C5 corvette brakes/ Slotted or not?

[chevyshack]

Okay guys and gals. I have a 69 Chevelle that has drum brakes right now. Im going to put C4 or C4 13" brakes on the front. I'll be running the drums on the back for now till I can afford to upgrade to disks. My question is are the slotted rotors worth the extra money or should I just get the stock plan rotors? I know they look pretty and this will be mainly a street car for the time being. Ive yet to try autocross racing. The car will be built on a pro-touring plate form though.

[jpgolf14]

Okay guys and gals. I have a 69 Chevelle that has drum brakes right now. Im going to put C4 or C4 13" brakes on the front. I'll be running the drums on the back for now till I can afford to upgrade to disks. My question is are the slotted rotors worth the extra money or should I just get the stock plan rotors? I know they look pretty and this will be mainly a street car for the time being. Ive yet to try autocross racing. The car will be built on a pro-touring plate form though.

Definitely go with the 13" C4HD. The plain 12 x 0.81" setup is pretty average.

Also, unless you want to go for looks, just go with quality plain rotors.

John

[chevyshack]

Thanks. Im looking for function iver looks. Just wasn't sure if drilled and slotted was worth the extra cost right now till i actually started racing it.

[jpgolf14]

Thanks. Im looking for function iver looks. Just wasn't sure if drilled and slotted was worth the extra cost right now till i actually started racing it.

Nope, the plain ones will treat you better.

[Greg from Aus]

Slotted, are way better than plain for releasing gasses, drilled can tend to crack.

Greg

[tommycomfort]

When I wore out my zinked, drilled and slotted rotors I replaced them with just plain slotted on the recommendation from Kyle Tucker at DSE. The originals looked cool and I never dreamed I would ever wear them out, but then again I never dreamed I would be doing 15 events a year...

Tom

[jpgolf14]

Slotted, are way better than plain for releasing gasses, drilled can tend to crack.

Greg

That is true. However modern pads really don't out gas, so whats the point?

Slotted rotors will however increase initial ever so slightly, depending on the how the slot edge is machined. They will also wear your pads 25%-50% faster.

[Apogee]

My $.02 for what they're worth...there are a lot of statistics floating around that will support whatever position you would like to support, however I prefer plain or slotted over anything with holes. Any time you cast or machine a hole in a rotor, you're providing a shortcut for a full-thickness crack while at the same time making resurfacing the rotor impractical, thus shortening the service life of the rotor. For a street cruiser running low CoF pads, no worries. For something a bit more aggro, something to consider.

I've seen brake dyno runs from DBA where pads on slotted rotors actually showed 8% less wear as compared to a plain rotor, however other compounds that showed more, so as with any statistic, I would suggest taking it with a grain of salt. I personally like that slots in rotor act like wear bars on tires, a visual indicator that you're approaching the minimum disc thickness without whipping out the micrometer, so that tends to be what I prefer (plus I like the aesthetic of slots) followed closely by plain rotors.

Ultimately, I would suggest purchasing the highest quality rotor casting you can afford since that will play a much larger role in the rotor's long term performance and ROI than anything else.

Tobin
KORE3

[jpgolf14]

My $.02 for what they're worth...there are a lot of statistics floating around that will support whatever position you would like to support, however I prefer plain or slotted over anything with holes. Any time you cast or machine a hole in a rotor, you're providing a shortcut for a full-thickness crack while at the same time making resurfacing the rotor impractical, thus shortening the service life of the rotor. For a street cruiser running low CoF pads, no worries. For something a bit more aggro, something to consider.

I've seen brake dyno runs from DBA where pads on slotted rotors actually showed 8% less wear as compared to a plain rotor, however other compounds that showed more, so as with any statistic, I would suggest taking it with a grain of salt. I personally like that slots in rotor act like wear bars on tires, a visual indicator that you're approaching the minimum disc thickness without whipping out the micrometer, so that tends to be what I prefer (plus I like the aesthetic of slots) followed closely by plain rotors.

Ultimately, I would suggest purchasing the highest quality rotor casting you can afford since that will play a much larger role in the rotor's long term performance and ROI than anything else.

Tobin
KORE3

Interesting. My numbers are from a SAE test from a number of years ago. Actually the more I think about it, the test was comparing drilled rotors vs plain, and the drilled wore the pads 25-50% faster, with a trend of increasing wear differential with temperature. I would expect slots to be fairly similar wear wise to drilled holes if the total edge length is similar and the edge radius is similar.

I personally like the looks of slotted rotors as well.