I didn't know they still turned rotors. Do they? How much needs to be shaved to get the shit off? Also, what do you think of WingZ's suggestion of the RB 2 piece rotors in stock size, it will save 11 pounds and run a little cooler, no?
Can you point me towards your pics? I actually bought a set of the RB oversized rotors a while back then sold them before I installed them At a $300 loss. I didn't want to grind the factory caliper, and I also saw some pics posted... maybe by Billy... not sure... where the two pieces came clean apart. I contacted RB on that, sent them pics, and they gave me the answer of "well we have no idea what they did so we can't say what happened". I just don't want to ever risk any problems on the track when I am at 100+ MPH.
Do the carbotech XP8's make noise? My hawks finally became pretty noisy. My tires are also almost worn out. I got about 9K miles out of them. They still handled well in the wet and were great on the track. I was very happy with the 615's. I don't know... I guess not Billy's favorites. Maybe I will give the Strarspec a try now.
You can get rotors turned anywhere. I had them done on my NSX at some dumpy back-alley shop that had a lathe for $5 each. They might take off a millimeter or two, nothing substantial, but enough to 'clean' the rotor. An aggressive track pad with a high metal content can have a similar result but possibly at the cost of contaminating the pad.
We've run the RB 2pc rotor and calipers on the old silver "Factor-X/Seamless" Modified-class NSX. I've also run RB 2pc rotors a few years ago on a Grand-Am Koni Challenge car. Despite losing few lbs, IMO (especially for your application)
stick with the stock rotors, we didn't notice huge gains in performance in a very regulated series where 5hp makes a huge difference in competitiveness. Since tenths of the second probably doesn't separate winning from losing for you (and even if it does like it did for our Koni car), we didn't see huge gains. Despite this, we had a catastrophic failure of RB's 2pc rotor, cracked many 2pc rotors from regular use on the FX car, and had noticeable caliper flex under the demands of the FX500 Time Attack car. I was not pleased how RB handled any of these concerns or problems and I do not see any of their products in any form of professional or semi-pro motorsports to further develop and test their products. They had a great opportunity with us when we were fighting for the championship, but the failure almost caused us a DNF (let alone crash) and they were not interested in working with us or learning from what happened here to make better street products. They seemed more interested in just selling street products rather than developing products in this arena like most reputable companies do (Performance Friction, Brembo, AP, Alcon, StopTech, Rotora, Spoon, Project Mu, Cobalt Friction, Pagid, etc...)
I believe the spoon caliper with the stock rotors also nets a lighter unsprung weight over stock, and if you really want to go to a 2pc BBK for a similar price, Rotora actively works with racing teams to develop and test products and finishing the 25 Hours of Thunderhill is an accomplishment, let alone winning it.
Tires:
The 615's aren't my favorite, but they are fun, cheap, last a while, and work great at cooler temps. If the track temps are below 75*F, the 615 makes tire noise, competitive amount of grip, and are predictable. Hot ambient and track temps changes the characteristic of the 615 to make no noise, are hard to predict, get 'greasy' within a lap or two, and are not that great to learn on. If you live out here in Southern California where its always 80-100*F, the 615's are often a poor choice. In winter over here, they are awesome, competitive (set a S2000 track record on a local track in winter), and would be my choice for the price.
For the June 2009 issue of Grassroot motorsports, tires were tested in 15 inch sizes on a honda civic on 205/50-15, except for RE01R (195/50-15) and Starspec (195/55-15)
6th - Falken RT 615 Mean time: 35.302 Sec Quick time 35.125 Sec.
5th - Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec Mean time: 35.209 sec. Quick time 35.061
4th -Toyo Proxes R1R Mean time: 34.522 sec Quick Time 34.452 sec
3rd- Bridgestone RE-01R Mean time: 34.478 sec Quick Time 34.430 sec.
2nd- Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 Mean time: 34.266 Quick time 34.238 sec.
1st - Kumho ECSTA XS Mean time :34.170 Quick Time 34.030 sec.
All tires were shaved to 3/32nd and test performed on an Autocross set up.
*** This was done on an
Autocross. Autocross tire demands are different from road course. Autocross tires start at ambient temps, have lower speeds, lower loading forces acting on the tire, and last ~1 minute or less. Road course use involves higher speeds, higher loads, longer sustained loads, longer runs (1.5-3.5 minute laps) - for multiple laps in a 10-30 minute session, etc... Personally its neat to see the 'ballparks' of autocross tests, but take it with a grain of salt. 2 tenths during this test could be far greater + or - depending on how the tire acts from said road course demands.
Nitto's NT05 is a great tire/price, but Bridgestone's new RE11 and Yokohama's AD08 are a step ahead. While many other manufacturers either have a great tire or equal to (if not barely eclipsing) the current best tires (including AD07), the AD08 is coming out and should set the bar once again for someone else to try to beat it. Tire wars are fun.
Dave dude check it out I'd asked RB about the weight savings and this is their reply
35-40lbs weight savings per axle????? Drooooool:biggrin:
We estimate the OE caliper to be about 8 or 9 pounds. Our RB4045 calipers weigh about 5 pounds each.
best case 4lb gain
The OE bracket weighs @3 lbs while our aluminum adaptor is about 0.8 lbs.
Best case 2lb gain
If you purchase the kit with two piece rotor it can save you additional 3-4 lbs per rotor
Best case 4lb gain
= best case total 10lb gain per corner
which can translate into 4-5 times of static weight saving so overall you can save 35-40 lbs per axle.
assuming a ~ 1lb unsprung = 4lbs sprung weight, i've seen figures up to =6lbs. Regardless its a figure.
10lbs per corner is pretty big, 40lbs overall shedding from the car (replacing front and rear calipers). Keep in mind what wheels/tires you have. Tires can vary in weight from manufacturer to manufacturer let alone different sizes. Same with wheels, all of these can see huge weight gains especially if you run 17, 18, let alone 19" wheels that aren't superlight.
Put everything into perspective to what you are doing to your car, if you have big 'bling' wheels, is saving a few lbs from the brakes to make up for your heavy wheels worth it? Are you going to drive your car to the point to notice a difference anyway? Is running on unproven/tested products worth it to you? -all questions you should consider when coming to a decision.