10.98" rotors vs 11.8" worth swapping up?
all good points..but the amount of friction,pad surface and pressure don't change
less heat would certainly be a bonus for repeated hard braking.
the outside of the larger rotor would be travelling slower and should
theoretically be easier to stop....
Right, but they don't
need to change to see an improvement. Changing NOTHING but the rotor increases your stopping power by 8%. That's not insignificant. And you get better heat fade resistance, although that probably isn't something you'd notice on the street. And if you did change pad compounds or go to the later calipers you'd still have the benefit of the larger rotor.
Like I said, I noticed an improvement in braking both times I switched from the stock 10.98" rotors up to the 11.75" rotors. Both times I did that swap the only thing that changed was the rotors, I left the calipers and pads alone, didn't change the tires or wheels, heck I didn't even bleed the brakes. Just bolted on new caliper brackets and installed the larger rotors with new bearings. It's not a night-and-day kind of difference, but it
is noticeable even in just plain old boring everyday driving conditions. And when I swapped the brakes on both cars I was running much more standard sized tires, 235's on the Challenger and 225's on the Duster, so you don't need 275's up front to take advantage of the improved braking. Although the larger tires definitely improve stopping as well.
I'm not saying everyone should throw their 10.98" rotors in the trash, or that changing the brake pad compound or switching to later calipers won't help, those are also great upgrades. But, if you're doing a brake job and you need to buy new rotors anyway you can get the larger caliper brackets from Dr. Diff for $100. If you've already got 15" rims and need rotors anyway that's a heck of a deal.
