Cross drilled rotors or slotted rotors not as good as simple blank rotors. I keep getting conflicting info. Some say no dam difference besides looks. Others say, cross or slotted rotors are not as good as blanks.

 

Blanks are good because you don't loose contact area by drilling holes or slots. But slotted rotors act like a suction cup for harder brake pads, and drilled rotors offer better cooling. So from here, it would really depend on your application. If you are constantly doing hard braking from high speeds (like at a track, late braking from 100+ mph to get to that 15 mph turn), you want drilled rotors for the cooling. If you're running brake pads for the track, you want the slotted rotors. Otherwise for daily driving usage where you aren't running some crazy track material brake pads and aren't doing any crazy late braking, blanks work just fine.

Some people like the drilled and slotted or just slotted brakes for the looks, and slight performance advantage which IMO is just fine too. But keep in mind that most drilled rotors on the market are not made to be drilled. Some company bought a blank and drilled them out, compromising the integrity of the rotor, so there is a chance of the rotor cracking under hard braking later in the future.

 

Slight misinformation above. Cross drilled and slotted rotors were designed to let the pads keep contact while off-gassing the heat of the rotors and rotors. It doesn't really make them cooler, it give the gases a place to vent off. Overheated pads can't grip the rotor because heat emitting from the pad acts like a frictionless barrier, similar to a tire hydroplaning. The slots or holes in the rotor allow better contact when they're hot.

If you want to get technical about it, cross drilled and slotted rotors will actually make the brakes hotter. Think of the rotor as a heat sink. When you remove material from the rotor, the heat has less volume to travel within the rotor. That's why the rotors in BBKs are larger; they offer more heat transfer as well as more swept surface.

Keep in mind that the above circumstances were developed for track/race cars where the brakes are tortured. It doesn't make much difference on road cars.

 

Damn you itgogitrev! You beat me to it. Im still posting the last part.

The one thing to remember is that most shops will not turn a set of these special rotors because the brake lathe can get stuck in the slots or holes that have been drilled. Bedding the brakes correctly will keep them wearing even and flushing out your brake fluid and putting some sort of aftermarket fluid in will help with this too.

My opinion would be to find a nice set of slotted rotors. When I replaced the pads and rotors on my 04 STi I took a chance with a company on Ebay, I think they were DBA brake rotors. I got the slotted rotors and a set of Hawk HPS pads. When I got the rotors I was impressed. The cooling fins were powder coated along with the center, to this day those things look the same as they did 3 years ago. Those were the slotted ones, the guy who has the car has went through 2 sets of pads and the rotors are still within spec with no warp-age. Something to think about.

 

It all depends on what you need them for. For the street, even in hard driving, and autocross, blanks are more than enough for most folks. If you buy slotted or drilled for the street, you'll be doing it primarily for looks.

 

I'm hearing a lot of that this week...

 

all very good responses. in short go slotted or blank, you'll only notice some slight differences if that. I think slotted has the obvious advantage in wet circumstances and its actually very reassuring for daily driving in those conditions as well and yeah they look cool too. I feel slotted is an all around good choice with little compromise.

The other important aspect to consider is the quality of the rotor. Cheap ones use cheap materials and low densities which makes them prone to warping and excess heat. Higher quality rotors will have higher mass/density properties to battle the heat and warp tendacy of the rotors by virtues of using better materials in the metal mix that makes up the rotor.

The ideas of putting together a quality brake setup using your OE brake system are simple. Good rotors, good pads, race fluid, SS lines and some cool air ducting and qaulity tires. Ducting being the hard part to do since its almost always custom. If none of that proves adequate, then a race-quality big brake kit is the next step.

For solid one piece rotors on a budget, Centric blanks/slotted are a good start. If you want to spend a lot more loot, DBA is considered one of the best. Cryo-treated rotors have become popular on the track due to their ability to last longer and actually improve brake performance (most popular are the centric/powerslot rotors exposed to cryo-treatment).

I hope we helped you out...good luck!

 

Thanks all. Ordered slotted just to have the vendor call me to offer me a free upgrade to slotted and dimpled. I jumped on that deal that took it. slotted and dimpled ones they sell have a lifetime warranty against cracking or warping. so even if they do warp, I just get a free replacement. No brainer there.

 

Sounds like you got a pretty decent product. Good choice on the slotted!

 

Who did you go through??

 

I think EBC makes slotted and dimpled rotors.