Worth it? no.
Here's a tid bit of brake rotor tech:
brake rotors are a rotating disc of mass. mass holds energy when moving. Removing, reducing, and limiting this energy will slow the car, hence the need for brake pads.
("Well duh Chris, WTF are you babbling about??")
Well, two things to keep in mind:
your caliper size and design
your rotor size and design
(we wont even get into pad material at this point.)
so. your brake pads squeeze the rotor and slow your car. great. whats important here is heat, and mass. When those pads contact the rotor friction slows the car and heats the rotor, pads, and caliper assembly. Everything becomes instantly hot (truck weigh stations use heat cameras to determine if truck brakes are working, because even in the few seconds they need to slow to stop on the scale is enough time to heat the brakes to a point where it is clearly determinable whether they are working properly or not.)
So, (i know, more blah blah.) things to keep in mind is your caliper assembly. If you're sticking with OEM calipers, a rotor close to OEM design would probably be best. When these parts heat up, the heat has to transfer somewhere. In the case of the rotor, the more mass it has, the more heat it can hold. If you have a rotor with less mass (smaller walls, drilled holes, slots down the side -- all that metal [and mass] gets removed) the heat can not be held in the rotor, it must transfer to the caliper, which will eventually heat the brake fluid and cause issues and reliability problems (hense the fact that circle track racers use ball-sack-crushing DOT 9,000 or whatever fluids.)
SO.... your options, as far as im concerned, is to keep the OEM calipers and maintain a OEM-ish rotor, or upgrade both of them.
Options for rotors (since thats what you're asking about)
Drilled:
Drilled rotors do very minimal in terms of performance. Super high-end rotors with gobs of R&D may offer more benifits, but generic drilled rotors are for looks only. They, in all honestly, reduce braking effiecincy by removing the mass from the rotor and forcing heat build up to occure on the caliper. They *do* increase performance by reducing the rotational mass of the assembly, requiring less HP/TQ to get the car moving (but you'll never notice the 8 grams worth of savings. lol)
slotted:
slotted rotors have the exact same description as posted above, (less mass, more heat on calps.) except they offer benifitted cooling abilities that drilled rotors lack. the veins offer more surface area for heat transfer, as well as "functional" flow opportunites (drilled also offer surface area, but very little air-flow opportunities.) They also provide the brake pad with a squeegy-effect, effectively "cleaning" the surface of the pad for more contact area (pad-to-rotor.)
So far: Slotted > OEM > Drilled -- Right?
Dimpled:
dimpled rotors are much like drilled, except the hole doesnt go all the way through.
they reduce mass (more heat on calipers.)
they reduce wheel-well turbulance (oppsed to drilled)
they offer more surface area for cooling
they offer no "functional flow" opportunities.
(More "decoration" rotors, as far as anyone is concerned.)
Now, you can get a combination of slotted/drilled or slotted/dimpled, but in the end, the drilled and dimpled locations are usually 99% ineffective unless you buy a quality name-brand rotor (SSBC, brembo, etc.)
I suggest: an OEM quality rotor, since you mention youre going to re-do it later anyways. If you do want to get fancy, get slotted, as these are the most effective aftermarket options.
"Well what did you get, Chris??"
I got Jegs Rototec drilled rotors. ($60.00 ea)
"But you said drilled and dimpled are decoration rotors, and they probably do more harm than good."
This is true, but my car will not be a daily driver any longer, so I'm not overly concerned with over-heating anything. On top of which, they are decorations. Just like the 3 coats of wax, chrome wheels, and the stainless steel bumper inserts. -- They add "fancy"
If your car is a DD, or a car that will see some heavy duty performance, avoid drilled/dimpled rotors. stick with solid or slotted.
