Not sure what you mean by extra rotor mass, when I hear that I think of added unsprung weight. But the type of material and surface area of a rotor helps dissipate heat.

Leverage? Clamping force is the piston(s) force.

 

That sort of unsprung weight I will take. Basically the more mass the rotor contains, the more BTU's of energy it can absorb before brake performance begins to suffer. There are trade off-off as you mentioned. Increased performance but sacrifice by adding unsprung weight. It depends on what you want more. These rotors just aren't large and thick enough to justify a x-drilled design. *most* passenger car types are not since they are not designed for repeated max braking. By leverage, i mean increased moment arm...ie distance from axis of rotation. The further away you are, the less force required to stop the rotational moment. And i did mean the clamping force of of the piston in relation to the surface area of the pad as well as pad material...i just worded it poorly.

 

this happened to me too with the puny 03-04 Altima brakes.

Yes 05-06 is a good choice - particularly if you are going to track occasionally... it is a good inexpensive option.

You should be able to find a used set eventually... check the Z boards too.

 

for drag racing the 03-04 are beneficial because they are smaller and lighter and you don't need a lot of braking force...

For road course, the added mass to dissipate heat is a huge benefit to help prevent brake fade - much more important than the rotational mass... the calipers being 2 piston instead of 1 helps with braking force.

So for drag - keep OEM 03-04... for road course switch to 05-06 (or BBK)... for street - it really doesn't matter.

 

The Racing Brake oem caliper BBK's are a good alternative too. Not as cheap as the 05- brakes, but bigger rotors too.

http://www.racingbrake.com/G35_non_B...0-141-0-01.htm

 

Yes you are right but the mass greatly adds rotor life and prevents warpage.

Yes you are correct that clamping force (as defined by piston area) is PART of the clamping force. Torque arm advantage defined by how far out the caliper is mounted from the center of the rotor is another (and by my experience a greater part of the equation)

 

It should be noted the type of racing one does as well. I auto-x and have had no issues with fad on my 03 sedan.

 

The people who have run different pads, like Axxis and Hawk don't seem to like the cold stopping as well as the stock 05-06 pads. Now, for track purposes, these would probably be better, but for every day I doubt it. I don't mind dust and if I could get a more aggressive pad that has great cold stopping power, I would be on it in a second.