Girodisc vs Stoptech rotor rings...does it matter?

B8 S4
#1

Anyone here tried other manufacturers of rotor rings?
I know metallurgy will make a drastic affect on the longevity of the rotor.
But that aside, has anyone tried girodisc? Any notable difference to the standard stoptech aero rotor?

I need to replace my rotor rings next season, and I’m considering Girodisc…for no real reason other than I’d like to try something new, and my buddies over in the Mustang world have had very good luck with them. That said, Girodisc has less rotor vanes (48 vs like 62 or whatever for Stoptech). Not sure if that makes any meaningful difference to airflow/heat/whatever. Stoptech marketing wares would have you believe that the Aerorotors run “10% cooler”. But under what conditions, and how often?

I considered racing brake too, but after reading about catastrophic failures, and noticing that no race cars use a rotor ring of that mounting design, it can pretty much be summed up that they aren’t the way to go :slight_smile:

#2

I run the 380mm Girodisc rotors up front. I love them.

I had the 355mm Stoptech kit on my B8 S4 and so far, the Girodisc rotors are more impressive.

If anything, I’m using a much higher friction compound vs when I was tracking with the S4 (Carbotech XP24 vs RP2). The Girodisc rotors can take the beating. And they’re lightweight (they were slightly lighter than the silly and smaller stock ‘wave’ rotors).

I feel like the Aerorotors aren’t as durable. The heat checking would collect and get ‘deeper’ faster. I went through a set of rotors after about 8 track days.

I’m at 13 track days on my girodisc (my B8 S4 had NACA ducts as well - haha which I was happy to find present from the factory on the RS5 in a similar configuration).

#3

Here’s a pic of the rotors (just took a pic for you).

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/21/76a54da5471340529b0d72a5cdee6258.jpg

13 track days and over 10k miles. They have some life to them still (slots are getting a little shallow now though lol).

#4

Yo thanks for the pic and the info!
SOLD!

I see you have the Girodisc hat too - where did you get the setup from?
I’d prefer to get the Girodisc hat as well, but it seems that Girodisc themselves are out of stock or something (I emailed them about this). Didn’t know Aerorotors were so soft in comparison to Girodisc. Winner winner chicken dinner.

#5

I bought it as a full set from Girodisc direct as a set.

#6

I would assume both racing brakes and girodisc are higher quality than the stop tech aero rotors. Rings, hats, floating mechanism, performance etc.

#7

See this post though: http://ls1tech.com/forums/cadillac-cts-v/1716396-catastrophic-racingbrake-2-piece-rotor-failure-track.html
Not sure about this racing brake business :slight_smile: Asking Girodisc about hats again!

http://www.submariner.org/thepno95/Pictures/CTS-V%20pics/Suspension%20and%20Chassis/V2%20brakes/Broken%20rotor/broken%20rotor1.jpg

#8

Thanks for posting that. A friend of mine was at that event when that Caddy had his brake failure. Never really got a good explanation of what happened until now.

#9

Wow, looks bad!

#10

When I was going with girodisc, some of my track buddys as well as Carbotech gave a good nod in that I would be happy with them (and I am).

#11

Scott are you using the OE RS5 calipers or did you upgrade those too?

#12

I’m using the stock 8 piston caliper.

#13

The reason I abandoned AP Racing / Stillen for Brembo is a brake kit is a system that needs to be engineered together. It’s not enough to just measure and machine some hats that will fit a given platform. Specifically, the most important component in the disc is the bobbins that hold the hat to the ring. I felt that in the Stillen kit these were in adequate and would produce a bad shudder when heated to 700 degrees. I don’t think the system was expanding and cooling properly given the tolerances on the kit. Brembo does so much research that “it just works”. You pay for QA.

For the OP, if you’ve got a Stoptech kit I would buy the Stoptech rotor.

For the Cadillac guy, I have a good idea of what happened…

#14

It’s really 8 piston? I thought 8 pistons use 4 pads per caliper so everyone stopped using them. I was pretty sure these are all 6 piston kits.

#15

He’s on the OEM calipers. Yup 8 piston. Really old calipers. No one uses those anymore :smiley:

#16

Yup. They are 8 piston and 4 pads which also makes the pads more expensive…

And I don’t like the caliper (all 8 pistons are the same size). Tempted to get a good 6 piston caliper next year.

#17

I’ve never been impressed with the RS brake calipers. On the Boxster we got the base model and I’m thinking about doing a 4 wheel Brembo kit. It’s only a 2900 pound car so it’s 4 pots front and rear, at 365 front and 345 rear for the BBK. The OEM is only 20mm thick in the rear, which is absurd because it’s rear biased and they actually do a lot of work. Even from street work the rear rotors have a blue hue to them, like I went to the track.

#18

They are not all the same size piston. There are two sizes, large and small with four of each.

Here is a picture from when I rebuilt my R8 calipers. Which use the same rebuild kits as the RS5/4/6/7/etc.


http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll37/Jimmybones777/SAM_0049_zpsq2mygnbb.jpg