Over the past 10 years I have been on a mission to take out weight, increase power, and improve on the looks of my Vantage. My focus has always been OEM plus. When a consumable wears, I always look for an opportunity to upgrade. Well the rotors were finally worn to replacement levels.

When I started looking, I read a lot about a company called Racing Brake on racing forums but didn’t see anything about them on our forums so I figure I will add my 2 cents for those with the same interests as myself.

For me outside of a well designed rotor and matching aggressive street pad with minimal dust, the most important thing I was solving for was taking weight out at the corners. I reached out to RB direct to inquire and found them to be the lightest two piece option available. I also felt they looked the best.

After speaking with them around how I use my car (occasional HPDE and aggressive street driving), they guided me to their XT910 pad.

Brakes arrived quickly in the mail from So Cal and were packed well:



The rotors look really nice and have provided a great visual upgrade behind my P101’s:




I have changed up the pads before several times over the years and that process is really straightforward. I have done rotors on other cars and those are typically straightforward as well. These would have been straightforward but my original rotors were glued (rusted) to the hubs. It took a good 20-30 minutes of banging them first with a rubber mallet, then with a hammer to get them lose. Below you can see just how much rust there was holding them together. I scrubbed the heck out of the hub afterwards to get the rust off.



Here are the weights of the extremely worn OEM rotor versus the Racing Brake direct replacement two piece rotor. Given the fronts were worn off significantly, when new they were probably at least another .5-1lb heavier making the Racing Brake rotors 5lbs-5.5lbs lighter at each front rotor.





Here are the rears with very worn stock against new Racing Brake two piece. There would be 4lb-4.5lb per rear savings when comparing new. Total savings is 18-20lbs unstrung total!




Here is what they look like freshly installed before driving:




Driving impressions: Following the manufacturer recommended break in process I have since put about 1000 miles on the car. Many years ago I switched to the Porterfield R4S pads as the balance of bite and minimal dust was much better than stock. Recently though I have found my brakes to be the weak link in my set up. As my car is gotten significantly lighter and more powerful, this has been magnified, but it is also due to the fact that the Brake components were wearing. Since breaking in my new Racing Brake rotors and XT910 pads I can tell that the bite is MUCH more immediate and confidence inspiring now. I went for a very aggressive drive on a closed course with my buddy and his new Cayman GTS as he struggled to keep up and I found myself breaking later and later as I built my confidence over time. From a performance standpoint I am extremely happy. Perhaps the part I am most surprised about is the lack of dust. I have cleaned the wheels once since installing the rotors about 500 miles ago. Below is a picture of what my front wheel look like after 500 miles of driving. The dirtiest part of the inside of the cylinder was there after I pulled the car into the garage following its last cleaning a couple weeks back. Believe that’s water that dripped and dried with brake dust.




I highly recommend this as an OEM plus replacement if you are interested in improving braking, minimizing dust, taking unsprung weight out and getting a nice visual upgrade.

 

Looks awesome, thanks for sharing - do you notice any better handling/steering with the lighter rotational mass?

(PS - Your wheels look great btw, do you have coilovers or lowering springs?)

 

Was the weight saving really a big deal? I'm asking because there are in some cases easier ways to reduce weight if this is the concern. What was the price difference between OEM and your new kit?

lastly would a wheel puller (large) not just have pulled the old disks off?

thanks for posting pics always good to see

 

Thanks! I feel like there is a slight improvement but it’s hard to say. Cumulative weight loss has transformed the car!

I have the Nitron 3 way coil overs.

 

My car is now down 238lbs from stock (3357lbs with all fluids). As mentioned above I have been at work on this for the past 10 years so this was not the first area I looked to lose weight. While there were areas that yielded greater losses (seats, lithium ion battery, wheels, full exhaust) 20lbs at the corners rotational unsprung does matter. I believe it to be one of, if not the lightest Vantages out there. Car has full interior, electronics, ac, so still feels like premium GT inside.

 

Nice work, they have great brake alternatives for lots if vehicles and it's great they include AM cars!

 

Wow, love the look. Any idea if they have sizing for the Vantage S fronts?

 

There's so much sound deadening in this car. I wonder how much weight there is in removing the deadening from under all the carpets and in the wheel wells. I've never seen a sports car with so much of it.

 

Looks good but can I ask why you didn't go for the brembo option as laid out by 007vantage some years ago. I'm pretty sure this was 13lb per rotor rear and 20 front.

 

I sent a note to them earlier today. They have design done but need to make the hat which is 4-6 weeks lead time.

 

Agree with you but key for me was to keep most of what makes the Aston interior so nice. My car is already so loud that if I removed sound deadening I fear it would be unenjoyable!

 

I looked briefly into the big brake kit option from Brembo for the fronts but didn’t want to spend the additional cost and keep weight the same. I didn’t look into the direct replacement (forgot) but do remember that post now that you mention it. I had the other manufacture I was looking at send me pictures of the rotors on the scale as well as RB. I’d advise asking Brembo to do the same before trusting his input.

*edit. I decided to look up the old thread as my recollection from all those years back was a lot of information being thrown out that was not fact. Sure enough looks like the weights he quoted were for the Ford GT. When he provided the weights you shared, Brembo didn’t even have a direct replacement two piece. If you scroll down towards the bottom of the below link you will see they finally came out with them and the fronts were 22 pounds on the Aston.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...olution-5.html

 

How are the RacingBrake rotors holding up after a years usage? Are you still comfortable with your choice? I'm in the same position as you, coming up 10 years of upgrading my V8, and now thinking about saving weight on the brakes

 

I went with Wilwood 2 piece from VAP, didn't know the RB were an option. Curious as to the price difference. Weight savings seems to be similar.

 

I also went with the Wilwood 2 piece. Immediate improvement, but after ~5000 miles they have started to really pulsate during braking. Like warped from overheating but I haven't braked that hard. I'm going to pull everything off in a couple of weeks to inspect the calipers, turn the rotors and lube everything.
Acceleration is fantastic but not a joy to drive when braking...embarrassing with passengers.
Anyone have that experience?