DBA rotors, opinions?

[Renegade]

I was thinking about maybe getting a set of DBA rotors.
Anyone using them or have used them?
Whats the quality good or crap?
Are they prone to warping and cracking?
General opinion are they worth the money?

Thanks

[rhspecr]

I to are looking at getting some brakes, seeing that the ones i have now seem to go on strike everytime i need them to work hard. I wanted the gold series ones along with some carbon pads. I think the gold series have the cross drilled and vented construction. I dont know if they are the same rolling diameter or even how much they are. Seeing that a set of AP racing was thru da roof, this is the next best thing. Wouldn't mind getting some GTR brembo's though...

[psssi98]

Should be fine and I know a few people that have them and have had no probs - wouldn't recommend using drilled though as they are prone to cracking under extreme abuse!

ps - there is a specific section of the forums for Brakes and it is frequented by DBASteve who is obviously from DBA - maybe ask there if you have concerns! ;)

[Renegade]

Yeah i just noticed the section. But i would prefer to hear people's opinions who are NOT affiliated with DBA.

Thanks for your feedback psssi98 thats the kind of thing i wanted to find out.

[psssi98]

Slotted ventilated rotors would be plenty for 90% of road going cars - the slotted's are very good - had them on a previous car. Will get some on my 200 when I have knackered the stockers!
I believe the Police use slotted's on their highway patrol cars?!

[snavy]

i heard that the slotted and crossdrilled are prone to cracking, but also i heard they fixed that prob! I got the slotted ones, and they are pretty good, havent failed me for 20000kms :)

[wagin']

I've got DBA drilled & slotted rotors on my VLT Calais Wagon & they have never let me down. I've given them a good hiding at times & compared to the standard rotors, they have a much quicker cooling down period. If you cook the standard rotors, they take forever to cooler, whereas these cool very quickly in comparisson. For the price, I think they are a great upgrade. They look much nicer behind a set of 17"s too.

[psssi98]

People's definitions of giving their brakes a hiding will also be different! ;)

[23Kev]

I had a set of cross drilled, slotted on the front of my swift Gti. They got a good hammering on the street going down some big hills and also at the track a couple of times and didn't have a problem with the cracking. I think it mainly had to do with the fact that it was a very light car (weighed around 900kgs). If I was to get them again I'd probably go for just the slotted. Make sure you also get good pads that are suited to the kind of driving you are doing, I'd try the guys in the Brake forum for advice on that.

Hope that helps

Kev

[wagin']

Originally posted by psssi98
People's definitions of giving their brakes a hiding will also be different! ;)

Very true.

[Bob Saget]

Originally posted by rhspecr
I to are looking at getting some brakes, seeing that the ones i have now seem to go on strike everytime i need them to work hard. I wanted the gold series ones along with some carbon pads. I think the gold series have the cross drilled and vented construction. I dont know if they are the same rolling diameter or even how much they are. Seeing that a set of AP racing was thru da roof, this is the next best thing. Wouldn't mind getting some GTR brembo's though...

Dont get the Cross-drilled rotors if you plan on driving very hard, they will crack. The slotted ones are awesome rotors.

[dbasteve]

O.K can I add my 2 cents worth now?
I'm in my 6th year at DBA now and have seen a lot of discs go out the door, warranty returns coming back, and success stories where we have solved braking problems.
Our returns 2 years ago came to total of 220 discs from 270,000 manufactured. 50% of these claims were listed as a PR Credit where the customer had a bad rotor pad combo, they were sold the wrong product for their application, or they were incorrectly fitted. We replaced these rotors because we considered that we must not be supplying adequate information or training to the relevant people. The rest were faults that were not dangerous but not to the standard we consider acceptable. Last year we were below 200 but we manufactured over 340,000 rotors.
One thing you can be assured of is that if there is a problem you will get support.

As far a Cross Drilled rotors are concerned, we have been proactive in changing the perception that Cross drilled discs are for Motorsport. This where you here most of the stories about cracking. It does happen on the street too. It happened to FaTs not so long ago. FaTs definition of giving the brakes a hiding is pretty good.:D There will always be a place for cross drilled product but in the correct application. The stopping distances are consistantly better than standard or slotted on the street.

One thing you will notice with DBA is that our performance products are continuously being improved with new manufacturing techniques and materials. If there is room for improvement it will be done. A growing number of our slotted or plain products are now beyond street quality and are frequently used on the track or in Rallys with good results. We have a great variety of sponsored race teams that use our product with confidence and assist in product development which makes a better rotor to be passed on to our customers.

If you buy on price then we may be screwed by the Chinese, but if your after more performance out of your brakes and support then we have the product.

Regards
Steve Gavin
Engineering Manager
(Product Development)
Disc Brakes Australia

Maybe that was 30 cents worth!.:)

[Bob Saget]

Maybe I was being unduly harsh on what is a good product in my first post. I have quite a few close friends that run DBA Cross-drilled rotors on their cars and they couldn’t be happier with them. They are a great street car upgrade because they do reduce stopping distances and a generally a fairly quiet rotor.

I had a set fitted to my car and to be fair to DBA they performed better than the race rotors I have fitted now around town and took a fair amount of on street punishment. That said if your even considering taking your car off the street and onto a racetrack, look more towards the slotted rotors.

Anyway hope this clears up my first post a little :D

[Adrian128]

I have been using DBA slotted rotors for about a month now and I couldn't be happier.. :)

[Southo]

I have a set of Cross drilled and slotted rotors on the front of my R31 Skyline Auto and have had NO problems. It's not a track car, but it gets a good hammering every now and again (on closed roads of course) and whilst the fitting of the DBA rotors didn't turn it into a set of Brembos - The pedal feel and fade resistance is LOTS better.

[Lauren]

Had slotted dbas on the front of my silv for a few months now. They cop a hammering too and have stood up well to the test!! I actually drove a different car the other day - a hypersports RVR - and I know all brakes are different, but it still had stock brakes on it and I was amazed to feel how much longer it took to stop, how soft they felt, etc... Mine stop on a dime - no negatives from me about em!

[Boaty]

Hi guys ... just wanted to share my thoughts on DBA rotors as well. We run a MY02 Subaru WRX STi (in fact 2 of them this year) in the Australian GTP Championship and we use DBA rotors exclusively.

For sprint races we use high performance Pagid RS15 brake pads which perform very well but under race conditions (without the aid of brake ducting that is allowed for instance with V8 Supercars) we experience extreme brake rotor temperatures. Our data logging systems monitor brake temps and braking g forces and after each race meeting Steve Gavin from DBA analyses the data we provide and thoroughly inspects the rotors we have used.

The latest iron compound/formulation (or whatever the hell you call it) has not only given us greater stopping power but importantly more consistent stopping power because of its greater resistance to the 'glazing' effect caused by the big temps we achieve. Steve and the team at DBA have done a fantastic job for us and are obviously very serious about their R&D program. Couldn't recommend them more highly.

Regards,
Wayne Boatwright
ProTecnica Subaru Racing Team
www.protecnica.com.au

[rowdytoot]

Boaty... I think thats a pretty awesome endorsement of the product and R&D
that dba do.. :D

FWIW -- I had a set of slotted rotors on my old KE30 and I gave them a hammering to the point where I had to run cooling ducts and prior to that had the pads smoking very heavily at times and the rotors took the abuse no problems. :p

Rhe performance over standard discs was impressive to say the least

Rowds

[Boaty]

The GTP rules dont allow us to use slotted rotors because the std STi (Brembo) rotors aren't slotted and before I got involved with DBA I thought ... no slotting allowed .. rotors are rotors, metal is metal ... just have to live with what we've got. But as I mentioned above I am amazed to see what a difference the their is in iron formulations alone. Steve can explain it in detail but apparently there are different grades ?? / types of iron and they can also add all sorts of good stuff to it to get different results .. e.g. different amts of carbon ?? ... niacen, riboflavin, vitamen A,b,c etc. :) The kangaroo paw design is another example of their R&D.

The problem for companies like DBA who are obviously fair dinkum about R&D and quality is that there are plenty of lower quality products out there that will be attractive to the general market place where people put price on top of the list of priorities. When it comes to a competition and high performance vehicles though obviously people are prepared to more serious about quality and performance than just price. Its the same with tyres. There are loads of people who just want the cheapest possible, longest wearing piece of rubber and dont think seriously about safety of performance.

[Adrian128]

Slightly off topic here Boaty.. but what can we look forward to this season from you guys?

[Boaty]

Hi Adrian,

We are full steam ahead with a two car team this year. i.e. 2 x MY02 STi's. We were pushing to get the MY03 STi onto the eligibility list but were too late for the regs. We have a spare (3rd) car and a bif three car semi trailer this year as well as 6 engines, 6 gearboxes and a heap of spares but as always finding the sponsorship to keep it all on the rails in the hardest thing.

My new team-mate Justin Hemmes is running one fo the cars at the Melbourne Grand Prix in the combined Nations Cup / GTP races. Obviously he wont be competitive with a full field of exotic GT spec race cars but it will be a chance for him to get some more miles under his belt before the start of our 2003 championship in Adelaide (20-23 March). He actually had his first race with the team at the Oran Park 40th Anniversary meeting last week and came away with a win in the Combined Touring Car class so we are hopefull that he will be towards to pointy end of the GTP championship as well.

Regards,
Wayne
www.protecnica.com.au

[Rollin]

my turn for the 2c worth :)

my family has a EF fairmont with X drilled and slotted front rotors, (mums car) also a AU I XR6 (dads car) with the same rotors, and i have a EB XR6 with X drilled and slotted all round.

my dad drives like a b*tch, the rotors (and the car!!!) are completely wasted on him, he is better off driving a bloody camry or something, but mum is very hard on brakes, not because she drives hard but because she cant drive for shit and is always stabbing at the brake pedal.

i have driven (and thrashed :) ) both cars, and the pedal pressure required to stop the vehicle is far less with these rotors then with the stock ones, so far we have had better rotor wear than the stock discs as well. they produce a bit more brake dust than normal rotors due to the slotting, but meh, you have to be a pansy to worry about that when you have all the other good things to think about.

my car now:

the pads on my car are crap, it cost $45 all up for all 4 corners, i got my dad to get them for me while i was at work, silly mistake.

anyway, with stock rotors they were shocking - they would fade badly in one (!!!) ABS stop from 100km/h, smoking like a GenIII.

i fitted X drilled and slotted all round, now with the same pads it will do (max acceleration and ABS stopping) 0-150-0-150-0-150-0 before they start to fade. needless to say i am VERY impressed!!!

i did this on a slightly downhill section of road too, so the car was accelerating faster and the brakes were under more stress to stop the car due to this - normally it will do 0-400m @ 145km/h, so less than 15.5 sec and 400m between ABS stops...these are GREAT rotors, and i highly reccomend them to everyone who asks me about them.

thanks to the team at DBA, i love your work!!!