I saw one (actually -- only one) company advertising solid aluminum rotors... Now, I use aluminum rotors all the time on my mountain bike, but can they stop a car? AL would dissipate heat quicker than steel, but can it withstand the heat and pressure?

 

My guess would be no. Aluminum is way too soft to stand up to that kind of abuse. IMHO, the best way to lighten things up would be to implement Erik Buell's Zero Tortional Load (ZTL) braking system. With it, you can make the rotor thinner (and lighter) and make the wheel spokes much smaller because the no longer have to handle any braking loads. Buell has the patent on this design. . .

 

Maybe they were referring to an aluminum hub such as that from Wilwood? I think it's safe to say that there aren't any cars that utilize aluminum rotors. The combination of materials simply wouldn't work.

 

I had never heard of them before, but it wasn't just an aluminum hub. It was the full rotor that was machined out of a solid block of aluminum. Just by the luster in the picture, you could tell it wasn't steel. Keep in mind, this was for sale on eBay by one of those shoddy asian companies.

 

Really bad idea...

 

Come on HDDP, won't you try them out for us? As your going into turn one, you can think about all the weight you've saved. Also please do this in practice, since there may be less cars on the track with you.

 

Don't know about rotors but at one time I owned a Chevy that had aluminum drums on the back. My Mustang has a aluminum flywheel with a steel friction surface bolted to the face.
Could you build a rotor the same way?