Best Brake Rotors: A Critical Look at Who Makes the Best Brake Rotors
Choosing the right brake rotors for your vehicle is vital for ensuring your safety and the safety of your passengers while on the road. There are several important features that buyers should consider when replacing these essential components. Getting a quality design will help you to avoid disaster, no matter what roads you are traveling.
Street safety is the ultimate concern when selecting a product for your auto. You brakes are the most important safety mechanism in your car as these are what will allow you to respond to other drivers and changes in terrain.
These must be consistently reliable, regardless of whether you use your vehicle on occasion or rely on it each and everyday for commuting and shuttling kids and other family members around town.
Designs that provide an increased amount of friction will help to reduce your stopping time on residential streets and when moving at freeway speeds. These products also tend to have more durability and will not wear out as quickly.
Who Makes the Best Brake Rotors?
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1. StopTech
StopTech manufactures high-performance brake rotors, calipers, stainless steel lines, and brake upgrade systems for the racing and performance street markets. The company also distributes OE aftermarket rotors, brake pads and brake fluid from other manufacturers.
2. Baer EradiSpeed
EradiSpeed rotors are direct replacement performance cast rotors with an integral hat just like the OEM rotor. Each rotor has a unique casting with either a directional curved vane or the patented Kangaroo™ port design. EradiSpeed brake rotors benefit from additional mass in the “firepath”, as well as a proprietary, high-friction iron formulation.
3. European Brake Corporation (EBC)
EBC brake rotors are produced by independent brake manufacturer, European Brake Corporation (EBC). They offer the world’s largest range of high performance brake components that can reduce brake fade and enhance a vehicle’s appearance.
EBC Brake Rotors offer a “Full Sweep” groove pattern that helps keep the surfaces of the brake pads clean. EBC brake pads are blended with Kevlar fiber and bronzed Graphite powder to enhance the wear time of the brake pad. The Carbon Graphite construction ensures a cool operation of the EBC brake disc pad, reducing heat transfer to the brake caliper and system.
4. Hawk Performance Products
Hawk Performance brake pads are designed for all types of vehicles used for high speed driving or that may come across recurring heavy braking. Hawk Performance HPS Ferro-Carbon compound brake pads offer advanced braking characteristics to increase the driving experience.
This exceptional compound combines the safety and quality of Aerospace design combined with the braking expertise of Motorsports. Hawk Performance HPS pads offer additional stopping control and superior resistance to brake fade than nearly all original equipment or standard replacement pads.
5. PowerStop
These high-quality replacement stock-sized rotors are an inexpensive way to upgrade the appearance of your brake system. They may aid performance as well. Cross-drilling allows gasses to escape from between the pads and the rotors under hard braking. Slotting accomplishes the same thing using a different method. Both slotting and drilling give the rotor additional “bite” against the pad, giving a more responsive feel under initial braking.
The rotors are plated with zinc and/or cadmium for rust resistance; the plating wears off quickly from the braking surface.
All rotors are available in gold cad plating, cross-drilled, as shown above left. We have a very limited supply of silver, slotted, or slotted and cross drilled rotors. You will need to call if you are interested in the dwindling supply of non-gold cross-drilled rotors.
6. PowerSlot
The Power Slot rotor represents the most cost-efficient bolt-on, performance brake, upgrade offered today. All Power Slot rotors are CNC machined to application specific tolerances that utilize an exclusive, patent pending, Power Slot tapered-slot technology.
This technology preserves outer edge rotor strength, while aggressively forcing brake dust, out-gassing and heat to vent. The exclusive bright silver, anti-corrosion plating, done to military specifications, adds a high-tech appearance that enhances the visual impact of custom wheel installations over a long period of time.
7. Brembo
Brembo is a worldwide leader in the engineering, development, and production of high-performance braking systems and components for cars, motorcycles industrial and commercial vehicles, for the original equipment market, aftermarket and racing.
Brembo offers brake pads with constant friction coefficient in all conditions, even the toughest. Bremo’s Drilling / Slotting constantly “revives” the friction material, guaranteeing consistent performances over time.
Drilling / Slotting also prevents the formation of a film of water on the disc surface in case of rain. This means that the system works effectively even on the first braking action. The disc hole shape is designed for top performance and minimum additional wear to the brake pads and the protective galvanizing treatment improves the disc’s appearance and prevents corrosion.
Performance Friction Brakes
Performance Friction slotted rotors use a combination of breakthrough technologies to eliminate noise and enhance rotor life. Our special machining process assures the lowest possible runout and thickness variation. Our patented slot design gives much higher brake bite. Our exclusive high temperature metal alloy resists hot spots and shrugs off the highest heat loading. Computer designed vanes maximize cooling air flow and prevent thermal distortion. Our two piece floating rotors are race proven in major motorsports venues around the world.
Porterfield Racing Brake Pads
Porterfield R-4 Carbon Kevlar pads have a exceptional, integrally molded ceramic heat shield designed expressly to minimize heat transfer in high temperature applications keeping caliper temperature at appropriate levels. These materials offer remarkably high friction levels while extending rotor life.
Applied Rotor Technology
Through the use of deep cryogenic tempering ART rotors are able to endure more heat and abuse by relieving the rotor of porosity and stress. Slotting of the rotors adds additional cooling by aiding the out-gassing effect, in turn increasing braking performance in wet & dry situations. Benefits of an A.R.T. rotor include a 200% increase in pad & rotor life, elimiation of brake fade & warpage, and decreased stopping distance by 20%.
If you drive a sports car and are looking for a much higher level of performance from your machine, you must start by considering the braking mechanisms that you have in place.
These are what will help you to maintain optimal control over your car when driving at faster speeds, edging your way around curves and making sharp turns.
Your need for speed will result in massive increases in heat due to the extra friction. Thus, you want to have a brake pad and rotors that can stand up to the ongoing wear and tear that fast cars and faster drivers are likely to experience.
Another consideration to make when operating a high-performance auto is brake fade. This is the point at which these mechanisms become super-heated to the point of losing their functionality. This generally occurs when substandard products are installed or when vehicle owners choose designs that are not equipped for meeting the needs of their autos or their driving intentions.
Drivers who want flashy cars must make sure that their stopping power matches every other element of the vehicle. Driving fast is never fun when doing so can potentially cause your braking systems to utterly fail.
This makes it necessary to select products that are manufactured with advanced products that can withstand high heats. Brake fade can be a very dangerous issue and one that has disastrous impacts on vehicle operators and other drivers and pedestrians on the road.
These materials will help heat to dissipate more optimally, allowing you to enjoy fully stopping functionality, regardless of how hard your driving or how fast you are going.
If you have upgraded your vehicle with larger wheels it is important to note that these enhancements can place a lot of extra demand on your brakes and rotors. A larger diameter naturally increases the rotational speed of your tires, making them much more difficult to stop. This makes it vital to select designs that are specific to the large-sized rims or tires you are using and your most common driving habits. This issue can be resolved through the use of rotors with extra-wide diameters.
When it comes to vehicles, automobile owners often overlook their brakes until they begin to issue the high-whining of neglect. These happen to be one of the most essential elements of safe vehicle operation. Drivers should always look for products that can withstand the nature of their usage, provide optimal stopping times and accommodate any vehicle enhancements they have made. These efforts generally result in repairs that are longer lasting and a much reduced likelihood for needing new pads and rotors in the near future.
Choosing to work with a reputable professional will help you to find the right designs in brake pad and rotors for your vehicle.
An expert can assess the demands that are placed on your car, the modifications that have been made and you available budget. This will allow this professional to choose options that will provide you with optimal performance and maximum durability.
Vehicles can suffer a lot of unnecessary wear and tear when brake rotor and pads designs are poorly chosen or allowed to wear down. Making sure to pay close attention to these all-important safety mechanisms will also help to preserve other areas of your care. Don’t forget to read our guide on the best vacuum for auto detailing here.