Brake Rotor Preference

[Chopstick Tuner]

Just curious what everyone's go - to choice of brake rotors and pads is? 

Standard oem replacements? Drilled / slotted etc? I've heard both amazing and terrible reviews about the likes of dba and rda, surprising considering the price of dba. What's your experiences, preferred brands etc for a skyline? 

[Duncan]

Any of them are fine for street use. I use DBA 5000 on the race car, they did have some quality problems long back (10+ years) when they first introduced a new design but not since.

Again for pads, any "sports" pad would be fine for street use. There are cheaper brands that can be good value. Just keep in mind that you should probably get your discs machined if you change pad brand because you don't know if the pad buildup is compatible between the old and new pads.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Should start with your user requirements and then work backwards, quite pointless running DBA5000, race pads, etc. on a street car with stock power that never gets driven in anger  

[GTSBoy]

Yes. On my McLaren it's all carbon-carbon.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 16/03/2022 at 9:35 AM, GTSBoy said:

Yes. On my McLaren it's all carbon-carbon.

well we all know you thrash the living daylights out of your car, so that's ok  

If I had a McLaren I would punish it.

[GTSBoy]

Maybe I should have used italics?

[robbo_rb180]

On 3/16/2022 at 6:46 AM, Chopstick Tuner said:

Just curious what everyone's go - to choice of brake rotors and pads is? 

Standard oem replacements? Drilled / slotted etc? I've heard both amazing and terrible reviews about the likes of dba and rda, surprising considering the price of dba. What's your experiences, preferred brands etc for a skyline? 

What are you using the car for?
I use a variety of setups from Dba4000 & Project Mu club racer to std disc with endless ME20
Race pads on the street are not nice and get lots of looks from others 😅

[GTSBoy]

So, for anecdotal value, street driven R32 with <200rwkW, stock rear brake equipment and R34 310mm fronts.

• Intima SR pads on the front. I think I'm also using SRs on the rear, but it possible that I chose SSs to hopefully provide a little less rear brake power.
• RDA slotted and grooved (the current design and spec that come with the black passivation coating) front and rear.

More than adequate for the street, and really good in all respects. Not a lot of dust, no noise, great performance.

I have nothing against DBA rotors, but they are more expensive than the RDAs and I'm a tightarse and the RDAs are proven to be fine.

I used to use Bendix Ultimates as a street pad, which is really just a default choice. They're fine, nothing special at all, but the Intimas seem to be much much better.

No discussion of chosen braking system elements is complete without a master cylinder stopper (or equivalent things done to mechanically firm the pedal) and braided teflon lines.

[Chopstick Tuner]

On 17/03/2022 at 11:16 AM, robbo_rb180 said:

What are you using the car for?
I use a variety of setups from Dba4000 & Project Mu club racer to std disc with endless ME20
Race pads on the street are not nice and get lots of looks from others 😅

Thanks for the replies guys, any insight is always helpful. 

 

My car is a weekend warrior, driven on the street only but gets driven pretty aggressively (I mean it's a skyline, does anyone drive them gently? Lol) 

Car doesn't make huge power currently (Rb20det R32) but obviously *decent* stopping performance is important on a car like that, and the plan is to build it in the next year-ish

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Intima SR all round with DBA4000 T3 standard would do the trick.

If money permits, do what @GTSBoy did, R34 GT-t calipers (and bolts can't use the R32 ones) and R34 310mm GT-t rotors.

Still uses the DB1170 (Benshit reference) pad which is an IN1170 in Intima, rears are IN1120. Front and rear pads are the same across all R32 to R34 GTS-t and GT-t.

If you need Intima or Elig pads, I can help.

[Duncan]

On 19/03/2022 at 10:59 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Intima SR all round with DBA4000 T3 standard would do the trick.

If money permits, do what @GTSBoy did, R34 GT-t calipers (and bolts can't use the R32 ones) and R34 310mm GT-t rotors.

Still uses the DB1170 (Benshit reference) pad which is an IN1170 in Intima, rears are IN1120. Front and rear pads are the same across all R32 to R34 GTS-t and GT-t.

If you need Intima or Elig pads, I can help.

sounds like good advice for street use