Not always the case mate, got some rally cars using drilled discs, also for endurance races some teams can run drilled to get the cooiling but without the wear rate. Matt Close case in point. 500HP TTRS exclusively drilled now. Especially after the only grooved set ive ever sent him he trashed on the parade lap at the F1 grand prix at Melbourne this year.
It's obviously down to certain applications as to what people choose to use. But as a general rule of thumb they are either plain or grooved
I'm looking at just over a million quids worth of AP Racing Discs out of my window i would probably say 80% are grooved 20% "other", short hot races like BTCC (who we supply) yes grooved generally but it depends on race length and pad material.
Well wasn't that what I was saying? That drilled discs don't do anything particularly good and on a road car are just another thing to go wrong.
Even on APs own website (
http://www.apracing.com/products/race_car/formula_student/sae/brake_discs.aspx) it says that weight is an advantage of drilled disks - and also validates my saying that most race cars run grooved, if anything - Not forgetting
unsprung weight differences of 2-3kg can make a massive difference, as I'm sure you're aware the 345mm units are bloody heavy!)
And unless the car is regularly tracking I always reccomend the OEM fluid, its very good and the OEM stuff is the same as installed on a R8 GT - exactly the same part number.
ATE Superblue is very highly rated, I don't have this in my own car (will do at next change though) but have driven a car with it, and seemed pretty good to me. Why would you not use a (supposedly) better fluid? OEM Fluid boils at what, 220 degrees? You can buy fluids which hold a higher boiling point and often for not much more than OEM?
What "High Performance" pads do you reccomend?
Probably ones different to what you'd recommend.
