Track discs - DBA vs. Centric
A high carbon rotor material benefits in heat capacity, they will be able to keep surface temperatures down on the friction plates. That being said the over all stress in the disk will be higher but not necessarily being an issue. HC disks are weaker for overall strength.
If you are looking for a track disk, noise shouldn't matter. I honestly know a bunch of ppl that buy cheap disks for the track because they will only be used once. Cheap disk + aggressive pad normally doesn't have any judder issues as the pad eats the **** out of the disk, its like a constant grinding process on every stop
If you are looking for a track disk, noise shouldn't matter. I honestly know a bunch of ppl that buy cheap disks for the track because they will only be used once. Cheap disk + aggressive pad normally doesn't have any judder issues as the pad eats the **** out of the disk, its like a constant grinding process on every stop
I agree. I run a standard blank Centric (StopTech) w/ Carbotech XP10/XP8 w/ braided lines & ATE fluid
Joe
We run dba 5000s or performance friction rotors (both are two piece) in all our race cars. Here is why:
No brake fade, no warping, been doing this all season. We run ducting, amsoil 600, and steel lines with dtc70 pads on Hoosier a6/r6 tires. The dba rotors in the white car get so hot, the black anodizing on the hat Nd aluminum lug nuts has turned gold. We will be making the brake ducting bigger and better for next year.
No brake fade, no warping, been doing this all season. We run ducting, amsoil 600, and steel lines with dtc70 pads on Hoosier a6/r6 tires. The dba rotors in the white car get so hot, the black anodizing on the hat Nd aluminum lug nuts has turned gold. We will be making the brake ducting bigger and better for next year.
I have had experience with the DBA 2 pc Rotors. I don't have a very positive feedback. Within 3 full track days they already had serious cracks. Personally, I would stick to a one pc rotor unless you are going to upgrade your brakes. I've been on the Essex AP Front brakes for close to 2 years. I've got about 5-6 full track days with no serious cracks. It was worth every penny if you track the car often.
For the DBA rotors, I ran my car at 450 AWHP and on Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec with Brake ducts.
For the AP brakes, same setup but I run Hoosier R6 for almost all of the races
For the DBA rotors, I ran my car at 450 AWHP and on Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec with Brake ducts.
For the AP brakes, same setup but I run Hoosier R6 for almost all of the races
Last edited by awdboosted; Oct 21, 2012 at 07:31 AM.
I have had experience with the DBA 2 pc Rotors. I don't have a very positive feedback. Within 3 full track days they already had serious cracks. Personally, I would stick to a one pc rotor unless you are going to upgrade your brakes. I've been on the Essex AP Front brakes for close to 2 years. I've got about 5-6 full track days with no serious cracks. It was worth every penny if you track the car often.
My car does make right around 450 AWHP and I wasn't on slicks for the DBA
For the AP brakes, I was mostly on slicks and same power level.
My car does make right around 450 AWHP and I wasn't on slicks for the DBA
For the AP brakes, I was mostly on slicks and same power level.
what pad and cooling are you doing? every brake disk we have ever used for "serious" track cars gets micro fractures in the disk. even the AP racing brake setup i had on my pikes peak car did that.
We run dba 5000s or performance friction rotors (both are two piece) in all our race cars. Here is why:
No brake fade, no warping, been doing this all season. We run ducting, amsoil 600, and steel lines with dtc70 pads on Hoosier a6/r6 tires. The dba rotors in the white car get so hot, the black anodizing on the hat Nd aluminum lug nuts has turned gold. We will be making the brake ducting bigger and better for next year.
No brake fade, no warping, been doing this all season. We run ducting, amsoil 600, and steel lines with dtc70 pads on Hoosier a6/r6 tires. The dba rotors in the white car get so hot, the black anodizing on the hat Nd aluminum lug nuts has turned gold. We will be making the brake ducting bigger and better for next year.
For 2pc rotors DBA5000 is the only one that is a fixed 2 pc. The rest are floating 2pc. And DBA only has 2pc rotors for the front, no 2pc rear rotors from them.
I've had DBA4000 front and rears for 2 years and have put 3 seasons of track abuse on them. Somewhere between 20 to 30 events at full tracks with hawk dtc30s and dtc60s. Plus 40k+ miles of street driving. They've held up very well. DBA has a great reputation in making quality and track worthy rotors and I've experienced the same. My rotors are almost done now but IMO you can't go wrong with them. I probably could've got even more miles out of them if I didn't street drive with track pads so much.
The stress fractures aren't a big deal if they don't go to the edge of the rotor. If they're in the middle of the braking surface its nothing unexpected with a car tracked with aggressive pads. If you keep running track pads on the street for some miles you'll see the cracks mostly go away. They aren't very deep.
I've had DBA4000 front and rears for 2 years and have put 3 seasons of track abuse on them. Somewhere between 20 to 30 events at full tracks with hawk dtc30s and dtc60s. Plus 40k+ miles of street driving. They've held up very well. DBA has a great reputation in making quality and track worthy rotors and I've experienced the same. My rotors are almost done now but IMO you can't go wrong with them. I probably could've got even more miles out of them if I didn't street drive with track pads so much.
The stress fractures aren't a big deal if they don't go to the edge of the rotor. If they're in the middle of the braking surface its nothing unexpected with a car tracked with aggressive pads. If you keep running track pads on the street for some miles you'll see the cracks mostly go away. They aren't very deep.
I did have thermal cracks on the surface of both the rotors and I know that this does happen. I'm talking about cracks on the edges that go all the way through. On that rotor I ran CL RC6 only on the DBA rotors and use the AMS brake ducts kit. As deeman101 said they are a fixed 2pc and that might be why they cracked faster than they should have.
For 2pc rotors DBA5000 is the only one that is a fixed 2 pc. The rest are floating 2pc. And DBA only has 2pc rotors for the front, no 2pc rear rotors from them.
I've had DBA4000 front and rears for 2 years and have put 3 seasons of track abuse on them. Somewhere between 20 to 30 events at full tracks with hawk dtc30s and dtc60s. Plus 40k+ miles of street driving. They've held up very well. DBA has a great reputation in making quality and track worthy rotors and I've experienced the same. My rotors are almost done now but IMO you can't go wrong with them. I probably could've got even more miles out of them if I didn't street drive with track pads so much.
The stress fractures aren't a big deal if they don't go to the edge of the rotor. If they're in the middle of the braking surface its nothing unexpected with a car tracked with aggressive pads. If you keep running track pads on the street for some miles you'll see the cracks mostly go away. They aren't very deep.
I've had DBA4000 front and rears for 2 years and have put 3 seasons of track abuse on them. Somewhere between 20 to 30 events at full tracks with hawk dtc30s and dtc60s. Plus 40k+ miles of street driving. They've held up very well. DBA has a great reputation in making quality and track worthy rotors and I've experienced the same. My rotors are almost done now but IMO you can't go wrong with them. I probably could've got even more miles out of them if I didn't street drive with track pads so much.
The stress fractures aren't a big deal if they don't go to the edge of the rotor. If they're in the middle of the braking surface its nothing unexpected with a car tracked with aggressive pads. If you keep running track pads on the street for some miles you'll see the cracks mostly go away. They aren't very deep.
How many events a year do you do? That seems long a long time..
Depends on the year. Last year I did 15. This year I think I only did 5 or so. At tracks that are 2 to 4 miles with straight speeds of 110 to 125mph. My street pads don't put any wear at all on the rotors. They are PFC Z compounds. Basically all the wear was from the much more abrasive race pads.
For 2pc rotors DBA5000 is the only one that is a fixed 2 pc. The rest are floating 2pc. And DBA only has 2pc rotors for the front, no 2pc rear rotors from them.
I've had DBA4000 front and rears for 2 years and have put 3 seasons of track abuse on them. Somewhere between 20 to 30 events at full tracks with hawk dtc30s and dtc60s. Plus 40k+ miles of street driving. They've held up very well. DBA has a great reputation in making quality and track worthy rotors and I've experienced the same. My rotors are almost done now but IMO you can't go wrong with them. I probably could've got even more miles out of them if I didn't street drive with track pads so much.
The stress fractures aren't a big deal if they don't go to the edge of the rotor. If they're in the middle of the braking surface its nothing unexpected with a car tracked with aggressive pads. If you keep running track pads on the street for some miles you'll see the cracks mostly go away. They aren't very deep.
I've had DBA4000 front and rears for 2 years and have put 3 seasons of track abuse on them. Somewhere between 20 to 30 events at full tracks with hawk dtc30s and dtc60s. Plus 40k+ miles of street driving. They've held up very well. DBA has a great reputation in making quality and track worthy rotors and I've experienced the same. My rotors are almost done now but IMO you can't go wrong with them. I probably could've got even more miles out of them if I didn't street drive with track pads so much.
The stress fractures aren't a big deal if they don't go to the edge of the rotor. If they're in the middle of the braking surface its nothing unexpected with a car tracked with aggressive pads. If you keep running track pads on the street for some miles you'll see the cracks mostly go away. They aren't very deep.
Its true that any rotor which has the plates fixed to the hat will crack more than a floating rotor because of the thermal constraint. When doing heat crack tests on one piece disks, the plate which touches the hat is the plate which always has the worse heat cracks, in board vented vs outboard vented solid disk.
A good judgement to use for heat cracks is not necessarily the length alone of the crack but how large they start to open. Judging by them going to the edge would be poor if the crack is only 15mm long in the middle but has opened 1-2mm of crack, see what I mean? You shouldn't have cracks opening past 1mm, nor should they be 20mm+ long. Anything more servere you're asking for trouble... I've seen disks explode on the test dyno
Depends on the year. Last year I did 15. This year I think I only did 5 or so. At tracks that are 2 to 4 miles with straight speeds of 110 to 125mph. My street pads don't put any wear at all on the rotors. They are PFC Z compounds. Basically all the wear was from the much more abrasive race pads.
I still say the Centrics are the way to go. 3 Sets of fronts for the cost of 1.
I currently have DBA 4000's on my car and they got heat checks WAYYYY earlier than my 2 piece performance friction rotors did. I think about 3 events into them they started getting heat checks versus my PF's getting heat checks after about 6 events.
Here's how my brakes get:
Here's how my brakes get:
Last edited by L888Apex; Oct 22, 2012 at 08:51 AM.
In my professional opinion, that disk is ~85% finished. Once the crack gets 2x that length and/or opens up x2 that width its finished and would be consider no longer safe to drive on. Personally, if I started to see cracks start to open like shown, I would not 'race' on them anymore. Heat cracks are normal, those disks take some major beating.
The benefits of a floading rotor is even after it starts getting cracks it can still last longer then a one piece before they get to large.
The benefits of a floading rotor is even after it starts getting cracks it can still last longer then a one piece before they get to large.