I'm about to upgrade the (stock) brakes on my 2000 C5 (with 40k mi). Over the years there were published issues with slotted rotors developing cracks at the vent holes and the old advice was to stick to only slotted rotors . So what do you experts with current experience running drilled rotors recommend?

 

First off, I do not track my car so the brakes have only seen normal street driving.

On my '00, I ran a set of Baer Eradispeed drilled/slotted rotors on the car for better than six year and never had any cracking. My '03 has drilled and slotted rotors and they have been on there for I'm guessing 3-4 years now and no cracking either.

 

Stay away from them.

 

When people say the rotors Crack I think people envision these HUGE cracks going across the rotor. When in reality the cracks we are talking about are small and normally have to be looked for the find them. Ive got some Brembo cross drilled rotors on mine and they are now cracked after about 3 years.

 

If you're not tracking your car, it's unlikely to be a problem.

 

If you want to go slotted/drilled, make sure the rotors were designed to be that way, and are not just from someplace that machines standard rotor blanks and adds to the price. Like Vetteman above, I have Baer drilled/slotted Eradispeeds. They have been on the car somewhere north of 50k miles with no issues whatsoever. Fyi, I run Hawk HPS pads with them.

 

This!~


If you're just toodling around town they'll look great, and the crowd that doesn't know any better will they they are really zoomie. They're certainly not going to get nearly hot enough to crack going out to dinner with your wife or to the local cars and coffee. Even daily driving to work isn't going to do it unless work is at Lime Rock or Laguna Seca. So, if this describes your driving habits don't worry about it at all. If you like the look of them, get them.

 

I agree.

 

I don't think its ONLY the track that cracks them. Its more the expanding and contracting from heat in cold weather is my guess.

 

Go with the cheese graters.

 

Don't bother. They don't offer any advantage over a blank rotor. Stick with the blanks. Blanks have the most surface area and best heat dissipation.

Hell, even most ACTUAL race cars (GTLM comes to mind) don't run drilled rotors. I have a dozen pictures from the 24 hour race and I don't think I have a single picture of one of the cars with drilled rotors (though plenty of them have slotted rotors).

Yes, you can crack drilled rotors on the street. Go up and down a mountain a few times and they'll definitely get hot enough to crack if you let them cool too quickly or unevenly.

If you're just tooling around town at 30 miles an hour it'll be fine. Even a few hard stops won't hurt them. You'll just look silly.

 

This^^^
Top of the line NAPA rotor is the best there is and my Z06 is track only.

 

Ah, that must be why they are a standard fitment on BMW M cars and many Porsches.

 

Some Corvettes came with them, too. I have them with no problems or cracking at all, even driving on track once or twice.

 

The illusion of speed is a helluva thing, isn't it?

Gotta justify that $75,000 price tag somehow. Might as well make them look the part.

 

BTW, here's the pictures I mentioned. I don't have any pictures of Porsche (because I really don't care about Porsche). But I do have shots of a Corvette, M6, R8, Aston Martin, a GT350, and a Ford GT.

All racecars. None with holes. All slotted.

The ones that didn't have slots were running solid rotors. Only exceptions might be the vipers, but I don't have a good picture of their rims/tires. I have a few off angle shots and they look to have slotted rotors as well, which would imply that they take the drilled ones off the road car and put slotted ones on the race cars.

All the Prototype cars had slotted rotors.

If drilled rotors actually worked, then the "budget is no consequence" racecars would use them.

They're a gimmick, nothing more. End of story.

 

Fact #1 - Race brake pads are made to work extremely well against rotors hot enough to glow - they don't work well until heated up.

Fact #2 - Street pads are made to work with cool rotors.

Now let's connect the dots. Since race pads don't need cool rotors, and drilling does indeed often lead to cracks, particularly in rotors that see temperature extremes, you don't find them on race cars. Since street pads require cool rotors, and drilling has been shown to aid in cooling, you will find them on street cars. Different equipment for different applications.

 

Are you drunk?

Or do you visit r/******askscience too much?

You're logic is so broken. The holes don't aid in cooling to ANY amount. The vanes in the center deal with the heat transfer to air. Air comes in the back of the hat and exits at the outer edge of the rotor. Air isn't going to come in to a rotor spinning high speed and then make a 90 degree turn to exit the face of the rotor.

All rotors are are heat sinks. That's their purpose. Removing material via drilling does nothing more than lose you heat capacity on rotors and add stress risers across the face (where all the heat is concentrated). You're removing mass, therefore removing heat capacity.

Pads also function as heat sinks. Street pads and race pads have different heat ranges due to composition. Once the rotor heat soaks, the pad has to take the rest of the heat. Get it too hot and friction falls off. The pad is then useless. Drilling holes in the rotor doesn't do jack to increase the heat capacity of the pad. Drilling holes ONLY reduces the heat capacity of the rotor (by reducing mass). This works the pads harder and would do nothing more than reduce the ability of the car to stop when the brakes are hot.

They're a gimmick. Nothing more. They look neat so you can impress soccer moms at car shows.

 

For a quality brake job on your C5 get a set of Centric premium blanks rotors and some Carbotech 1521 pads problem solved do a fluid flus and you will be good to go. I can sell you the 1521 pads rotors look on Amazon or rock auto. If this is not for street than advise me and I can give you different options but, sounds like its a Sunday cruiser.

F:1521 $141

R:1521 $121


Carbotech™ Bobcat 1521™ The Carbotech Bobcat 1521™ is our high performance street compound that is our most successful compound. The Bobcat compound is known for its awesome release and modulation, along with unmatched rotor friendliness. Like our AX™ & XP™ line of compounds, Bobcat 1521™ is a Ceramic based friction material offering minimal rotor damage and non-corrosive dust. Bobcat 1521™ offers outstanding performance, even when cold, low dusting and low noise with an excellent initial bite. This compound’s virtually perfect linear torque production provides incredible braking force without ABS intervention. Bobcat 1521™ operating range starts out at ambient and goes up to 900°F. Bobcat 1521™ is suitable for ALL street cars, perfect for your tow vehicle, police cruiser. The Bobcat 1521™ compound has been found to last two-three times longer than OE pads you can purchase at a dealership or national retailer. That’s one of the beauties of Carbotech Ceramic brake compounds. Bobcat 1521™ is NOT recommended for any track use.

 

I'm a senior engineer for the Navy. A coworker told me several years ago that when getting his butt chewed by a flag officer and it started getting personal he would relax because he knew if it was getting personal it was because the flag didn't have ****. This stuff always comes out when someone's long-held beliefs are called into question - no matter how many pay grades may separate you.

Nuff said on that.

I'm afraid your logic is broken as thermal mass isn't the primary point - it's transferring the heat away from the rotor/pad surface that is the point.

Don't believe me if you want but it has been documented by an SAE report and argued on this forum in the past.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...neer-test.html

Now I'm going to get drunk!