Brake disc advice please

[huxtable]

I'm in need of replacing my front brake discs (Seat Leon Cupra R 323x28) and after some advice as to what manufacturer & type you'd recommend and best place to purchase.  I've got newish Mintex pads and my mk4 should be around 200bhp ..... do you think I should buy a grooved disc (I see EBC do one in this size), is it worth the extra dollars or would a standard Seat disc suffice (majority of my driving isn't hard on the brakes)? 

[richw911]

First off be very careful on ebay as there are lots of fake brake discs ATM

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=162949.0

Im running OEM ones from TPS and they are spot on they as also painted around the edge and seem to look newer for longer and take ages to rust up. 

From the brake thread :

Drilled Discs:
 
A common misconception is that the purpose of drilled discs is to promote cooling. This couldn't be further from the truth, The real purpose is to reduce weight.

Drilling can allow brake dust and gases to escape, but with modern brake pads, this usually isn't a problem. Choosing a drilled disc for that purpose doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Many high performance cars like Porsche and Mercedes AMG come with drilled discs from the factory. For these cars, the drilling is mainly about the looks, just like bright red calipers. When people do serious high-performance driving on a trackdays, they usually swap to regular plain discs.

Drilled discs generally wear out brake pads faster and produce much more brake dust as a result.

Drilled discs have a shorter service-life than plain discs and tend to develop stress fissures/cracks over their lifetime

[Wayne]

Drilled discs also tend to crack.

[huxtable]

What about grooved discs (as opposed to drilled discs) - any benefit of those over standard Seat Cupra R ?

[nige_s]

Surface area and thick disc are what you want, both help dissipate heat.  Grooved and cross drilled in my opinion are more about show than go (well stopping really)

I too bought the OEM ones from GSF with the better coating on the centre and edges, I compared some cheaper versions in-store and not only was the finish much better the standard of casting was obviously in a different class, well worth the £10-15 more per disc.

I'd just go with good quality it solids (not exactly solid as they're vented)