hot button" -- the show 'n shine thing. I just reamed out some poor soul over in C5 gen because he was extolling the virtues of clear floormat protectors. I drive my car. Hard. It gets wet and dirty, too. After all, it's a car...not a museum piece!

 

Be nice guys...
I've just got to put in my 2 cents (well, actually a lot of sense ).

We recommend organic for the basic daily street driver - not for any type of performance or heavy duty uses. A good organic pad handles heat just fine under 'normal' street driving conditions and is very clean (low dust). They also do not eat up the rotors nearly as fast as a semi-metallic pad will. They sell for $15.95 (part # 11401, $14.35 with the CorvetteForum discount). Also, we will match any advertised price (see further up this thread).

The semi-metallic pads will absolutely stop better than organic pads. They will also handle higher temperatures before brake fade becomes a problem. They are a good and very economical pad for low and medium speed autocross events, hard mountain driving (sounds fun), etc. The down side is that they can be noisy, create a lot of dust and will decrease the rotor life allot faster than an organic pad will. These sell for $19.95 (part # 11402, $17.95 with the CorvetteForum discount).

Today, with newer technologies, (and higher prices - go figure) you can have better stopping with very low dust, low noise, and a higher temperature tolerance. Carbon-Metallic Pads from Performance Friction or Ferro-Carbon Pads from Hawk Brake are what we recommend for most anyone wanting better brake performance. Both brands have several compounds of friction material for use in street driving all the way up to NASCAR and other race only apps.

I personally recommend either brand of carbon pads and then just pick the compound needed for each application. (i.e. Hawk HPS for street, HP Plus for aggressive street / weekend warrior apps and Blue-9012 pads for high performance autocross apps. There are also Hawk compounds, HT-10, HT-12 and HT-14, for specific racing applications. Performance Friction also has VERY good pad compounds; Z-Rated, Silent Ceramic and Carbon Metallic. Prices on these types of pads range anywhere from $35 to $100+ for C3 applications.

The differences between the pad types are very noticeable. The organics are quiet and clean but are not for performance use, the semi-metallic pads are a performance pad but generate dust and can be noisy and hard on the rotors. The carbon compound pads are the best of both worlds. They are quiet, low dust, easy on the rotors and have greater heat tolerance. Different compounds are available for just about any type of application.

We sell (imagine that!) all the pads I have spoken about and the manufacturers both maintain great web sites loaded with information. For slightly more $$$, just about ANY carbon compound pad is going to be much, much better than organic or semi-metallic.

Hope this info helps someone…

Sincerely,
Alan G.
Vette Brakes & Products, Inc.
http://www.VbandP.com
800-237-9991

 

... and exaggerate, too. The absolute cheapest you'll find a decent rotor for is $50.
$35 won't buy anything I'd even put on my CRX.

$50 - That's what I pay locally for a Raybestos stock replacement.
Most good to best rotors are close to (or over) the the $100 mark.
I guess that's the price you pay, if you want to play on the track or mountains.

-Dave - the tightwad

 

Here is the trade off:If you autocross,organics are fine..you don't brake enough on a 50-70 second run for them to be a problem. If...you use semi-metallics there will be two issues...one is you must warm them up BEFORE you have good braking in the first place..second is..they eventually EAT rotors,and if you don't believe this,go hit on those brakes hard in several events and find out...in fact,put a set on,leave your house and try and stop it fast in the first block..

 

..no wonder...who in their right mind uses $35 rotors ??? ha ha ha...if you got a $10 head,use a $10 helmet...

 

...yes, but what do y'all think of clear plastic floormat protectors?

 

That depends on your local course. Here, we usually get about 5 runs. When I had organic pads, they were fine until lap 5. I found that even in mountain driving, it was extremely difficult to fade those pads, but the relatively low airflow in autocross did them in.

 

You just hit on something...our laps out here are not run back to back...you go the the rear of the line in your run group,and wait for the next run.....typically,there are four runs,but it may be 15-20 minutes between them...
I do mostly mountain driving in our area...never have had a brake fade running hard on organics...I think those that have issues have not paid attention to rotor "run out" at installation of new pads...

 

We do the same thing actually. I've heard that our courses tend to be faster than most, though. The course where I mentioned fading after 5 runs had 2 or 3 points requiring hard braking from 60-70 mph.

 

If i remember right NAPA has them for that price. The C5 guys in the road racing section buy the NAPA rotors for around 30 bucks.

 

For 35 bucks...made in China?

 

Napa typically has three price ranges...bottom price normally are the ones from China..

 

I'm not sure where they're made but if they are good enough for the guys with the C5s that live on the track, they're good enough for me.

 

YEP

Peace,,,,,,,,Craig