S2000 Racing Brake 2 Piece Brake Rotor Review
By Rob Robinette
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 from
www.racingbrake.com
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." As with any brake rotor install, clean the new
rotor surfaces with brake cleaner before use.
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 www.RacingBrake.com rotors and recommend them to you track
junkies.
Rob Robinette
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