Rick Hesel

I spent the day on the track at Watkins Glen yesterday. I had six 25 minute sessions. The Glen is a very fast track with one long straight that requires heavy braking into the turn at the end and several other places where the brakes are put to the test.

I ran the entire day with wave rotors front and rear, the fronts stainless steel and the rears conventional. The stainless front rotors reached temps around 900 degrees and the rear rotors never exceeded 400 degrees (not a surprise, since the front rotors do the lion's share of the braking work). I was braking later into the turns that most of the other drivers and still slowing the car as well or better. Admittedly, I was in a novice group, but it was pretty clear that I had better brakes than most of the other cars out there. The front wave rotors ran hotter than Reedz's conventional cast iron rotors, but still way below the 1200 degree limit of my pads.

At the end of the day, the stainless rotors were not discolored and in damned good shape. We had a set of conventional front rotors standing buy, but we never needed them.

So will the stainless wave rotors survive the track? Under the conditions I experienced, the answer is a certain yes. This was more than proof enough for me that the wave rotors are more than adequate for the street and can be used under certain track conditions. But are they for racing? No. Can they be used for high performance driving practice on the track like I did at the Glen? Yes.

Here's a photo of Brad Wight helping to prep my brakes for the track.

WRS2K

rick, pls

twohoos

WADR, this was your first track day. I've been instructing for a while now, and in my experience, most beginning students' fastest laps are slower than the *cool-down* laps of the guys in the advanced group.

Another example: when I was a beginner, my stock *pads and fluid* were enough for my first few track days. These days, I'm not exaggerating when I say I'd cook them in a lap or two.

Finally, it looks like you were on street tires. Slap on some R-compounds, as many people (even beginners) often do, and brake requirements suddenly become non-trivial.

So, I think it's optimistic at best for you to draw any positive conclusion based on this one track experience. I'm not saying they're definitely NOT suitable, just that this one track day is not nearly enough testing to prove anything.

Still, I'm glad to hear it worked out.

Rick Hesel

True, twohoos.

BTW, I did have racing tires on the car, I posted this because some people were curious about how these would do under tougher-than-street conditions. They did quite well. That doesn't mean that they'd survive a session by an advanced driver, but some people were questioning the saftey of the wave rotors on the street. That should not be a concern.

As for brake fluid, another driver in our novice group was running very hard with stock fluid. It appears to have boiled and his brakes failed. I had the ATE fluid in my car. I'll be bleeding it this weekend for a fresh batch, since I plan to be on the track again as soon as possible.

rickycrx

What is the point of those "wave rotors" other than for the "bling bling" factor??

Ludedude

This isn't a flame...but try the search feature since we've beaten this to death a few times since Rick first showed these. If the search doesn't work you're welcome to come back here and beat me with a wet noodle

slalom44

I'm glad to hear of your success on the track, Rick. It looks like they're working as expected.

Since you're not intending to market these for track use anyhow, I'd expect that you might be taking orders for these soon. Have you put a price on these yet?

Ro_Ja Boy

Is that rick in the pic?

Slows2k

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rick Hesel

tenblade2001

Rick, any plans to add this to your list of products and will they be available for cars with OEM brakes or would you make an OEM style rotor out of SS.