brake rotor metallurgy?

What's the general consensus regarding brake rotor durability/metallurgy...

Is it worth it to get a brand name like brembo, or will any pepboys clearance rotor last as long & hold up to daily use & the occasional track day?

the first trackday instructor I had was a Honda Challenge racer ( somewhat hopped up Civic ) he said he bought the cheapest rotors he could find and changed them out each weekend...

me, I do the same .... 'cept I use them 'till the heat checking/cracking starts showing

I run the good Napa stuff on my tow van. The cheap stuff warps too fast.

If you can find them, try Centric rotors, we use them at work without any problems. They have a nice finish and the hat and vanes are painted or powercoated black.

If anyone wants to send me some rotors to have them analyzed, let me know. I can do hardness tests, composition tests, you name it. Good to have a whole metals lab at your disposal.

I have used cheap chinese rotors on my 944 spec race car. No difference in performance compared to German Zimmermans. Maybe a little less overall life (still more than 1 season), but that is hard to confirm exactly. Zero cracking.

The metallurgy isn't as important as the design. I replaced the OEM rotors on my street car with Raybetoes brand thinking that I would be getting OEM or near OEM quality. The first set warpped after a while. I bought a second set and they also warpped. I did not drive this car hard, it was a street car!

I bought a set of rotors made by Wagner. Huge difference in the rotors. They weighed more due to thicker dics, the actual metal between the cooling space in the center of the ventilated rotor.

That being said I would buy the cheapest rotor if I was racing the car, all else being equal.

Most people who think their rotors are "warped" are wrong, usually it is simply pad deposit buildup. If you went through the trouble of putting a straight edge on it, I'll believe you.

More on "warped" rotors here:

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml

Long story short: By my mistake, I discovered this weekend that I had put 2 different rotors on the from of my honda hatch. One was the midgrade Autozone, and one was OEM Honda and both has been lightly resurfaced at the same time at the same machine shop. When I swapped them out for 2 new mid grade autozone mid grade rotors the rotation that has been driving me nuts went away. I has bled the brakes 3 times trying to get rid of the problem, all the calipers are rebuilt units put on in the last 2 years., HP+ in the front, and a less aggressive pad in the rear, ATE super blue, everything works.... The problem was 100% due to the difference in the rotors. It had felt like the front right was grabbing harder than the front left, rotating the car clockwise.

On inspection, the disks that came off are the are dimensionaly identical in terms of fit, but the OEM rotor has more material and less vent (.255) than the AutoZone rotor (.335) and weighs 11. lbs vs 10.. Unfortunately I did not notice which rotor came off which side as I did not figure out the problem until the parts were at my feet. But the difference in performance between the two was substantial and the rotation increased with heat. One could argue in either direction so I am not going to bother or guess, but It is clear to me now that not all rotors are created equal long before you get into slotted, cross drilled, yada yada yada..

jimbbski wrote: The metallurgy isn't as important as the design.

Those are my thoughts exactly.

I turn a set or three of warped rotors a day. Either I don't know how to identify the material buildup or something, but I rarely see it.