The gold color is usually cadium plating that is very thin. It will usually wear off as soon as the brakes are put to use (not even a month)!

 

For clarification's sake here in this discussion, consider this. The Performance Plus rotors are NOT Brembo made - just fits cars with brembo calipers. You also get what you pay for. The interior hub design is NOT per Brembo specifications on the 350Z - cheaply made and not the streamlined, curved vented intake vanes of the stock 350Z Track FRONT rotors that have a Nissan part number. They do sort of resemble the REAR Track rotors though - different OEM hub intake designs front and rear. Nissan (AKA OEM) rotors MAY BE sourced thru Brembo, but other threads on this forum in the past have been unable to substantiate this. Nonetheless, the Nissan OEM replacement rotors for Track 350s are quite expensive, and list for the highest rotor price of any vehicle in the Nissan lineup - IIRC, ~$600+ each! The TireRack brembo rotors appear to be the genuine article and at a good price. For a better deal, I have the dba rotors made in Australia and available thru Stillen, though other sources are out there. They have the same rotor hub intake design as the OEM Brembos in both front and rear Brembo Track Z applications. The airflow design of the vanes and intakes at the hub are superior to the Nissan rotors. Price is comparable to the TireRack product by Brembo in both slotted and drilled fitments. My dba's are slotted and I am quite happy with them performance-wise. (I think they also look cool!) BTW, I paid just under $800 for the set of 4.

 

China

First off, Thank you for taking the time to respond to this thread. Can I ask, how you know about the interior hub design, and if it is not the same as the Brembo made rotors, what would be the consequences of using these rotors. Degradation in braking performance, breaking or cracking, cooling, what would happen? Do you know anything about the quality of the steel? I do love the Brembos, but am looking for a little Bling/Bling.

Thanks Again.

BTW, I have found the Brembo rotors that Tire Rack sells, at other sites at lower prices, $50.00 to $60.00 Lower.

Lou

 

Hi Lou! I have to say that I was unaware of interior hub differences myself until I swapped my Nissan Track rotors for the dba rotors. Then I noticed that on the backside (inside facing) of the hub, where the rotor cooling air enters, that Nissan/Brembo had a blended/smooth design (like a turbo compressor intake opening) to hasten airflow into the inside of the hollow rotor - a design that is a performance advantage. Strangely enough, the Nissan Track OEM rotors only had this feature on the front rotors and not the back, while the dba rotors had them (in a design matching the Nissan OEM rotors for the Track model) front AND back. If I had a Track model and was considering replacing rotors, at the very least I would consider only those replacement rotors having this feature in the front to not degrade the OEM performance of the brembo set-up. One other thing about the dba that I did not mention before and might be a minor, but important point: brake rotors are a part of your car suspension unsprung weight. The dba rotors were about a pound or two LIGHTER than the OEM Nissan Track rotors. Don't know about the TireRack brembo replacements. My suggestion for you to consider if you like the brembo rotors is to ask TireRack if they will send pix (jpegs) of the interior side of the hub of the brembo rotos they are selling to see if there is a ventilated, curved intake ramp for the air to radially enter the hollow rotor interior. The Nissan OEM (& I suspect the Brembo brand replacement rotors) have a continuous radial vane from hub to circumference fo the rotor, as opposed to the "pillar vane" design of the dba rotor. While I had no problems running the OEM rotors at the track, the dbas have performed better as far as resisting brake fade from heat buildup. Better designed rotors for improved cooling will better resist heat build-up - the enemy of continuous brake performance at the track!
HTH and that my rambling makes sense. Good luck!

 

Another thought Lou. If you are interested, post here or PM me, and I can dig out the removed Nissan Track rotors and snap a pic of the interior hub design of the fronts to show what I mean.

Who was it that said "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Ha! ha!

 

According to a Stoptech rep on this forum, they're working on a lighter 2-pc brembo rotor replacement. That's all I know about it tho.

 

Yes China

If you don't mind I would like to see the photo.

I did phone the folks at Performance Plus Rotors and spoke to a technical person. What I found out was:

1. The drilled rotors are not really drilled, but only dimpled. The holes don't go through. I was happy to hear this, because of the cracking issue.

2. The picture you see in the add is a generic brake, and not the Brembo model. They say the vent vanes are indeed curved.

3. The Brembo rotor is one of their most expensive ones, because of the design.

With hearing all the above I'm not sure what I will do now.

Food for thought

Lou

 

front rotor from interior side

 

Closeup of front track rotor hub. Note "sculpted" surfaces to enhance air flow.

 

Overall view of Nissan OEM Track rear rotor. Also sculpted like front, but not nearly as smoothly so. An additional observation I noted was that the internal vanes are not continuous but are short blades that are staggered - i.e. none of the internal vanes is continuous from the hub to the circumference. Neither Nissan OEM Track front and rear rotors were this way.

 

closeup of rear rotor interior side.

 

you guys know that stoptech got stage 2 rotor upgrades for non-brembo cars.

they have the options for slotted or drilled rotors.

PM me if you are interested in getting them. I have them on my car.

They are nice and priced right.

jchen@streetimage.com

-Jeff

 

Thanks China - Now I understand. You were right, a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes a lot more.

Now that I can describe it, I'll check back with Performance Plus Brakes.

Thanks Again

Lou

 

Im still trying to work out a group buy with them.

 

Well I had a group buy going but its gone. I dunno why but the mods took it off. Its also posted on the G35driver site. It would have been nice for the mods to let me know why it was taken off before they pulled it.

 

The brakes look good and the price is definitely right. I dont know why brake rotors are so damn expensive. It seems ridiculous to charge over 300$ for two hunks of cast iron.
I will be considering these guys when it comes time to change out my rotors