I need to replace my brake rotors and I'm looking at the VAP/Girodisc 2-piece rotors. The weight savings looks impressive, but I'm concerned about track day performance and temperatures. Does anyone have first hand experience with these rotors on track?

 

I think that pad choice is going to be the biggest factor on the track, not the rotors. I'm using Porterfield R4S with my (not VAP) 2-piece rotors but expect I could get fade in one session at the local track. Please note that I have not tried this, but am basing it on experience with other vehicles at the local track (Sonoma). If I were to track the F-Type there I'd go with a more track-oriented pad, but would not expect them to work as well for everyday street use. The Porterfields I have are great most of the time, but not when both cold and wet.

 

I have recently track tested the two-piece rotors on my 2018 R. These rotors are heads above the stock rotors as far as heat dissipation. I usually run 10 lap sessions at the FIRM in Gainesville, FL. With the stock rotors I would definitely notice some fade towards the end of a session. With these new rotors, everything was strong all the way to the end. Braking was solid and I was able to brake later into corners, this coming as the day progressed and my confidence in the rotors increased.

Keep in mind my experience is also running these new rotors with the VAP racing pads, which I STRONGLY recommend especially at the track. I also run slicks on some used F type 20" rims I bought off ebay. That way I can hot swap rims back to street tires. This is another option I highly recommend if you are going to track this vehicle as the F type is heavy and just melts street tires on the track.

I also have a bunch of other VAP products on the vehicle, including the tune, upper and lower pulley swaps, valvetronic race exhaust, 200 cell cats. I also put on Powerflex poly bushings and the Mina Gallery intake. Additionally, I went with Liqui Moly transfer case, transmission, and front/rear differential fluid to deal with the track temps.

If you want a more detailed report, PM me and I can send you my cell number and answer other questions.

Hope that info helps.

 

Thank you. That is great information. I did my first track day a couple of months ago with stock pads and rotors and Motul RBF 600 fluid. I didn't experience any brake issues, but could tell (smell) they were getting hot near the end of my last outing. My car primarily sees spirited street driving, but I plan to do 2 or 3 more track days next summer. Sounds like the VAP rotors would be a worthwhile upgrade to add some margin on cooling.

 

Ahhh, yes...forgot to mention the cooked rotor smell. I don't recall that being an issue with these new rotors either. They just seem better overall out-of-the-box than the stock irons. And for the money expenditure, compared to a carbon ceramic setup and maintenance, I think these are a bargain for what you get. I am usually running 20 to 25 minute sessions, including warm up and cool down laps.

Honestly, would I recommend these if you are just doing spirited driving on the street...probably not. But from my experience, at the track, these ARE a noticeable improvement used in conjunction with the PF race pads.

You really need to see the brakes in person to appreciate them. They have a massive amount of veins with curved channeling, all to help mitigate heat buildup. Again, basically the same company making Ferrari brake rotors.

Who knows...maybe sometime down the road, with these being a two-piece design, we could even see a more affordable CC rotor that you could just swap on. Would be interesting...

And, VAP is not sending me any royalties for my opinion LOL.

 

Did you notice any difference with the powerflex bushings? What did you replace with poly?

 

Doc Oc,

Definitely stiffened up the body roll. Unfortunately, even though their website says they fit...the front control arm/sway bar bushings 100% DO NOT work with AWD versions. So, basically I replaced ALL the rear bushings with poly, but only certain front-end bushings. Again, the versions Powerflex sell DO NOT fit the AWD control arms and sway bar. I think there have been previous discussions about this on the forum and there are differences in the bushing sizes and sway bar sizes between the rear wheel drive and AWD versions of the F-Type, which makes sense.

To my knowledge, and after speaking with Powerflex directly, they are supposedly working with a company in UK to develop AWD front-end bushings, but there has been nothing further as of yet.

Hope that helps.

 

It does help, thanks. I noticed two different sizes listed for front and rear sways but could find no type of explanation as to why. I have a rwd so I guess there's only one way to find out lol

Thanks

 

Doc,

Do not quote me, as I am having to recall from my extensive research from a year ago, but I believe there are two different sizes because most of the bushings are shared between the S & R variants except the sway bars. I believe, and maybe someone else can confirm this, that the larger bushing sizes are for the Rs (V8) and the smaller sizes are for the Ss (V6).

If you are serious, send me a PM and I will send you the front lower control arm bushings and sway bar bushings that I could not use due to the AWD difference. I believe I have both the 31.5 and 32.5mm front sway bar bushings and both sets of lower control arm bushings just sitting in a box still in the packaging. Once my mechanic measured up the sizes, we realized what the issue was after further research. So, they are just taking up space at this point LOL.

 

Awesome! Pm sent thanks

 

I certainly can't confirm for sure, but it'd make complete sense for the front swaybar to be a few mm bigger to hadle the extra weight of the V8

 

@BlackSVR Any pictures of the rotors installed?

 

Based on a lot of positive comments, I went ahead and purchased the VAP/Girodisc 2-piece rotors. Below are some pictures. I have done three track days and a trip to Tail of the Dragon and have been very happy with the braking performance. The slots appear to create a bit more dust, but temps are lower and braking is very consistent through a 20-minute track session.

 

The slots will remove brake dust and dirt from the surface of the rotor creating better pad-to-surface contact. However, that is at the expense of that dust going everywhere else but staying on the rotor.

 

Where do you buy just replacement rings? I only see complete hats+rings for sale.