Am I going to have to lay some knowledge out here again for you guys??
The only thing cross drilled rotors do for you is help remove money from your bank account. There is ZERO evidence that they help cool anything. If I'm wrong, someone please put up some charts or graphs or something to support it. I don't want opinions. I want credible data.
Please explain how the x-drilled rotors run cooler. Remeber that one of the functions of the rotor is to act as a heat sink to remove heat away from the brake system. How in the hell is removing mass from this heat sink going to make the brakes run cooler. Please, show me data.
Cross drilled rotors crack. All of them. Even the ones that have the holes cast in them like Porsche. Even the ones that are cryo-treated. Simple physics really. You have a lump of metal with a hole in it. The area immediately surrounding that hole will cool quicker than the area not immediately surrounding the hole. This is called a thermal gradient. Thermal gradients induce stress into metal. Rinse, repeat, and with enough cycles, the stress will cause the rotor to crack. Always, without fail.
I race my Sentra (auto-x, time trials, track schools). I spend time at real race tracks with real race cars. In the past 2 years, I have worked in the pits on Trans-Am (the race series, not the GM product) cars and SCCA IT cars. I have also spent up close time wandering the pits of Motorola Cup (now Grand-Am), Speedvision GT, and former Team Oreca Viper GTS-Rs (the ones that run Le Mans). Never, ever, ever, have I seen a single cross drilled rotor anywhere on these $100,000+ race cars. Just big ass vented rotors with an assload of ducting. Why do you think that is?
Think of this: How much are x-drilled rotors? $75 each? More? So you're looking at 3 bills for 4 rotors. For $200 I got loaded NX2K calipers and stock NX2K rotors. For less than the price of ricey rotors, you can get something that actually works, instead of something that just looks cool.
And if your brakes fade after 1 stop, you need better pads, not drilled rotors.
Now I'm sure I've pissed someone off, so flame away.
------------------
Matt
92 SE-R from Heck
"What have you DONE to that thing..." - stranger at Rockingham dragway 5/18/01
"Where's the turbo?" - stranger at the 1st autocross of 2000 where my SE-R debuted
"That thing is a goddamn rocket ship. I'm not lifting for you on the straights anymore!" -Karl Shultz, Rockingham 4/27/01
"What in the hell have you done since I drove it last?" -David Stone, Rockingham 4/27/01