I am researching some basic brake upgrades, and was wondering about a ceramic brake rotor. I remember one of my honda friends talking about them. Do these exist? are they full ceramic, or just coated? pro's, con's? Only other upgrades I'm planning are some hawk hps or hp+ pads and SS lines. lemme know if ya know

 

I don't know of any aftermarket ceramic rotors, just those that are $$$$ options on Porsches and Ferraris.

 

You mean those carbon composite rotors? I head they are 6K$ plus package for porsches etc.

 

A few years ago, Shiv used some metal matrix compound (MMC) on the SCC Project RX-7. He cracked them with a fair amount of track use.

Cooltech was the brand back then...I think they've since been snatched up by AEM, and I haven't heard about more development of the MMC rotors since.

 

Unless you are going to be doing some serious track time, ceramic rotors suck for street. My brother had them on his porsche. It didn't stop wortha **** unless they were fully heated up.

But for deticated track brakes, they are awesome. Hardley any brake fade at all.

 

No one offers ceramic composite rotors for aftermarket use because they are hugely expensive to manufacture (which is why they are a $10K-$16K option on many Porsches and Ferraris), and actually, their service life under hard use is poor compared to conventional metal brakes.

The problem is that the ceramic surfaces are so hard that a very abrasive pad compound is necessary to generate enough friction. I was told that the Porsche compound is based heavily on a silicon carbide-based formulation, which is an even harder and more abrasive substance. Thus, under heavy use, both the pads and discs won't last very long.

Sure, their lighter weight is nice, but you pay a stiff price in every aspect of performance. Stick with a decent, well-designed set of metal brakes.