Brake discs. Too many choices?

Looking for a pair for the front, always a good time to get some stock in when ECP etc have a decent discount on the go. Brembo? Pagid? Bosch? ATE? TRW? Sebro?? Always thought Zimmerman were O/E but MisterAuto no longer stock them? Any pointers welcome. With Pagid at just over £100 it'd be rude not to. :?:

Try autodoc.co.uk for even more options..... For me, the discs make little difference, steel is steel.....non painted bells are easily painted. The pads make the bigger difference, I just put textar all round as per factory. If I was doing track days I'd have ferodo ds2500 again. There's a seller on eBay doing discs and textar pads all round for £250 for a Carrera.

I have noticed ECP have recently added a whole load of budget discs and pads - made by the usual manufacturers - personally I would avoid them all. I have used Pagid pads on the front for 16k miles so far (at 56k miles, rear pads, and all discs are all original - rears seem to go on forever!), with no problems, no noticeable difference in performance, seem to be normal wear and no squealing. When it comes to replacing, I think all the premium discs/pads will be good enough, and will probably just go with Pagid all round. For around £400 front and back, it is really not bad. OPC want around £1400!

I think you'll find the disks are actually cast iron, they certainly were when I used to do brake testing many years ago. At that time, when we had issues with brake pull (pulling to one side) it was usually cured by replacing disks/drums and was blamed on the Vanadium content of the component. Having said that, I agree with wasz, pads matter more.

Any reason other than price to not go Girondisc all round when mine need changing?

I agree Maldren, discs are indeed cast iron and pads have big influence on performance. The discs are subjected to a very arduous duty / heat cycle, so the discs ability to withstand and dissipate heat is important. So the design of the ventilation channels, the structure and uniformity of the material (manufacture heat treatment) and the ability to maintain a good braking surface contribute to good disc performance. While us as buyers can't know any of the above, we have to rely on personal experiences / recommendations. Surprisingly, I don't see much in the motoring press that review various discs like the comparison tests of tyres for example. Perhaps the vast majority of people just replace with Original manufacturer's disc?? :dont know:

My car has the Sport Design GT3 style wheels on it which I thought would be a pain to keep clean. However, the PO bought Ferodo 2500 pads and amazingly I have virtually no brake dust at all. They are absolutely quiet and stop really well. The only downside is the cost - £125/axle.

I suspect there are very few disk manufacturers and most are just re-brands of the same disks but I may well be wrong. After all, why would you bother setting up the casting and machining ops for such a low volume model as the 996. Does anyone know?

I also think that is what is going on.

Certainly that's probable at the budget end of the spectrum. However, some manufacturers do their own in-house (see ABS, Zimmerman, etc.).

I'll be going for Sebro discs next time I need them. The standard discs are drilled, but the holes swiftly get blocked up with rust and after hard use they start to crack, propagating out from the holes. Sebro disks are not drilled, so this problem goes away. They're also a good deal cheaper than Girodiscs.

Bang on! I forget which makes exactly but there is one main umbrella company that ECP actually own and all the average priced stuff is in that group. I did a bit of googling years ago. It's all out there. I agree with everything above. Cheap stuff is much of a muchness so just buy the best deal. DS2500 are fantastic. Used them on track cars a lot. Don't bother with those daft yellow stuff, red stuff pads. Had the red stuff on my 964T and whilst fine performance wise (on the road), the dust was unreal. I've seen some that have been tracked and the pad material just crumbles off with the heat. I have brembo fronts ready to go on mine but the backs haven't come up cheap since. They don't have the grey primer effect finish on the hats, so I now can't buy any other brand for the rears. I have a set of standard Pagid pads though as that's what came up and I'm just going with mintex handbrake shoes as they don't do much work and are about £15. ETA - When I say ECP own I mean they have (or at least did have) the rights to Pagid in the U.K. and the Pagid stuff they get is specific to them, read that as cheap maybe? But there are a few companies doing that with ECP now. Apparently the Bosch stuff they were selling a few years ago were like that. I bought some 964 front discs and there was some weird issue. I can't remember what it was but seem to remember the screw hole in the front face was way out of position. I still buy Pagid or Brembo though. Generally ok for the normal stuff.

Marky, Zimmerman put grey primer on all their discs, if it helps.

I bought AP discs for my Volvo for ages - harrowingly pricey. Then one of the UK companies started machining out the centres of a standard disc (i.e. with a bell) so I could fit them to my AP hats, hugely cheaper. That said, the genuine AP discs seemed to behave better - less thermal growth than the (IIRC) machined Pagid's, and they rusted less.

I've been running DS2500 pads for a while now, no complaints, but they do throw some dust up in a relatively shore period. Pretty sure I replaced my rear discs a while ago but can't find the order, they've been fine. I've ran Mintex 1144 pads in many cars for track use and they are just excellent. CP4L are out of Sebro which I would have ordered, so may well give the Pagid a try.