Okay. I need to do something about my brakes. They are shitty.
My bro here in Phoenix, run4cvr, just got burned on a set of "Brembos" off eBay. Here's the deal:

His "Brembo" front GSX calipers started to rust on him after only a few weeks and he called to see about getting new ones from them since they were "guaranteed," but the guy he spoke to at Brembo said that they only make slotted OR cross-drilled rotors. The DO NOT make combination rotors. He said that if you buy a slotted & cross-drilled "Brembo," you have purchased a modified Brembo rotor if you are lucky. It could be a complete bootleg.

This is mind, I hit eBay looking for some new rotors...

Slotted - such as Power Slot. Supposedly better strength and more stoping power due to lower temps than stock and slots that effectively resurface the pads constantly. Downside seems to be that the slots also cut through the surface of the pads, resulting in much faster wear of the pads.

Cross-drilled - Obviously run cooler than slotted due to greater ease of gas evacuation, but downside is that the holes reduce the surface area of the rotor and introduce stress points and the increased possibility of rotor failure from cracks forming.

So I have decided I want to go either one or the other, but not both. I am leaning towards the slotted rotors, but I don't know which would be better. Do you guys have any suggestions or input on the matter? I would get the "Brembo" slotted and cross-drilled rotors, but if everyone selling them is lying straight to your face about them being real Brembos (but doing something Brembo did not design the product to do), how can I buy something as important as brake rotors from them?

Help me please? :)

I just saw this on some car show last week.

Any modification to your brake does not dissapate heat faster, it is there to vent the gasses that build up between your pads and rotors which hurts your braking performance.


Drilling was first started for this use. But the drilling was causing structural integrity issues. So they started half drilling and half slotting to keep more of the rotor intact. Still, cracking rotors. So they moved to simply slotted rotors to solve the integrity problem. Slotted doesn't work as well as drilled, but lasts a lot longer.

And for every day driving slotted would be just fine :thumbsup

Drilled rotors are for race compound pads that generate gas under heavy load, and provide a route for the gas to escape, nothing that you'll be running in a street caliper.

Your brakes work by turning kinetic energy (motion) into heat, via friction. The more surface area, the more energy can be converted, therefor slowing you down faster.

Slotted rotors do have a performance benefit for everyday pads because they actually scrape off a thin layer of material of..every...single..time it goes over the pad, providing a new, glaze free friction surface. The disadvantages of this type of rotor are: "feeling" the slots, quickly wearing out pads, much higher priced (when machined and coated properly), and less rotor integrity (meaning they will distort, or commonly what's known as "warping", easier).

I had the Brembo slotted/dimpled rotors on my car as my first set of after market rotors. THEN I found out Brembo doesn't machine them like this. They were machined cheap, and sold cheap. My rotors cracked at the dimples after a year, I'm lucky it didn't lock up my caliper and send me into a wall @ 70 mph like that BMW in that one video.

Moral of the story:

If you can afford lots of pads, the almost double price (this is for real ones, not cheaply machined/non-coated ones), and don't mind the slight vibration during breaking get the slotted, they will perform better.

Else, save the money for extra performance mods and get the Brembo blanks (the safest of all the setups btw).

You can compare prices, and read more about this, at www.groupbuycenter.com, and stop-tech's website.

Stay away from 3rd party eBay rotors! Brakes are the most important saftey device on your car.

so anyone know the quality of raceconcept's drilling/slotting? they use brembo blanks, right?

Originally posted by MCubed45
so anyone know the quality of raceconcept's drilling/slotting? they use brembo blanks, right?

We just told you not to buy slotted/drilled rotors brutha. But slotted straight from Brembro.

Thanks fellas. I guess I'll get the slotted rotors when the time comes. I need to buy an AFX ECU and exhaust first, but give me a month or so and we'll see where we stand. }(

Originally posted by DR1665
Thanks fellas. I guess I'll get the slotted rotors when the time comes. I need to buy an AFX ECU and exhaust first, but give me a month or so and we'll see where we stand. }(

I didn't bother reading the other posts but the only way cross dilled are good are if they were purchased that way. Cross drilling rotors yourself is dangerous. For fade performance you want crossdrilled (staright from the maker) BUT they have less surface area and therefore braking decreases BUT so does Fade(very important). The best compromise is slotted which actually expell gas under braking while providing less surface area loss. So for an improvement you would be wise to go to some better pads and slotted on slightly larger brakes, that will provide a ridiculous amount of performance. If you go with a good size upgrade in discs/pads then I'd recommend some crossdrilled which will have unmatched fade and high braking ability. Myself, I prefer large slotted which break harder but fade isn't as good, but if the brakes are big enough you will never see fade anyway.

Just my $.02

The most interesting part of my conversation with Brembo was that they said most people dont even know they are buying Modified Brembos. My case was easy. They dont make cross drilled AND slotted. But there are people who buy Brembo blanks and modify then sell them as original Brembos. Or they just sell knockoffs in Brembo boxes. I bought my old GS front and rear Brembo rotors from ARD and they probably arent even Brembos even though they came in a Brembo box.

i bought my rotors from race concepts. I got cross drilled and slotted. I havnt had a problem with them and i do some heavy mountain driving with hard braking. I also have ceramic pads. they work out great for me. only problem i have is the pads dont grab so well when the rotors are cold or wet. Ive had my rotors glowing red at night from racing down mountain roads.

Originally posted by Pitchblack98
i bought my rotors from race concepts. I got cross drilled and slotted. I havnt had a problem with them and i do some heavy mountain driving with hard braking. I also have ceramic pads. they work out great for me. only problem i have is the pads dont grab so well when the rotors are cold or wet. Ive had my rotors glowing red at night from racing down mountain roads.

Same. I got my GSX cross drilled rotors from Race concepts. 1 Year of heavy braking and no problems. I wouldnt hesitate to buy from them again. They perform very well and havent rusted any. I think they were $90.00 shipped.

Raceconcepts = the good guys.
Ebay rotors = probably the bad guys.

So my brembos are fake ? :(





Member # 333

Originally posted by Remy
So my brembos are fake ? :(

So are mine... They even came in the same box as yours :(

they are prolly still brembo rotors.. they have just been machined to have the slots and crossdrilled holes added to them by someone else. My cross drilled and slotted rotors have brembo stamped on them and it looks just like the brembo blanks i replaced them with.

Irregardless, I think I'm going to stick with the plan to buy the slotted rotors. I've had these warped pieces of shit for ever now and I want some stopping power. All I have is fade. :P

Originally posted by run4cvr

Originally posted by Remy So my brembos are fake ? :(

So are mine... They even came in the same box as yours :(

Hmmm Which break pads are you running with ? Did you have a problem installing them ?


Member # 333

I am running the Ceramix pads from NAPA. Expensive shit. $80 for the front pair. The install was effortless.

I got mine from raceconcepts as well on an EBay auction. I have had them for 9 months with no problems. No rusting at all. They may have been modified but have the Brembo name stamped into them. I have been very happy overall.

I also got mine from raceconcepts. I personally picked mine up from their office and saw them machining rotors. I think they get slotted ones from brembos and do the drilling themselves. But I have no complaints with my rotors, no rust no fuss.