robrob

After Cale's brake failure and accident last year I decided to give the heavy duty Racing Brake 2 piece rotors a try. They have an aluminum hat and the rotors are connected so they are allowed to "float." The rotors have smaller cooling vents so the rotors are thicker than stock rotors--they're quite beefy--and even with aluminum hats they weigh only 0.3 pounds less than stock rotors.

They are expensive but I was told I'd get a full season's use out of a set so i took the plunge. I was cracking front rotors every 3 or 4 events so the total cost is very comparable. I paid about $550 for the ready to install rotors.

I installed them in Nov 08 and ran 23 events with about 27 hours of track time when I finally cracked the left front rotor (crack propagated to the outside edge--see photo below) in Nov 09. Spider cracks did develop after only a few events and I freaked, but I kept running them until a crack made it all the way to the outside or inside edge of the rotor.

I have 2 inch ducting from the front bumper to the brake dust shields. I ran one set of Cobalt XR2, one set of Carbotech XP12, and many sets of XP10 brake pads. All the events were run on r-compound tires.

On a separate note my new preferred brake pad setup is Carbotech XP10's in the front and Cobalt XR3's in the rear. The XR3's seem to bite a little less hard so it helps with the rear brake bias and the rear pads are lasting at least twice as long as the XP10's and XP8's I used to run back there.

I replaced the cracked rotors using the RB replacement rotors (no hats) with new nuts and bolts. I paid $430 for the replacement rotors.

Swapping the replacement rotors onto the RB hats was very easy. They are held in place with high quality crimp self-locking hardware. New hardware is included with the replacement rotors.

The vanes are directional so be sure to install the new rotors with the slots running the same direction as the ones you're replacing. Also, check that all the "nuts" are completely seated and torque them to 8 foot-pounds or 96 inch-pounds. The documentation states, "proper torque is required to ensure proper floating function."

Here's the terminal crack:



The old rotor separated from the hat.



The new rotor on the hat.





The new rotor installed.


I'm very happy with these RacingBrake.com rotors and recommend them to you track junkies.

Rob Robinette

CourageOO7

Great info Rob! Thanks for the write up. 23 full days of track time plus drives home and such? That's a durable rotor! Seems like the high initial investment is worth it.

Out of curiousity, what tires are you running for these events?

CourageOO7

Ha! Never mind, I just saw the picture. lol

robrob

All 23 events were run with either RA-1s, NT-01s, or R-888s.

GEARHEAD

Thanks for the review.
With the factory fixed rotors, I typically see evidence of heat induced warp (cone may be a better description). The brake pads will wear to the shape of the distorted rotor during a track event and then when used on the street, the pads will only partially touch. This can be seen as a rust ring on the rotor. A floating rotor should eliminate this issue as it can expand freely (no cone shape). Have you seen any evidence with these or your previous fixed rotors?

dc_s2k

Rob how much did you pay for the replacement rotors?

edit : I can't read.

Antonov

Always wondered about these. Thanx for the great review.

-Dino

psileepr

robrob

No, not that I remember.

Billj747

Glad to hear you are having better results than we have had with RB rotors. Keep us updated if you are consistently getting far more mileage out of those rotors over stock 1pc rotors.

Billy