This got to be one of the worst (or best) examples of marketing BS I've seen in a long time

http://www.raybestos.com/wps/portal/raybestos/c0/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3hnbwufEBd3D2cTk-Bg_yBjg0BjAwjQL8h2VAQAfKj_0Q!!?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/wps/wcm/connect/Affinia_Websites_Content_en/affinia.websites.content/news/product+news/raybestos/raybestos_brand+r-300_performance+rotor+available+now/


Their technical people must absolutely cringe when they read this crap. This would put me off buying anything they make.

 

Come on bro. That high-flow, clog-resistant vane design is state of the art ish!

 

just ordered me on rotor to try out

 

Odd. Not many people wear clogs any more do they?

 

"The improved pedal feel is due to maximized pad-to-rotor surface contact."

For some reason when i first read that sentence i read it as "...due to maxi-pad-to-rotor surface contact.'

Err....so improve the contact some more with no squiggles. But then how would you get your "out gassing"....which is what the human body does during a "panic stop".....

 

I'm reminded of an old maxium:

"If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with bull***t".

 

Hey man, come on over here, I have a Sabotier, just down the road, who will do you a 'made to measure service'

Admittedly not very practical for the office, but if you do find yourself overboard, your shoes will float, and ultimately you will be identified.

Bet that makes you sail easier; LOL

Not gone for them myself.

 

Made to measure...... tempting

 

You'ld be surprised, European truck drivers love them. (By European I mean South and west of Blighty)

 

Over here we call that 'the Atlantic Ocean'

 

Not to rain on your comedy parade here guys but have you seen some of the slotted rotors they use on competition cars like Ferrari? I didn't read this entire ad but a few years ago Ferrari started putting slotted Brembo rotors with an arc configuration slot design. I still have the vanilla straight slot style Brembo racing rotors on my track car but with the next change I'll have these arc shaped ones on there. I wonder if I'll notice a difference? It might be worth looking into why these design changes were done on these rotors.

Anyone know anything about the reasons behind this squiggly design?

Bob S.

 

I don't know but suspect it's to do with appearance, similar to bright paint on calipers, interestingly shaped alloys etc. All that space to allow air cooling of discs (rotors) but is it needed - it also allows water in and thus leads to rust, sticking pads etc. At least some of this is probably cosmetic and perhaps even negative performance.

 

I don't think Raysbetos is too "far off"...My butt-crack kinda has an "S" shape to it. Perhaps natures way of efficiently "out gassing"?

 

No it's there because they've thought it superior to the straight line or even curved slots you see on all the websites. This was a technical update from Ferrari/Brembo for their Challenge series cars. They're using carbon fiber these days.

I'll look for some pictures of it. For all I know it didn't work out all that well and they may have moved on. But it wasn't about cosmetics on a race car though.

Bob S.

 

I'm not going to argue this point with you in the ferverent hope that we won't be subjected to any argument supporting photos ...

 

Please do- that's where the comedy is to be found.

Here's my two favourites:

The unique “S-Groove” slot design provides better pad to rotor contact to improve pedal feel and reduce brake fade. Since this design also improves out-gassing, the S-Groove slots can also increase pad life by up to 30%.

Let's pretend that the pads have a serious outgassing problem (they don't, but let's pretend) and that these grooves get rid of the gas. How would that EXTEND the life of the pad by 30%?



“You can really feel the benefit of the new S-Groove slot design,” said Georgianne Dickey, Raybestos Brand Marketing Manager, Affinia Global Brake & Chassis. Dickey said, “Drivers experience stronger bite without having to sacrifice smooth braking.” The improved pedal feel is due to maximized pad-to-rotor surface contact.

Again, it presumes that there's out-gassing and maybe some brake fade. I've never had either on any street driven car when driven within legal limits. The OEM is promoting these rotors for street use, no mention of track. The grooves reduce the amount of friction surface available to the pad in a similar manner to the grooves and sipes in street-legal tires as compared to racing slicks. How can reducing the friction surface increase braking efficiency?

The tactic of 'let's do what racing cars do' is as old as hills. Sometimes it makes sense- like seatbelts- but most times it's a complete waste of money like these rotors or is counterproductive like engine modifications that do great at 5K+ rpm but now overheat in traffic.

 

I agree with the idea that any such upgrades are not needed on a normally driven street machine and yes they're probably trying to snag the tuner types out there but unless your backround is as a brake systems engineer in the racing industry I think just speculating is pointless. I'm not so much curious about these Raybestos rotors as I am about the ones I've seen used at the track. They have a series of crescents cut into the surface but they don't go from one edge to the other. For some reason they thought this was an improvement over the straight slots which quickly replaced the cross drilled ones they used to use back in the mid to late 1990s. Maybe Rapbestos has a similar theory at work for their design. I'd like to hear the design engineer explain this. I may be able to ask someone at a holiday party I'm attending tomorrow so I'll give it a shot.

BTW, I've warped the front rotors on my 84 Maserati Biturbo several times. The car has strong 4 piston calipers up front and when driven hard it's not that difficult to do because they're not ventilated. Unfortunately converting them to a ventilated rotor is a bit of a chore that requires special 4 step machining of a donor rotor every time you to change rotors.
You have to be driving it hard on back roads though.

Bob S.