I was wondering why the Grand Prix GXP gets bilstein struts, stiffer sprins, crossed drilled brake rotors, and staggered front/rear tires and the Monte SS gets none of this????

 

Simple, PONTIAC has always been GM's Performance brand. The staggered tires on the Monte would look ridiculous I think, and for the persona of the car, I dont think cross drilled rotors would look good either. Our 18" rims on the SS barely show the rotors anyways so its not like you would be able to see them. Any true racer or automotive professional will tell you that cross drilled rotors are more for show then true stopping power. The more holes/slots you put in a rotor the more surface area you are taking away for the pad to come in contact with. Over at corvetteforum.com this is well known that if you want to stop FAST, go with a solid rotor.
And also, The GXP's may have Bilsteins, but they still have the FE3 suspension while the Monte Carlo SS has the FE4 which is a slightly firmer ride.

 

A solid rotor may be the way to go, but any and all places you look say a drilled and/or slotted rotor is considered the performance piece.

That the holes and slots in the rotors allow heat and gases to escape where a solid rotor can't offer this.

I can tell you from experience you get a bit of pitting or the rotor get's torn up a bityou will not stop fast.

 

No question they are considered a performance piece, but it has been proven many times that they are 90% for vanity purposes. Alot of them crack where the holes have been drilled as well under heavy breaking. More surface area = more stopping power no mater which way you slice it...
But they do look cool! Now, if you get a Porsche cross drilled rotor for example (factory ones) the holes are CAST into the metal which make them far far superior. But your run of the mill performance rotors, I have seen so many of them crack on corvettes its not even funny. Any autocross guy on the forums will tell ya, solid is the way to go, they are cheap and most guys dispose of them after one race..

Cheers,

 

part of this is wha tyou said in the last line.
auto x guys dispose of them after the day of racing if not each round.
you have to understand tha tif you are racing it for a distance and getting in to the breaks all the time then no the drilled would not be my choice as they do tend to crak.
btu the solid ones out for the monte carlos SUCK!! i have gone threw 2 sets now and im on the third all for the same reason it is warping from heat.
the set ont he car now are starting to blue also. but then my car sees over 100mph weekly if not daily right now.

would i own cross drilled? nope!! btu i would own slotted, they do realese the gases that build unde rthe pads and cause them to chatter,
and they also help channel water off the disk so the pad can get a better contact patch.

this all comes down to what you liek on the car better. I do like the looks of the drilled rotors but to have them on a daily driver to me is a bad use of money.

this is just my .02 worth

 

Ok, another question worth asking? HOW MANY of you guys get your lug nuts torqued down to the proper specifications? That is the #1 cause of break rotors warping....not heat. Every single time i have my wheels taken off for whatever reason I MAKE SURE they use a torque wrench set to 100 Ft Pounds for our cars. MOST of the repair guys I know/see just use their air gun and hammer the lug nuts on... Who knows what torque they are putting on your wheels.. Years ago when I had my other cars, Beretta Z26, Cavalier Z24 etc etc, I always would get warped rotors and I thought it was from heat. Now, I never have a problem when they are torqued down correctly.

A trivial thing, but I never have problems anymore. Most of us do not abuse our rotors and are just daily drivers, so why should they be warping? Next time demand to have your lug nuts torqued down properly!

Jason

 

06BlackSS - MOST of the repair guys I know/see just use their air gun and hammer the lug nuts on...

are also using a torque stick, might of seen it yourself, looks like theyre using a long painted extention for no good reason. now i know its not as good as getting out a torque wrench, but its wayyyy better than just the impact. all the techs, service, parts, body, managers and related ppl from all the stores at the business i work for have meetings twice a year that a gm feild engineer speaks at. he says that torque sticks are ok to use, but would also love it if everyone used a torque wrench.

mickey - make sure your hubs are competely clean when replacing rotors, if u have a dial indicator, or if you have a shop install the rotors have em check to make sure youre looking at .003" of lateral runout or less or you'll end up with pulsation after a few/several thousand miles.

 

we have acses to the tork sticks her ein the auto hobby shop (where i do most of my work on the car.)
I also when i get home get otu my tork wrench if i havent taken it with me and recheck them. this is after i have had a set of aluminum rims fall off a car that me and three others knew were tight.
it is just hte nature of the beat with Aluminum. each time you take them off an dout them back on they will losen up after a few miles so it is worth the time to check them again. this is mostly on the after market rims.
i have yet to figure out why it dose it on them and not factory wheels as offten but i have seen them do it also.

as far as the brakes go i have made sure everythign under the rotor hat was clean in teh rears and they still squeal, i hav ehad it in to the dealership and they cant figure it out eathier. they have beeded the brakes and i have also. but for some reason if the car sits for a whiel and then i try to drive it off in a turn the rear brakes tend to howel till i straighten it back out and get bout half a block downe the road and then they are fine.

I have gone as far as rebuilding one of the rear calipers and it still is doing it.
this all started afte ri changed the brakes and rotors the first time. i even have the squeal stop on them.
So who knows.
i knwo when i get back i will do it again to make sure that i can get the parts right there instead of this hurry up and wait to hav ethem ship over here.
the only thing i havent done was disconect the E brake to find out if it was the problem.
that is next .

 

i've found alot of squeal probs are from choice of pads. i dont put any faith in squel stop products myself.

on the pulsation, its important that the hubs are clean, but you still have to check lateral run out. i've never seen a out of spec new GM rotor, but i've seen upto .009" on new aftermarket rotors. theres a product called 'brake align', they exist because of this problem, they make shims to put behind rotors to fix lateral run out

 

I think I'd much rather have a Grand Prix GXP then a monte SS anyday. And btw, cross drilled & slotted rotors are the best in the world, many makers have them such as Brembo. There not the best just because they have holes drilled in them. There the best because they are proven on the track. They aren't for vanity purposes unless you buy some cheap piece of crap ones off Ebay.