Note: this first appeared on Audi Style Racing’s website, but has been republished here as the ASR website as the team (and website) are no longer active. The review and appreciation for Adams Rotors is still 100% accurate however – we used them in well over a dozen race days and never had one issue, complaint or problem – and they’ve still got tons of life left and were always the strongest part of the car!
When it was time to upgrade our brakes for our Audi race car, Adam’s Rotors was the first company that came to mind. With an impressive amount of positive reviews (check out the Feedback section of his website), a great price, and a strong following on Audizine and within the Audi community at large – we knew Adam’s Rotors would be a good fit for our Coupe. Even better, Adam was willing to sponsor us for a set of rotors, as he understands helping out the community and has a mutual passion for Audi & motorsports in general. One look at the Adam’s Rotors Website, Facebook page or Twitter Feed will show just how committed Adam is, and just how many satisfied customers Adam’s has – these customers are not only using his product, but are out there acting as advocates of his company and recommending him to anyone that will listen – a true testament to the level of service and quality of product Adam provides.
While there are a lot of reviews of Adam’s Rotors out there, not many of them are focused on the race performance, safety, or the durability of the rotors – at Audi Style Racing, we feel we are very qualified to review these aspects of the rotors based on our experience in 24 hours of LeMons with them. For those of you who don’t know about 24 Hours of LeMons, it is an endurance race for cars purchased under $500 – more about the rules here. Our first race ended up being slightly over 16 hours of racing, spread out over 2 days in 8 hour sessions. For anyone that has ever tracked their car, 8 hours of racing is enough to completely destroy your tires, brakes, and sometimes even you or your car itself. Putting your car through the paces over 8 hours will definitely expose your weak points and your strengths – if something is going to fail, a 16 hour endurance race will do the trick.
Our Adam’s Rotors equipped 1982 Audi Coupe performed like a champ, finishing the 24 hours of LeMons Arse Freeze A-Palooza race at Buttonwillow Raceway on just one set of rotors, performing over 167 laps of approximately 3 miles each – over 500 miles in total for your mathletes out there. We had anticipated needing at least two sets of rotors given the length of the race, but in fact our first set still has plenty of braking life in them. During the race, we experienced zero brake fade, no warpage, and never once had the brakes go soft. In fact, our braking was by far the strongest part of the car, allowing us to brake later and harder than any other car there.
Because we didn’t have the most horsepower or fastest car of the pack, our braking was one of our few competitive advantages, allowing us to keep up with cars that should have easily beat us otherwise. Without our braking capability, we wouldn’t have finished nearly as well as we did. While speed is important, on a 15 turn race track over the course of 16 hours, stopping is equally if not more important, and we could brake all day long while sipping mocchiatos.
The rest of this review will include more information on our brake setup, our experience with Adam’s Rotors, and why we support & recommend Adam’s Rotors so strongly for any model of car you drive.
Our Brake Setup:
The car came with drum brakes in the rear, and pretty small brakes up front with a solid rotor that wasn’t vented. While this setup was sufficient in 1982, it wasn’t sufficient for endurance racing in 2010, and 24 hours of LeMons rules considers braking to be exempt from the $500 budget because it is a safety item. We decided to ditch both the front and rear brake setups for something more suited to our needs.
Up front, we worked with TCE Performance in Tempe, AZ, to perform a big brake upgrade using Wilwood calipers that could run vented rotors. Our final setup mimicked a 1989-1991 VW Corrado G60, and we had Adam build us vented VW Corrado rotors to spec. These rotors ended up being about 11 inches in diameter, and we choose the “Race” pattern which features dual slots to help dissipate the heat better. TCE was able to custom fabricate us mounting brakes for the Wilwood calipers, allowing us to perform this brake upgrade. Even better, TCE was able to machine us custom mounting brackets in just one day – anyone with an Audi Coupe, Coupe GT, Coupe Quattro or Audi 4000, be sure to give TCE a call to upgrade your brakes, they know what they’re doing and did a phenomenal job on our Coupe.
Even more important than replacing our front rotors with an 11? vented rotor setup was our rear brakes – drum brakes are a huge NO for racing applications. After researching it a bit on the internet, we discovered a VW Scirocco 16V rear disc brake setup would install on our car pretty easily without any custom work required. We found such a car at a local junk yard, and were able to swap over the brake calipers and mounts very easily.
Our Rotors:
We chose the “Race” pattern for our needs. The dual slots in the race pattern helps dissipate heat. The rotors themselves came to us in great packaging and the initial impression of their quality and level of detail in the machining was impressive. Upon handling these, you could immediately tell that they were well built, OEM Spec Rotors, and the machining process was incredibly meticulous and detailed. Adam allows you to choose any finish you want, from choosing the color of your hub, to choosing the rotor pattern including slotted, cross drilled, dimpled, or even custom patterns to match the Alcon, Porsche, or other big brake kits available for your car. Since we were using these rotors for racing, having painted hubs didn’t matter, although for our daily drivers this would definitely be an upgrade we’d invest in. Adam’s Rotors offers 10 patterns, 3 zinc coatings, and endless hub colors to choose from, and all pricing includes custom machining to order, silver zinc dip for corrosion prevention, and free shipping. For all of the options available, visit AdamsRotors.com or give Adam an email at adamsrotors@me.com.
Adam’s Rotors Ordering , Consultation & Customer Service:
Anyone who has been on a race team knows that it takes two things to go fast – time and money. Unfortunately, we were short on both. Adam worked with us on an EXTREMELY short time frame to get us our rotors before the race. We had an unusually difficult time figuring out exactly what rotors we wanted to use – there isn’t much information out there on how to upgrade the brakes on an almost 30 year old Audi, and what little information exists is spotty at best. We spoke with several braking experts including Adam, and we ultimately decided we would have to custom fabricate a solution based on a Corrado/Scirocco setup, which was no problem to Adam.
Adam was with us every step of the way, helping us decide what would be best, sharing with us the specs of each rotor setup we were considering, and answering all of our questions. What’s even better is Adam’s level of customer service – he responds to emails within SECONDS, always ready & willing to help out. As many of our readers may know, customer service goes a long way, and Adam has a lot to offer. He sent us a great product in a short time frame, and worked with us every step of the way.
Our Race Experience:
This is where we feel our review is particularly worthwhile – our race experience with Adam’s Rotors. The rotors held up beautifully – as I said earlier, we planned for the worst and ordered two sets, expecting that 16 hours of racing would completely eat up a set. Not only did we not need our second backup set, but our rotors are still in awesome condition, ready for another race and looking as if they were brand new.
We were particularly worried that the extreme heat and stress these rotors were exposed to would cause warping or even cracking. We didn’t have this problem whatsoever – we never even experienced so much as a little brake fade. While the pictures of glowing orange brakes look cool, it’s something you never want to experience. There is nothing worse than going in to a corner, pressing hard on the brake, and not having the car brake as hard as you expected. Our car braked hard, and it brake consistently – the first apex and the last apex were virtually indistinguishable, brake wise.
Not having the fastest car on the track, braking was our competitive advantage. Towards the end of the race, many other cars were experiencing brake fade and started having to brake earlier, drive slower, and let their brakes cool down for longer periods of times in the pits. Not us, thanks to Adam’s Rotors. Our team captain Chris, who has his race license through NASA and is a bonafide race car driver, photographer, and automotive expert, said this of our rotors,
“We put them through the paces. With an underpowered car, we took every advantage the excellent braking system gave us. Deeper into the corners we took them, and they handled both quick firm stops and gently adjusting the car’s weight as needed.”
About Adam’s Rotors:
Adam’s Rotors is a small privately owned business running strong for over 4 years now. They are very proud to promote & market, design, manage, sell, finance, photograph, and run Adam’s Rotors on a daily basis. Adam’s Rotors started out small and remains that way…a tight-knit, self-operated, made-to-order company delivering worldwide. Adam’s Rotors provides one-on-one interaction with a quick response and even faster custom option set-ups, working 24/7 throughout the day. Any and all questions are answered within the hour to the best of their ability, if not instantly. Being an online company allows Adam’s Rotors to do business direct via email, instant message, PM, and otherwise.
Adam’s Rotors foundation is in the Audi market, but he provides rotors for any car – be it a classic/vintage Audi such as ours, an Infiniti, a Chevy, you name it. If it has four wheels and drives, Adam can supply you beautifully machined rotors for it, exactly to your specifications. For the best service, the most options, and a great set of custom made to order replacement rotors for ANY make/model car or truck, give him an email at adamsrotors@me.com.
Adam’s Rotors – Race Proven, Audi Style Approved.
Love the classic Audi’s. It’s great to see new parts coming out for them and to see the older cars featured.