Originally Posted by Heeltoe Tech Articles

My greatest experience with Racingbrake rotors also happens to be my FIRST.

Some of you may have heard my old "mother-in-law" story as to why to buy Racingbrake rotors. The short version is pretty basic:

2003 Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon. 2-piston calipers. Tiny pads. so-so sized rotors. Stock form= severe vibration in the steering wheel and in the pedal and 3 brake jobs done within the first 13,000 of the car's life. All this within 2 years. Around town driving (she works 4 miles from home). Obviously not beat on at all.


She came to me for help. All the brakes were done under warranty but the though of replacing 1/2 worn pads every year was obviously not a great idea. Neither of us felt the braking performance of this car was acceptable.

So we installed a set of Racingbrake UP up front and Hawk HPS all around. I know the technical benefits of Racingbrake above all other brands and this was a great chance to put the proof in the pudding. For an entire year, we had nary an issue. The HPS tend to make some funky sounds here and there, but darn-it if she had not gone through an entire set of pads without one shake or shimmy from the rotors.

When the HPS were done, we tossed on another set. No need to turn the rotors. Wear was negligible. Rotor condition was awesome. Right there we have earned at least twice the life on these rotors versus stock, even more when you consider resurfacing removes material from the face!




And here we are. The second set of HPS worn all the way down to the indicators. Check out the condition of the rotors after 45,000 miles on 2 sets of Hawk pads with NO resurfacing done in between:

[img]www.heeltoeauto.com/files/tech/racingbrakeusedup/IMG_4054_sm.jpg[/img]

[img]www.heeltoeauto.com/files/tech/racingbrakeusedup/IMG_4055_sm.jpg[/img]

[img]www.heeltoeauto.com/files/tech/racingbrakeusedup/IMG_4056_sm.jpg[/img]

[img]www.heeltoeauto.com/files/tech/racingbrakeusedup/IMG_4057_sm.jpg[/img]

Wear pattern is concentric and regular, without cracks or discoloration. (high quality casting has no hard spots are areas for hot spots to develop)

Grooving is minimal.

Ridge on the outside circumference is within a reasonable limit. (heat treating makes the alloy wear less)

No glazing. (more even cooling from the cureved vanes)

Coating holding up alright. Rust color is from dust and minimal surface buildup of oxidation.


In the end, we are really happy.

This time we went with Hawk Ceramics all around and already the braking is better. The ceramics have felt consistently better over my experience with them, and I now recommend those over the HPS. The rotors we still have not turned because they, in my opinion, were perfectly good for the use they have. On my personal car I would have probably rolled with it too. There is really nothing wrong with these rotors that a typical rotor might have after 50% pad life starting from new! I was highly impressed.

So on this application we have now basically tripled the life of the stock rotors, almost exclusively because we have not turned them at all!

There you have it kids. Now you know why I am such a Racingbrake advocate!

Marcus