brakes, to upgrade or not?

[ASH]

right gotta get new front discs and pads, should i just stick to the normal vented (256mm) discs, or is it worth spending more and going down the vented/grooved option?

any thoughts

[tinman]

i am the one person on the forum who will be negatitive about this.

grooved disks cut your pads to shreds so wear actually increases on the pads. however the performance gains that you get will never be experienced on a day to day basis. the only time the disk will begin to play a significant role is if you track the car, or take it to somewhere like the Ring.

the key thing about grooves is that they disapate heat quicker, plus they stop a build up of a gas between pad and disk. this only usually happens when the disc and pad are extremely hot. the gas creates a layer and reduces braking performance.

the grooves allow the gas to move away from the disk. if you somehow get the disc on the wrong way round then that effect is negated.

if you are buying grooved discs for the asthetics then they are well worth the money. they do look good.

[...joe]

i always thought that the grooves stop your pads glazing over under hard braking. interesting. and yeah they do wear your pads quicker.
every one seems to like the old zimmerman cross drilled and pagid pads, combo from gsf.  they seem to get good reviews.
i ordered some brembo discs from a mate who works at an auto factors and assumed i was getting drilled ones, was gutted when they turned up solid but were so cheap i kept them.

sorry, waffled there! so to answer your question i'd go for the zimmerman/pagid combo. good value for money.

[Gambit]

grooved disks are to stop pad glazing
drilled disks dissapate heat quicker

stick to drilled!

have a look at porsche & AMG merc's all use drilled disks, no grooves to be seen anywhere!!

[VeeDubGTI16v]

6 grooved brakes are the best, any more grooves and you loose too much surface area and i wouldnt bother with cheap drilled discs, they will just crack

[Dizzie]

I drilled mine just cos they looked cooler. also the 280mm G60 brakes are far better than the standard gti ones I had before.

[VeeDubGTI16v]

im getting some new discs soon and from what ive seen/heard the ate power discs look damn good for the money, they are vented and grooved, the groove is like the atomic symbol, are ?60ish for the 280mm front ones

[Dizzie]

my mate has those ones on his rallye

[Gambit]

ive brembo max on the front of mine    but they came on the car along with the drilled rears

[...joe]

i had those ate power discs on mine before the g60 brake upgrade, so on standard 239mm discs. i was quite impressed with them for the money, but they were only grooved, not cross drilled. are the 280mm ones both then?