RDA Disc Brake Rotors

[yogi000]

Hey Everyone

Just wondering who's actually used RDA disc brake rotors (slotted). I've seen a few on ebay and they seem like rip off version of DBA. Anyone had any experience with they??? Any good? or dont bother??

Cheers

[GTRgeoff]

They are fine. I use them on the track with the slots on the front. The rears are barely used so plain is fine. Truth be told the DBA's are not as special as many believe. The kanga paw is just a novelty and would create many turbulent areas in the airflow. No-one seriously professional races with them but stick with straight or curved vanes

[NINOBROWN]

Ive used RDA rotors with EBC pads on my 180sx, R33GTST and GtiR. Very happy with them and would recommend them over the DBA

[Abo Bob]

Geoff,

I found with plain on the back and slotted on the front I had bias issues. Do you not get them?

[yogi000]

how much did you guys pay for them ??

what pad you run with them???

i need to change my front discs, since they are warped so i think i might give rda a go.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers

George

[GTRgeoff]

no probs on bias with the 33. the 34 has a different master cylinder so that may be the answer. Were you running without abs to discover this?

From memory I paid 560 for the discs. I also run racebrakes rb74 front and comp 2 rear.

[Abo Bob]

ABS is good and not instrusive on R34.

For that price you would want them to be better than DBA 4000 slotted.

[xRHETTx]

ABS is good and not instrusive on R34.

 

For that price you would want them to be better than DBA 4000 slotted.

Yeah DBA4000 slotted are cheaper than that. Unless your talking about the fronts and rears for that price?

[Aitch]

Fortunately for DBA there's more to their disc design than most folk realise, and even though I got a pair with a flaw in the casting on one set I still rate them! The design deploys proven engineering principles from other unrelated products, it simply adds a dash of hype and a twist for marketing purposes. (misguided or not!)

A major problem with vented discs is warp and cracking, the DBA's appear to reduce this hugely, follows the why..

The very old design of standard discs offers scope aplenty for both warp and cracks, lovely straight lines (support vanes) for cracks to follow and large unsupported areas of disc face to warp. This design is worthy of the description antique, it's obsolete, which in practical engineering terms translates as "needs frequent replacement". The paw design of the DBA's may sound like a gimmick, but in engineering perspective it's actually anything but.

If you look at the disc and examine the paw support areas, you will see there are no straight lines to encourage or support fracture propagation, quite the converse. The individual support pads overlap in such a way as to very effectively inhibit cracks, it does this very very efficiently. If you look again at those pads, you will also see that unlike normal discs, the unsupported areas of disc face are minimal, offering less warp potential. A third benefit is that due to the additional support of the disc faces, breaking pressure is better utilised, increasing braking for any given pedal pressure. To demonstrate this, try sawing or drilling a piece of 16swg steel sheet supported on trestles or blocks, now do the same excercise again with more support, or with the sheet on a table top or the ground. The same action and pressure will work much more effectively when smaller areas are left unsupported. The DBA's benefit greatly from the paw design, intentional, or just patriotic hype aside!

I cannot comment on the efficiency of the airflow with this design, as it would require a different skillset than my own to offer valid opinion in that area. I can however tell you something important about the discs temperature efficiency based on third party information though..

My local garage has some sort of temp sensor equipment, a gun they just seem to point at the discs for brake problem analysis. This equipment showed a 15% reduction in temperature of the DBA discs compared to the original Nissan discs when each was measured after the run from my home to the garage...

Aitch

[gts4diehard]

hi, iv e put rda rotors on my R32 gts4 and they've done one track day so far and are running perfectly, they were installed the night before and 'run in' as per the rda instruction sheet. They did 35 laps at qld raceway without a problem - and they only cost $77 each for rda 909( 280mm x 30mm) , same as Gtst.

p.s. something I've noticed is that my Bendix ultimates are Not squeaking any more, maybe they have been better run in this time than when i installed them with the old discs.

Stephen

[GTRgeoff]

My price was fronts and rears with slots in the front.

Aitch, with the RDA's there is a greater number of vanes than standard, and while they are straight, and not curved, for the price compared to DBA they do the job admirably.

That said, I am current in the fields of metallurgy, structural engineering and aerodynamics and see no need to validate their product design philosophy as anything other than novelty. They still aren't raced seriously anywhere other than a few Tags guys. Also when industry professionals comment that they are overated and over priced and inefficient at cooling with multiple hot spots it carries weight. I would rather spend a little extra on the alloy hats with floating discs when I eventually upgrade, but the RDA's do a great job on the racetrack for now.

[Abo Bob]

I didn't realise that price was for 4 discs!

[gts4diehard]

up here in brisbane you can get the slotted rotors for an extra $50 on top of normal price, just have to wait for rda to do it, takes around a week or less, so around $500 all up.

prob less of a wait if you are in melbourne/sydney.

Stephen

[GTRgeoff]

Yeah they are pretty good value, and with the racebrakes pads and slots on the front they really do bite hard and pull you up. In Melbourne they are overnight delivery as well to the brake shop I use.

[Scooby]

Have run RDA discs on an RS Liberty and can't recommend them enough.

[Mr Miagi]

I have used the DBA rotors on 4 different race cars over recent years of which 3 of the cars I actually raced myself.

They braked as good as the standard rotors but actually lasted longer, in fact the disc life was twice as long in all cases than the OEM rotor.

This was race conditions only not road use with a variety of pads also.

On my old R32 GTR I did a back to back temperature test at Eastern Creek (also using an infrared temp gun) and found that the Kangaroo Paws actually ran about 10% cooler than the OEM disc.

This was my experience.

Ive had nothing but good results with DBA rotors.

[Sydneykid]

My experiences mirror Mr Miagi, as at today I have slotted DBA rotots on 4 road cars and 2 race cars. I have never had a problem, they last far longer than the standard disks, they stop demonstrably better and cost way less on 2 of those cars than the standard rotors. I have used multiple types of DBA rotors for many years on both road and track cars and I see no reason to change. When the Stagea needs rotors (won't be long) it will be getting DBA's (not sure what size yet) but they will be DBA's.