Drilled & Slotted Rotors- "Are they worth it?"

The low down on Drilled & Slotted Rotors

People ask me all the time " What's the deal with drilled and slotted rotors?" My response has always been to ask the customer how they drive and if they really need this feature on their vehicle. As a online retailer and distributor of brakes for aftermarket disc brake kits & conversion kits we never want to lose a sale, however, getting the customer what he/she needs is a important component of what our job is. Cross drilling improves rotor cooling with higher vehicle speeds showing larger improvements the faster the driver goes and how fast they need to stop. This being said if you are a "Sunday Driver" or just looking to park your car at the local drive in to show off your car the performance aspect is lost. Some restorations are based on "Form over Function" or choosing such finishes on your vehicle because the look visually appealing. I guess you can compare this to the need for chrome on a vehicle. It just looks cool and when you look into our LX packages you also get stainless steel braided hoses!

You don't have to take my word for it. SAE International has written thousands of technical papers and is a global association of more than 138,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.

 They examined three vehicle platforms with cross-drilled rotors vs standard rotors to measure convection cooling capability, fade characteristics, wet braking, pedal feel and lining wear. The result is summarized as follows:

1. For the sports sedan, the coefficient of friction was 21% higher for drilled rotors than standard front rotors at 340F and higher using 15 brake snubs at 62mph. The track simulated 124 mph fade test showed 37% better brake output for drilled rotors. The drilled rotor brake temperature was about 150 degrees cooler.
2. For the performance car, the coefficient of friction was significantly higher for drilled rotors especially at high temperature.
3. Wet braking at high pedal pressure was the same for drilled or standard rotors. Wet braking is not significantly improved by drilled rotors.
4. Pedal force was much more consistent with drilled rotors over the brake temperature range. That is, to stop at the same deceleration rate, the driver does not need to modulate pedal pressure based on different brake temperatures. This reduces driver fatigue and improves brake response.

So at higher speeds the braking performance does increase stopping power & improves the brake response. So I guess you have to decide for yourself is it worth it to you? When looking at your braking components I always feel more is better as I never want to look back and wonder if the $100 upgrade to the high performance package worth it as I could have stopped a little quicker in the last panic stop before I got into that accident.