I love my Chrysler 300. Say what you will about Chrysler, and I guess about American auto manufacturers in general, but once and a while they get it right. But my one complaint about my 300 is the weak brakes.

Admittedly I am a lead-foot. And, my 300 is happy to comply with my speed demands. Chrysler got that part right. But when it comes time to halt the mass of my silver bullet, the brakes shutter a little and fade fast. This can be a little scary.

A few weeks ago I took a trip to the Sierras for a weekend fishing trip. On my return, dropping down from 9,000 feet, I was made painfully aware of just how under-engineered my stock brakes were. I came hauling around a corner to find a Ford truck going way too slow and I had to hit the brakes pretty hard. To my dismay, they barely had enough stopping power to keep me from destroying my beautiful front end. My stopping power had faded so much that, I swear, it was like trying to stop a train Fred Flintstone-style – with my feet. It was at that moment I decided to replace my stock brake rotors.

I have had this thought before but haven’t wanted to fork out the extra dough for better brake rotors. And, I wouldn’t trust myself to install them properly. This incident changed my mind and when I got back to sea-level I started my research.

The first thing I did was go to Google and searched for brakes but this proved too generi. Then I did a search for performance rotors and came across a couple decent looking websites. Turns out there is a huge market for aftermarket rotors, I guess I am not the only one with this need. I don’t really know any brands so I relied on the customer reviews. The two brands that stuck out as positive from a performance and price standpoint were EBC rotors and Power Slot rotors. I thought they would be a lot more expensive but a set of front rotors is actually pretty affordable.

I also learned about slotted rotors and how they help conduct heat away from the rotors which is one of the things that creates fade. But the other thing is that these performance rotors are also larger in diameter then stock rotors so they have more surface area. The EBC brand was pricier then the Power Slot brand, I think because they also have these dimples which I presume help to cool the rotors more efficiently. In the end, I figured that it wasn’t that big of a difference and purchased the cheaper Power Slot rotors.

The next think I needed to do was decide whether or not I would install them myself. The sales agent that sold me the rotors said it was pretty simple. But, I am a musician and don’t want to destroy my hands so I contacted my local auto mechanic and asked him how much he would charge to install them. He said it would take about two hours. I figured this was worth the piece of mind that comes with proper installation.

I got my rotors in like three days, took my beloved 300 to the mechanic and now I am driving and stopping in style.