As part of my gentle improvement process on my Exige, I had the OEM brake pads swapped for EBC Yellows, which I reckoned to be a good pad having had great performance (on track with heavier car) with their Red pad. Half the price of Pagids seemed a good call, as well as not being able to get a straight answer as to whether the Pagids were road legal (though a good point by, I think, S Works, about how any loss adjuster could tell - chemical analysis of the pads? made a lot of sense).
Whilst having them fitted along with the new 2bular pipe, the lads at Lipscomb said that the inside faces of the rear discs were badly corroded. I wasn't especially surprised, since I remember the bills when I used to own 993 porkers, which also required a new set of discs all round *every year* due to corrosion of the inside faces. I don't have a garage and like to drive all year round. Sticking brakes and rapid salt-induced corrosion is a way of life for brakes on my cars, sadly
So the brake discs will need replacing at some point. The OEM discs on the Exige are drilled, and I have an irrational psychological fear about drilled discs that compromises my track speed (won't brake as late as I ought to), due to an incident involving a drilled disc and a conman of a 'expert tuner':
I've also been told by a few Lotus track gods that the drilled Lotus discs aren't great, since with the full-on pads needed to get the best performance, the holes fill with brake dust and you have to drill them out to clean them every track day. Ideally, it sounds like grooved discs would be absolutely ideal for me - no psychological worry at the back of my mind regarding a disc snapping in two at the end of Lavant Straight at Goodwood and a near 100+ mph into the wall death experience - and yet a self-cleaning and pad gas-off protection built in.
I don't have any particular manufacturer 'favourite' but I've seen that EBC sell brake discs that are not only grooved (not drilled) but also painted everywhere with high-temp paint. The first application of the brakes clears the paint off the swept surfaces, but the rest of the disc (which corrodes to buggery in winter conditions, as my brakes attest to) should be protected by the paint. Obviously there'll be surface corrosion on the bare iron, but this should be cleared off by the pads with regular Italian Tune-Ups, no?
I'm considering getting a full set on my Exige. EBC are also reasonably priced, which makes this 'modification' an easy one to justify - whereas full-on alloy-belled big-caliper Brembo or AP 4-pot upgrades would cost too much for comfort, since there are a bunch of other expensive things I need to do to the car (most expensive being chairs with harness holes!).
Has anyone here used the EBC discs - and if so, has anyone got an entire year's experience including a winter outside? Does the 'improved corrosion resistance' actually exist, or is it just marketing bluff and in reality the inside face of the disc will still corrode to the point of knackering my brakes? Has anyone noticed any down-sides to the grooves versus the drilled holes? I'm assuming that the discs will work perfectly with pads from the same manufacturer so no problems there. Also, theoretically, having some of the disc surface area painted black would aid heat dissipation, due to increased radiative losses from black surfaces... though whether the effect is material or not depends on the equations, which I haven't worked through
I'd like to hear if anyone's tried them. I may go with them anyway - I need to get the car booked in before the end of the year for a service and getting the exhaust or rear anti-roll bar sorted out (creaking at low speed), and getting the brakes fitted at the same time would only cost a hundred or so in labour. Anyone got a reason I should steer a wide berth from these discs?
Odd thing, psychology. And even odder when it's the psychology of a weirdo 