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I am new to the Mini forums but 20+ year poster to Bimmerpost/Bimmerforums. I don't normally buy from Rock Auto BUT my wife's 2010 Mini is in need of rotors. I am interested to know what brands if any you guys recommend. It will never see a track or autocross but would like street rotor suggestions from RA. Looking at drilled and slotted. Experiences??
Last edited by FrankMstein; Jan 23, 2023 at 12:34 PM.
I am new to the Mini forums but 20+ year poster to Bimmerpost/Bimmerforums. I don't normally buy from Rock Auto BUT my wife's 2010 Mini is in need of and rotors. I am interested to know what brands if any you guys recommend. It will never see a track or autocross but would like street rotor suggestions from RA. Looking at drilled and slotted. Experiences??
Go with the centric ones that have the rust coating. I ran those with EBC yellow pads for both street and dragon runs no issues. Those pads are way to aggressive for what you are going to be doing. My Clubman came with slotted and drilled rotors that I wrapped after a few dragon weekends. I don’t know what their prior life was.
Go with the centric ones that have the rust coating. I ran those with EBC yellow pads for both street and dragon runs no issues. Those pads are way to aggressive for what you are going to be doing. My Clubman came with slotted and drilled rotors that I wrapped after a few dragon weekends. I don’t know what their prior life was.
You warped them you mean? Thanks for the recommendation. I have used the R1 slotted and drilled for my G37 and punish the crap out of them for street and...nothing. Would never use them for track. We are near Charlotte and she wants to do a dragon run in it. I have been many times myself.
Get he least expensive ones they have with the silver rust-proof coating, and a set of Akebono pads. For a daily driver, this will be the best "cheap" brake set.
The dragon will definitely let you know where your weaknesses lie. From boiling the brake fluid, to wrapping the rotors, to losing a dv, finding a ditch, etc. I know tires and brakes are first thing this new to me R53 will need before her first trip there.
Don't bother. Unless you're upping the rotor diameter, all that's doing is giving you less surface area and less mass to absorb the heat. They sell those to people who like the looks.
You want to stop well, get a set of standard rotors from a reputable vendor, and match them with a set of pads that are appropriate for the driving you're going to do (e.g. if you're not tracking the car don't get race pads, they won't get hot enough to work well in street use).
Don't bother. Unless you're upping the rotor diameter, all that's doing is giving you less surface area and less mass to absorb the heat. They sell those to people who like the looks.
You want to stop well, get a set of standard rotors from a reputable vendor, and match them with a set of pads that are appropriate for the driving you're going to do (e.g. if you're not tracking the car don't get race pads, they won't get hot enough to work well in street use).
Thanks for the input, but that is not exactly true. I have to clear the air on this one. Increasing diameter will help however I do not want to absorb heat at all, I want to dissipate it along with the gas layer that forms between the pad and rotor as they heat up, hence the slots. Absorbing it will prematurely degrade the bearing. If I were tracking I would get just slotted since drilled crack fairly easily when in the colder months and no cool down laps. Also, pro tip, remove the brake dust from the drilled holes every once and a while. Drilled and slotted are going to work great for my application-street. FWIW I used to work at PFC, a very reputable high end racing brake (caliper/pad/rotor) company. I just don't have much experience with RA "vendors"/suppliers.
To put my hat in the ring here if I may. My experience with a R52 JCW that gets driven extremely hard, auto crossed and takes the occasional trip to race tracks and the Smoky Mountains. I wont ever again install so much as an aftermarket air freshener on this car. Nope, not gonna do it ever again. It has cost us tipple in money, quadruple in time and at least one podium. After finally getting rid of the last aftermarket parts the car has been incredibly reliable. This aint a Nissan, that **** wont cut it. Your mileage may vary.
To put my hat in the ring here if I may. My experience with a R52 JCW that gets driven extremely hard, auto crossed and takes the occasional trip to race tracks and the Smoky Mountains. I wont ever again install so much as an aftermarket air freshener on this car. Nope, not gonna do it ever again. It has cost us tipple in money, quadruple in time and at least one podium. After finally getting rid of the last aftermarket parts the car has been incredibly reliable. This aint a Nissan, that **** wont cut it. Your mileage may vary.
Love that! Coming from the US OEM suppler AND aftermarket supply base I won't take that too hard. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker "The parts falling off this car are of the finest British quality"?
Ok, so after all this...... if I want to replace the front rotors and pads on my F57S, that will be mostly street and as much Dragon as I can get in(I live in Middle TN), what should I lean toward???
Ok, so after all this...... if I want to replace the front rotors and pads on my F57S, that will be mostly street and as much Dragon as I can get in(I live in Middle TN), what should I lean toward???
Thanks!
I have run the dragon and skyway like a track day, it can be done. At 7am, mustard be damned! I would get slotted rotors and not drilled. For pads I'm going to leave that up to you to do some research on feel but a 80% street/20% track hybrid pad would be a place to start. PFC 08 run hotter than 11 and hotter than anything else and each are hard has hell, doubt they even make a Mini pad. Ferodo is about my second favorite, still hot. Pagid are great track pads but not sure about a hybrid. Hawk 5.0 if you can get them is probably your sweet spot. All of those I mentioned will dust like hell. People tend to like ECB, I have never used them. I would call a few places (like Turner) that actually has experience in tracking your car (not just sell parts) and ask for recommendations. Also I would change your fluid to Castrol SRF>Motul 700/660/PFC 665>ATE 200 in that order. I have used them all and unless you are made of money don't get SRF. DO NOT buy any fluid at an auto parts store. If you get those I mentioned, always bleed the brakes after 4-6 hours of constant running. Always change it yearly or after 10+ hours of dragon/track time. Those fluids are very hygroscopic, absorb more moisture than "regular" fluid. Make sure you bed the pads in when you first used them. You would be surprised how many people do not know what that is.
BTW I went to MTSU. I can not wait for Flatrock to open!!! It should eclipse VIR!! 8-)
Love that! Coming from the US OEM suppler AND aftermarket supply base I won't take that too hard. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker "The parts falling off this car are of the finest British quality"?
I used to have a jar of genuine replacement harness smoke on my desk. Thankfully the Lord of Darkness did not supply the electrics for Dear Alice.
Thanks for the input, but that is not exactly true. I have to clear the air on this one. Increasing diameter will help however I do not want to absorb heat at all, I want to dissipate it along with the gas layer that forms between the pad and rotor as they heat up, hence the slots. Absorbing it will prematurely degrade the bearing. If I were tracking I would get just slotted since drilled crack fairly easily when in the colder months and no cool down laps. Also, pro tip, remove the brake dust from the drilled holes every once and a while. Drilled and slotted are going to work great for my application-street. FWIW I used to work at PFC, a very reputable high end racing brake (caliper/pad/rotor) company. I just don't have much experience with RA "vendors"/suppliers.
For a given rotor diameter, cross-drilled rotors have less surface area so you're reducing the pad/disc contact. Also for a given rotor diameter, cross- drilled rotors have less mass. So you're generating the same heat with each stop, but dumping it into less iron so the rotor potentilaly gets hotter. For street cars they're mostly for looks and marketing, not performance, and you'd be better served by a quality set of standard rotors and appropriate pads.
I'm not going to say it's definitive, but this presentation has at least a reasonable summary of the pros and cons of holes and slots.
Yes, myth that cross drilled rotors are “better”. They started being used on race cars for weight reduction. Race car rotors also get inspected and replaced at much more frequent intervals than daily drivers. For daily driver brake rotors you want the full mass available.
if you can put up with the brake dust, EBC yellows, solid rotors, ss lines, and a good brake fluid is all you need. I run this on my R55s and will be doing the same on my R53. I daily drive and weekend dragon time, brake dust is horrible, but if you keep up on wiping them down its not so bad.
For a given rotor diameter, cross-drilled rotors have less surface area so you're reducing the pad/disc contact. Also for a given rotor diameter, cross- drilled rotors have less mass. So you're generating the same heat with each stop, but dumping it into less iron so the rotor potentilaly gets hotter. For street cars they're mostly for looks and marketing, not performance, and you'd be better served by a quality set of standard rotors and appropriate pads.
I'm not going to say it's definitive, but this presentation has at least a reasonable summary of the pros and cons of holes and slots.
I agree with what you said here and presented however, I never said that drilled will vent the pad but that slotting would. There is a distinct difference. Decreasing the mass vs degassing, cooling, cleaning, etc has a greater effect on Mu (the friction coefficient) at higher temps than street/autocross. Drilled rotors have a greater propensity to crack with high temps and fast cooling. I've seen it at the track before. I have seen the SIU article before that some mechanic put on in one of their buildings but he is not from the industry where they do research to improve their technology...with data. A lot of what he says is totally false, misleading, or scientifically wrong. Like the one picture I remember of him tightening the rotor to the hub with an impact gun and not a torque wrench with totally negates his latter discussion of torque wrench use. What a joke. He wouldn't have gotten very far if I were in the presentation. A lot of it is based on crackpot "myths' that only stupid people try or say. Some of what he says from what I remember IS good info, trade based at best. It is a popular article to poke fun at for a few reasons. Coming from the brake world this is a well known subject, and article. This "Ronald J. Henningsen Tech Editor Undercar Digest Magazine" last I heard he was a blogger now. The one thing I find that he completely left out of the article on brake judder (wobble he calls it) was pad deposits...totally left that off! Yes, Power Stop is in the business to sell you something but is not going to throw misleading info just to be proven wrong. I have seen the data. The industry knows, rest of the industry agrees. There is a lot of articles, and sources for the same info, below is just two. The technology is real and manufacturers will go after you if your slots look like theirs because...they work. If it were a gimmick and it did nothing, then no one would copy no no one would do it.
