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Here's why you don't put drilled rotors on your car, when the rotors weren't designed to be drilled:
These rotors were OE Porsche Zimmerman rotors, drilled by a "reputable" Porsche specialist. They came with my 911 when I bought it 4 years ago so I thought I'd give them a try. I'd been on track at MidOhio, pulling 135 on the back straight every lap when I started to get a bad vibration under braking. So I slowed down and pitted in. Didn't even make it to my garage when it went BANG, loug enough that a couple of folks thought there'd been a wreck. And the right front tire locked up immediately. Had I not pulled in, it could have broken at speed on the track and would have caused a major spin at best, or even worse.
Now I run Porsche 996 Twin Turbo calipers and rotors on my 911, rotors that were drilled from the factory. I've put 2 years on those rotors, probably 30 or more track days, and no issues at all.
Oh, and drilled rotors will reduce your brake performance. Think about it- you remove about 20% of the friction surface. So not only do you need to increase your pedal pressure to stop, but you also can put extra heat into the brakes. Sounds crazy? If you need greater pressure, and need to be on the brakes longer, there's less cooling time between braking applications. When I went from the stock solid rotors to the drilled rotors that broke, my brake temps went up almost 100 degrees. Yes, I have a pyrometer that I use to check caliper and rotor temps. After the rotor broke, I put the old stock rotors back on and the temps went down. Oh, and my lap times went up close to half a second with the brake friction I got back.
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'04 E53, 4.4 Sport
'97 E39 528i
'86 911 Carrera, track car
'96 BMW R1100R
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