Other than cost, obviously.

Brakes will be otherwise stock, including pads. 100% street use for now.

Thoughts?

 

Overkill?

 

Sounds good to me! lol

I mostly want them for (the promise of):

1. Mass reduction
2. Less heat transfer to the wheel hubs
3. Better-than-OE durability

In that order.

 

I'm a hard parker with a BBK and two piece rotors front and rear I tell you what though, every time I brake hard in my 335i I really appreciate the brakes on my RX-8.

 

I'm site you miss a few other things too. ....likely everything but the torque 😊

 

Willwoods are cheaper and just as good with potentially more spare parts availability and more pad options?

 

Only looking at rotors, not a full BBK.

 

In that case, the only reason I can think of, is their rotor material is incompatible with some pad compounds like those from Carbotech.

 

Yeah, I read that. Hoping it's not an issue with stock pads.

 

Fixed

 

I actually think they're kind of weird looking. :-P

 

for street use...

#1: sure, but is the weight reduction worth the cost for 100% street use?
#2: shouldn't matter for 100% street use - even for track use, I haven't really heard of many, if any having issues
#3: OE durability hasn't been an issue with anyone IIRC

It sounds like you're looking for justification to spend $$$ on it. If you like it, go for it - you don't need to justify it to anyone but yourself!

 

Well yeah, no one thing would make it worthwhile on its own. It's the package that's interesting to me.

As for OE durability, I'm on the original rotors at almost 57k; they have plenty of thickness left but they're scored and uneven, and I'm told they won't likely take well to being resurfaced. Last time this happened to me regularly (previous car), switching to slotted rotors fixed it.

 

Yeah it's definitely a lot less tossable and just not as fun in most ways compared to the 8 but man it is nice to have a car respond to mods, it makes spending the money so much easier. And for long drives it is a blast. Honestly it's probably faster now than my RX-8 too, just a different kind of fast.

 

OEM rotors machine just fine. I had mine turned when I gave up on Hawk pads and switched to Carbotech. They have seen about 20K track miles and are still going strong. They are very high quality compared to a lot of aftermarket rotors and last a long time. I can use pretty much any brake parts I want, and I stick with OEM, because there is no reason to change IMO.

 

AFAIK the problem wasn't the rotors themselves, but the wear pattern.

Heard this from the Mazda dealership when I took my car in for an inspection. I've been there a few times and, if this was a bad piece of advice, it'd be the first. They seem to have been super conservative with their advice, and they've been pretty on-point with the few things they've warned me about.

Happy to donate my rotors to someone local so they can resurface them and see what happens!

 

I have not inspected your rotors, so I can't know how they look. But, I would be very surprised if they are beyond being usable being so young. I spend a lot of time at the track, and most of the RX-8 and MX-5 guys I know are running either OEM rotors (original or new purchased from Mazdaspeed Motorsports) or Wilwood BBKs. Outside of the BBKs, we have all tried a lot of other aftermarket parts (StopTech and the like) and have found OEM rotors to be superior. Many of those guys started with OEM rotors having more than 100K miles on them before hitting the track, and they are still going strong after adding many thousands of track miles.

In the end, it is your car. Do what makes you happy. If you opt for the RB rotors, be sure to let me know how they work out.

 

I don't have a particular opinion on the two-piece (I've eyed them myself at Goodwin Racing), but I can say I'm extremely impressed with the OEM brakes. My RX-8 is just over 7 years old and has 52,000 miles on it. It's had one track day (hopefully another this year), and lots of back road driving, and the brakes are still in great shape with lots of life. I love the way they feel and perform, including at the track day I did last Memorial Day weekend.

I'm wondering if the two-piece RB rotors from Goodwin are actually cheaper than OEM, at least at dealer prices. I had StopTech premium high-carbon rotors and their pads installed front and back on my 2014 Mazda3 for $150 less than what the dealer wanted to charge me for just the Mazda OEM rear brakes and pads, and the car stops better, with better pedal feel, than it ever did before.

 

My local dealership quoted me for pads and rotors; the quote for parts and labor was like two-thirds the price of the RB 2-piece rotors alone.

 

Lol, you said dealership.

 

Yeah, that was my point. Even a theoretically expensive dealership estimate for parts and labor on pads and rotors is still only two-thirds the price of RB 2-pc rotors alone!

 

You are beyond justification and rationalization and into reaching and grasping.

Just do what I do. Grit your teeth and make the hard-to-justify purchase. Then spend a little while wallowing in buyer's remorse. Then get over it and enjoy your new parts.

 

...Wait, what?

I was responding to Chibana's post, in which he said this:
All I was doing was illustrating that the opposite is true -- RB 2pc rotors are WAY more expensive than OE, even at dealer prices.

 

Oh. Sorry. In that case, allow me face palm myself.

 

No worries!

FWIW, I did end up springing for the 2-piece rotors, so I guess I took your advice in that last post anyway! If I do end up wallowing in buyer's remorse, I'll come back and post about it so you can say you told me so.