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Who did you speak with at PFC? That is a very odd response from them on several fronts. They don't usually give out parts, they usually like to analyze, they usually are very fond of technical discussions, and almost nothing at PFC happens that easily. Also, I was not aware that PFC makes an 06 pad for that car - where do you get those? Not a critical point.
The explanation I have, after years of manufacturing failed parts on track myself, is that your picture shows a failure that I feel comfortable started at the edge of the ear on the rotor. The most brutal force in a braking system is the ABS - when a driver rides the ABS like we are taught in drivers ed, it hammers the components. In a race situation with more torque and bite and force applied via speed, this is extreme. Think of an air impact gun which is successful at destroying the bond of a rusted bolt by hammering it repeatedly or an air hammer - same action.
So in a PFC DD rotor, or any eared floating rotor, riding the ABS causes this hammering effect and will induce stress that results in fracture - if the PFC guy said "yeah, that happens" then this was the correct wording. And as you found out, when there is a vibration in any rotor, assuming it is fine is not the good path - glad you avoided damage, but you have got to listen to what a car is telling you on track. I learned this on an E36 M3 with stock rotors that shattered a front and luckily I was able to keep it out of the wall where it happened - and I have since applied my learning to multiple cars as rotors have failed both as a passenger and driver and have managed to avoid complete failure in the situations.
If you bought it from us and need additional info or support, email me or our guys and they can handle it. I don't personally feel that this is a widespread issue; I see cracked rotors every track weekend of some brand or another - that is what happens. We race on a very similar Direct Drive in Grand-AM with a 3700# car and we also use ABS and we haven't had the issue. I would say in general as drivers we can all learn though, no matter what brands we are using, that riding the ABS is not a good technique, beyond the potential for added stress and failures it induces. Looking at data, it just isn't as fast.
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