I sell all types of most well known performance rotors. This his what I am trained in and what I make my living with. I will lay it out here.

Dimpled and drilled rotors are cosmetic only. They do not add better stopping in any way. In the past they did out gas organic pads but todays pads do not out gas any longer. The real reason many drilled rotors in the past was to make the rotors lighter on road race cars. Un Sprung weight hurts handling. The bad side effect is the rotors have less metal to absorb heat and can let brakes over heat faster and fade.

Also note that most drilled rotors will state not for track use as they will fail under heavy use and no one wants the liability.

The fact is rotors need to absorb heat and draw it away from the pads to keep the braking efficient. Solid rotors are the best to do this the thicker the better. Also larger solid rotors will increase performance with more surface area and better heat dissipation.

Now as for slotted and some dimpled they will work better than the Drilled. The Slots will help clean the pads and rotors from debris on track like rubber or off road mud.
I challenge anyone here to look at the best brakes in the world on the latest race cars.
F1, Indy NASCAR and American Lemans series cars. They all use solid rotors with limited groves cut to clean the pads. They do not use drilled rotors on any of them. The Pratt and Miller Corvettes that have won Lemans and many championships use non drilled rotors.

Now I love it when people buy these rotors as they make a lot of profit. That is why many people make them and are dishonest about their true performance.

If you want the best brakes possible get a solid Bendix Rotor or something like a Groved EBC if you need looks. Then use EBC or Hawk pads and make sure to seat or bed them in as directed. This is key to long life.

I can get at cost any of the fancy rotors out there and I have used them in the past but I just use solid Bendix rotors and EBC red pads and have not had any issue on any of my cars and had great performance.

When you are sitting with the head of EBC from England and he tells you to use solid rotors and that they sell the fancy dimpled ones just because people will pay more for them you listen. Note he will not sell a drilled rotor not matter what the price.

The key to brakes is to learn the truth on these items and stop following many of the false things that are still repeated. Many things may have been true in the past but today brakes have evolved. I have to keep up on things as it has been changing fast with the advent of ceramic rotors and such.

 

The rotors will not fix the pulse but seating and bedding the pads and rotors in will. Also check bearing run out.

The pulse is caused often by Rotor thickness Run out. This happens when a bearing is out and the rotor wobbles hitting the pads and wears uneven in thickness. This increases and decreases pressure in the brake system and creates pedal pulse.

Also not bedding in pads and putting an even layer of pad material on the rotors will make them grab uneven. The holes and dimple will not make a difference.

 

OP, what kind of pads were you using, and what are you looking at next?

BTW, I agree with ^that^ guy on this topic. I have never had pulsing on any car, but I do things like follow bed-in procedures that the pad makers have. I also try and stay away from lower-performing options, so I will never overheat them on either the street or autocross course.

Everyone has opinions on what the ideal pad is, so I'm not going there unless asked. I have discovered that a brand I previously had a meh experience with on my last car works great on this one. Head-scratcher, indeed... (It's one of the ones mentioned above.)

 

I right now I am using the EBC Reds for street use as they are better for performance and less brake dust. I have used the similar Hawk pads too. Most times it comes down to which one I have in stock when I do brakes.

With brake pads often you get what you pay for. I see people buy our cheaper pads and often have issues and seldom if installed correctly do I ever see issues with these pads.

People would be much better off on solving issues with brakes by putting less into to the cosmetic rotors and more into the pads. Unless they just want the look and that is fine.

My Experience from my own use and with my job dealing with warranties is more based on what I see and not so much what I think. Also much is based on what the MFG's teach in their training so we can solved these issues for customers.

The fact is I still see guys who have worked on cars for years and they still do not seat or bed brakes in. Even new cars off the dealer lot have never been bedded in and hence why some have so many issues with their brakes.

Too often people blame a so called warped rotor but they never really address the real issue and see the problem over and over again while others never have the same issues because they bedded the brakes.

The issue with new cars today also are the hub bearings. Today so many people do not understand that todays car beatings are ball bearings on the front and not tapered rollers like in the past. The Rollers are more efficient but they are less durable. MFG's have gone to more positive offsets and ball bearings to get more MPG. In turn bearings that rarely go bad now go bad from 70K miles on up. The play wobbles the rotor and wears it thick and thin. People put the rotors on the lathe and think they are warped when they are really worn in varying thickness.

While cast iron can warp a little it normally has no effect on a brake system as the pads and caliper will float the pads and the pressure remains the same.

 

I had EBC reds. They just plain sµcked. The pads cracked and split apart after about 30k on one side of the rotor and wore to metal on the other side. All 4 wheels.

 

If they do it is news to me.

We are one of their biggest dealers and I deal with warranties and generally most issues I have seen were related to car issues not the pads.

On my personal cars I have been seeing 60,000+ on our GTP with the wife driving and she is hard on brakes.

I can only think of two sets I have seen that were defective over a very long time.

Every company has issues at some point as none are perfect but EBC has never drawn a quality alert on our system. Nearly all returns are just that they were sold or bought the wrong pads.

 

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Some pieces of the pad had fallen out. The other three wheels had similar results.

 

I would just chalk that one to bad luck as I have only seen a couple issues and never anything like that.

Like I said with mass production every one has an issue now and then. But in the big picture most brake companies seldom have issues.

I do see a cracked pad from each once in a great while and I do see many cases where a caliper hangs and the owner wants to blame the pad when it is the car.

Or the guy who just had to have the most aggressive race pads for his Camaro and they ate up his rotors in short order. He just could not grasp that they were for stopping at the track and not street use.

Sorry you got a bad set but they are very rare.

I am interested to see how my new set last. The stock pads went about 30K miles. I take a lot of back roads and brake a lot driving through the lakes. I am interested to see if they last longer.

So far the brake dust is much more improved over the stock. After one trip to work the stock pads were so bad I could write my name on the spoke in the dust.

 

Late to the party here but I've had great success w/ R1 slotted rotors and Hawk HPS pads all around. I have an auto SS, non Brembo if that makes a difference to the OP. Great stopping power and no fade, even on rare panic stops.

Later,

Allex

 

Always more fun when You come to the party. I'm real happy with the rotors and pads I got from Performance Brake.http://brakeperformance.com/?gclid=C...FQF_hwodEVo-YA