Best Drilled And Slotted Rotors
Brake rotors come in a number of flavors. You often see them vented, drilled, or slotted. Sometimes there's a combination of the three, and it's best to know which works most efficiently for the driving you plan to do. We know one of the biggest enemies of brake performance is heat, so the goal for any of these choices should be cooling your brakes to keep them from fading.
Slotted Rotors As the name indicates, slotted rotors have grooves cut in the face where the pad makes contact. As you repeatedly step on the brakes hard (under track conditions for example), a layer of gas and brake dust begins to form between the pad and rotor, reducing the pad’s contact area with the rotor. Evolution Drilled, Slotted, & Zinc Plated Rotors are the most popular performance upgrade rotors PowerStop offers. The rounded slots sweep away gas and debris to provide smooth, safe braking while beveled drill holes keep those brake temperatures down when you need it most.
Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained is here to help you decide what kind of brake rotors you should choose.
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Most brakes are of the vented variety. These vents help move heat along and keep your brakes in the proper temperature range they prefer to mitigate fading.
Alternatively, you might see drilled rotors on some high-end sports cars. You won't see these rotors on race cars though, as the drilled rotors can become stressed and damaged during the high-stress environment of racing. The reason you see drilled rotors on some sports cars? Honestly, it's because people think they look cool.
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Slotted rotors are better for actual heavy-duty performance applications. They're stronger than drilled rotors, and they provide some other advantages as well, such as additional biting surfaces.
As always, Jason dives into the science behind it all in this video, which you can watch by hitting the play button above.
Once you get your braking sorted, why not learn about how to heel and toe downshift?
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Different PowerStop brake kits come with different types of rotors. It’s good to know the differences in the modifications on the rotors and how they may benefit you.
The Science Behind Heat Transfer in Rotors
Drill holes and slots in rotors can both improve braking, but under different braking scenarios. To understand how these rotor modifications can improve stopping power, it is first necessary to understand the three forms of heat transfer:
All three methods of heat transfer occur when you apply the brakes. During a typical stop, the heat transfer is about 25% conductive, 35% convective, 40% radiation. For a high temperature, high speed stop, the heat transfer is about 15% conductive, 40% convective, 45% radiation. At high speed, convection heat transfer is very important. This is why drill holes can help reduce the brake temperaure. The drill holes help air flow through the vanes. The brake temperature can drop up to 180 degrees. Brake pads work better at lower temperatures, and you reduce the risk of pulsating brakes as well.
So, Drilled or Slotted?
Slotted rotors do not improve any heat transfer. However, the slots can improve brake output by removing gas and dust that is trapped between the pad and rotor. This gas and dust reduces the friction force by preventing the pad from fully contacting the rotor.
Given the choice between drill holes and slots, the drill holes will give you better braking power over slots for normal city/highway driving. This is why high end BMW, Porsche, Corvette, and Mercedes rotors are drilled, not slotted. However, for track racing (high speed stops), slotted rotors are the better choice.
To find the right brake kit for your vehicle: www.powerstop.com
PowerStop brake kit installation videos: Installation Videos
More PowerStop video content: www.youtube.com/user/PowerstopMedia/
For more helpful Tips and How To: www.powerstop.com/info/how-tos/
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Remember, Don’t Just Stop…PowerStop!