Talk about a can of worms... here's a quote from a StopTech article:
"StopTech provides rotors slotted, drilled or plain. For most performance applications slotted is the preferred choice. Slotting helps wipe away debris from between the pad and rotor as well as increasing the "bite" characteristics of the pad. A drilled rotor provides the same type of benefit, but is more susceptible to cracking under severe usage. Many customers prefer the look of a drilled rotor and for street and occasional light duty track use they will work fine. For more severe applications, we recommend slotted rotors. "
Did anyone order those roto-tech slotted cross drilled rotors. I saw them on e-bay and they are inexpensive for a set but I was concerned about their quality, looked nice though.
On one of my race cars we had drilled and never had a problem and that car went threw some extrem racing! (59 austin healy seabring sprite raced at daytona, road atlanta, robling road and seabring, Enduros and everything.)
I see some are 2 piece and some are 1 piece. Any performance difference? What are "rotor hats"?
Rotor hats are the center "hub" with the wheel lug holes in it. This is what the disc bolts on to.
1 piece is just that, hat and disc as one solid unit.
2 piece has a separate hat and disc that are bolted together.
A floating disc is a 2 pc with McClaren clips on the bolts holding it together. The disc is aloud to "float" so it will have less of a chance of warping than a solid mounted disc. The steel or iron disc will heat up at a differant rate than the aluminum hat. This can also lead to warping. Thus the reason it is allowed to float.
The reason the clips are called McClaren clips is that the F1 manufacturer (McClaren) was the first to use these on floating discs to prevent rattle, while allowing the disc to be mounted firmly yet still be aloud to float. The Mclaren clips will be on every other bolt holding the disc to the hat.
Are most systems direct fit? I am not looking for a big brake package, just something to enhance braking, but mainly for looks.
I do not feel I can give you an accurate answer to that. I do not yet own a Viper so I have no real experience with aftermarket brake setups on these cars.
What I can tell you pertains to my VR4 which is lacking in the brake department from the factory.
Stock brakes would fade easily and badly, always warping the stock rotors. My fix was to get Brembo cross drilled rotors and Hawk Performance pads. Warped rotors are no more now, but I still could over heat them to the point of fading on the street.
Next move was to ditch the stock 5 spoke wheels. They did not really have a very open face and did not allow for enough airflow to cool the brakes. I put on O.Z.Racing F1 Cups which are a split 6 spoke wheel and allow alot more air to flow thru the brakes. That helped more than the rotors and pads did.
Is it as good as an aftermarket setup? No, but is more than enough for me on the street.
One thing I do want to point out, If you "trace" Porterfield brakes you will find that it looks like Hawk Performance supplies their pads to them. I do not know if this is 100% true or not but it sure looks that way.
Back to the Viper. When I get mine I will put on one of these setups, Brembo, StopTech or just Eradispeeds with some good pads. This will be dependent on $ and what I plan on doing with the car track wise.
