GQin S4

i read an article in the forum comparing the 2, using exotic cars like the vipor and F50. Does anyone know who why any ferrari, vipor, porsche come stock with brembo calipers and rotors? Do they have some sort of deal worked out or is that simply the best you can buy? i undertand that they're quite expensive, for trading a fraction of performance for cost isn't that big of a deal, so people go with the stoptech. BUt is that only reason? to save a few bucks? Brembo Rotors have those vented holes, and SToptech seem to have these slashes - do they essentially serve the purpose or is the brembo design just a little better?

HiTEC

Slotted rotors are supposedly stronger than cross-drilled. It really depends how the cross-drilled are manufactured.

Silver 2.7tt

Stoptech will perform just as well but a lot cheaper

AntiSocial

Slotted are better for the STREET.
As far as high perf heat dissipation, cross drilled are better, don't let anyone tell you different.

If Baer or Alcon were better, don't you think the exotics would have found out by now?

jyoteen

Alcon is a small outfit, and as such is a primary supplier to motorsports. Brembo is a MUCH larger company, and Brembo is also more willing to work an OEM deal with car manufacturers. Brembo also has many manufacturing facilities and the number of employees. Alcon has one that I know of and it's in Staffordshire, UK. Brembo has over 3000 employees, of which 10% are engineers. Alcon has 60, and some additional sales people in U.S., France, and Germany.

Just because one is not as well known as the other, it doesn't mean the more popular one is better. Brakes are simple mechanical devices.

FWIW, if you ever look at an Alcon caliper on one hand and a Brembo caliper on the other, you'll immediately notice that the Alcon is a much nicer caliper and lighter. They are expensive for a reason. They don't have the volume and the marketing armada that Brembo has.

Also, Baer is well known in the domestic car market. They are also partnered with Alcon and do also supply Alcon.

I'm sorry, but you're incorrect.

Cross drilled are almost always drilled after the fact. The notion of Porsche rotors being cast with holes is incorrect as well. Search the archives and you'll know that. As far as heat dissipation is concerned, since the x-drilled rotor has less material, its heat capacity is also diminished along with strength because of the missing material. The reason the rotor loses heat is because it retains less heat (due to missing material).

I have both, Alcon 6 piston world challenge brakes and the Brembo 14" calipers. No contest in terms of quality. Alcon wins. Even Bob at Stoptech commented on how nice the Alcon units are. But it all comes at a price. The Alcons were $6K, the Brembos at about $3K.

Gorobei

They weren't on there very long, were they?

jyoteen

and I found out later on, that the hat is supposed to be that way. If I had known that, then I would have not gotten the Brembos.

Hindsight being 20/20, I would have kept running the Alcons. They are sweet. Although, they don't have the variety in pad compound choice because the brakes aren't found everywhere within a reach of a stone's throw.

I don't have problems with Brembo as a functional kit, but it certainly isn't the top performer. FWIW, Stoptech outperforms the Brembo kit as far as braking for S4s is concerned.

Gorobei

$3k Brembo kit. So are you just sitting on a set of $6k brakes, then? I imagine that money could go a ways for the Pcar

jyoteen

The rotors are in pretty good condition, even though they may not look like it.

I have new pads and fluid as well as new SS lines.

Gorobei

mod pennies right now for a B6 S4 Avant, so new mods for my current car wouldn't be money well spent.