VinceAD

I ran my first track day a couple of weeks ago and am hooked now. I don't want to go crazy with the mods right away since I know improvements on my learning to drive on the track is the #1 priority. My plans are about one track day/month next year in addition to weekend driving.

First, I have only owned my 96' Lt4 for a month and I believe the suspension is base (no dials on center console). The car has 90,000 miles on it. Should I upgrade the shocks now and what brand and benefits?

Second, any ideas on what size sway bars I have and what would be a good size to go with and or should I wait on this and just upgrade to poly bushings?

Third, Any other easy low cost improvements I can do while I'm learning? In the book "101 Projects" it says changing out the rear control arm bushings is pretty easy and will improve handling.

I've already flushed my brake fluid and replaced the tires although when I was replacing the tire dealer did not have a 285/40 17 in so I put on a 275/40 17 on the rear (not sure if this hurt handling much, but plan on replacing the rears soon back to the 285's).

Thanks in advance for any advise!

larryfs

see if it has the Z51 suspension package.

The LT4 needs sway bars. It makes a hugh difference for that car.
GM is pretty much sold out, so I have no idea what to tell you, but I went with the biggest C4 GM bars, and gm bushings. It's a great setup.

TrackDayLT4

I started out with a stock LT4 many years ago and here are my recomendations based on experience.

Suspension:
The 96 has the softest springs of any of the C4's. Stock it is fairly well balanced but sufers most in transitions on corner entry and through esses. That said, I went to the bigger GM sway bars and stiffer shocks with the stock springs and it totally screwed up the car's balance. The car didn't handle well again until I put stiffer springs in it to match.

I would recommend having Bilstein rebuild your stock shocks, put poly bushings in the sway bar mounts and leaving the rest alone for your first year or two while you learn to drive on the track.

Brakes;
It is a must to do some work here. Running out of brakes on the track is no fun and It started to happen to me after my first couple of track days. The key things are;

1) High Temp brake fluid, I run Motul 600.

2)Replace the aluminum pistons in the front calipers with stainless steel ones from Doug Rippie (They advertise here) The stock aluminum ones transfer too much heat from the pad to the brake fluid.

3)Brake cooling ducts. Search this forum and you will find a lot of threads. You can get everything you need from Home Depot.

4) Real racing brake pads, Search here as well. I use Wilwood, but there are many other good ones.

After this I have never had another brake problem on the track.

Tires, wheels;

255's on the front and 275's on the back can mess with the ABS since they are different diameters. The stock 96 has 8.5 inch wide front wheels and 9.5 rears. Rather than putting 285's on the back, get a pair of 9.5's for the front and run 275's all around like the 96 Z51 had.

Alignment;

The 'vette is happiest with a lot of negative camber. In front pull all the camber shims out. With 90K I bet the front spring has sagged enough to get about 1.9 degrees negative. Adjust the toe to zero. For the rear set the camber to about half a degree less than you get in front. Run a little toe in for the rear since it toes out during compression.

General;
Replace all the fluids, rear end, trans, and power steering with good synthetics. I have used Redline since day one and have had no problems after 5000+ track miles and 60,000+ total. It's time to change the spark plugs if it hasn't been done yet. I use NGK TR55's.

Cheers,

Lawrence

Canam

pretty close to me. I ran my 92 stock first and then analysed it. On the cheap I did this:
1. ATE super blue brake fluid full flush and added Hawk HP+ pads all around. Used russell speed bleeders for later track days.
2. B&M ripper shifter for all those missed shifts I had.
3. Revalved vette brakes Bilsteins I traded for a spare roof. bonus!
4. I use Mobil 1 everywhere except for Castrol in the engine. Castrol doesn't leak past seals during winter storage.
5. I bought new Falken Azena 615's. For the price best street and track tire. Going further you need R1's.
6. A friend fabbed up a harness bar for 200 buck and I installed belts on both seats. A must have. If not your constantly fighting the wheel by holding on too hard.

I bought most of my stuff from Summit racing. Great prices. The car was totally transformed and with the 10 inches or so of tire on the ground was very very fast. I blew off a lot of "better" cars. Vettes are fun.
Next year will be alignment settings and probably 32mm and 26mm sway bars from Addco. Also a pedal extension for better heel and toeing. For the money this is what I did

RAFTeRACER

[QUOTE=VinceAD]I ran my first track day a couple of weeks ago and am hooked now. I don't want to go crazy with the mods right away since I know improvements on my learning to drive on the track is the #1 priority. My plans are about one track day/month next year in addition to weekend driving.


Most guys will tell you not to mess with the car too much till you learn to drive it. I agree, but if your 96 is near as soft as mine was you are fighting a loosing battle. Big heavy springs and revalved shocks are a great place to start. Also ditto on the harness, you can tell what the car is doing a lot better with your **** screwed down.

John Shiels

check out Vette Brake Products for springs and shocks

VinceAD

[QUOTE=TrackDayLT4]I started out with a stock LT4 many years ago and here are my recomendations based on experience.
I would recommend having Bilstein rebuild your stock shocks, put poly bushings in the sway bar mounts and leaving the rest alone for your first year or two while you learn to drive on the track.


Lawrence, any idea what size the sway bars are in the stock LT4 so I can order the poly bushings?

VinceAD

[QUOTE=RAFTeRACER]
I know what you mean on the harness. I found myself hanging on to the steering wheel alot on my first day out.

VinceAD

Curious on the Castrol use. I've got an oil leak coming somewhere from the lower front althoughI can't tell where. Just before the track day I drained out a qt. of Mobile 1 (I had changed the oil a week prior) and added a qt. of Lucas Oil Stabilizer, I'm wondering where the leak might be coming from.

TrackDayLT4

I'm fairly sure they were 26mm front and 24mm rear. it's probably a good idea to measure your's just to be sure.

Lawrence

TRACKMAN2

Here Is The Cheapest Mod That Will Lower You Lap Times The Fastest. People Hate It When I Give This One Away.. Get A Harness 4,5,or 6 Point It Will LEt You Spend More Energy On Driving Than Holdin On.... A Neck Roll Will Also Add A Stable Platform To Drive From... Hi Temp Brake Fluid And A Good Track Alignment Will Help Alot To... As Long As The Car Holds Together Get A Good 10 Track Days In Before You Go Nuts On Mods.......

96LT1

Check out your RPOs to find out which suspension option you have in the first place... Z51, Z07, FE1, etc. FE1 is the base suspension and the softest.

Also be sure to visually check all of your bushings. A 10 year old car with 90K miles probably means the bushings are shot (cracked, peeled and or compressed).

You can do the bushings yourself and they are a good winter project that help you learn alot about your car.

Also check wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rods, etc. It's a lot easier to do the entire suspension at one time if it needs it.

As already mentioned all components of the suspension are matched and going to Z51 Bilstiens or huge sway bars and keeping the original springs (assuming FE1) is asking for handling issues.

The 255s that came on the front have a tendency to understeer or push in the corners. The best all around tire set up for a C4 is 275/40s on the front and 315/35s on the rear. A little toe-out (1/16" each side) will help the 275s on turn-in.

The Azenis that were mentioned are a good all around tire that can handle the streets (wet or dry) and can take the abuse of a heavy car (3200lbs and up) on track days. Another good street/track/autocross tire is the BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD

Mojave

Oil cooler. LTx's run hot. This past weekend, I saw oil temps as high as 305 F, and it was only 75 degrees outside.

Canam

Well, the Mobil 1 wouldn't be the cause of that while your in season. When you winter store, if you do, it has a tendency to leak past engine seals so I'm trying the castrol to see whats up this winter.
You'll need to trace the leak. Sometimes though oil will blow by seals under pressure and then not do it again. I still use Mobil 1 products in the trans and diff.

Shaun R

1)good brakes
2)good cooling
3)harness
4)then start working on that water bed suspension setup
5)fix everything you just broke to get to this number and then start upgrading power.

To many events been cut short because brakes were toasted or oil/coolant was in the red. I currently run a stock fe1 setup with 275/315 race tires and a gm 30MM up front, everything else stock. Alignment is at 1.9 in the front and 1.5 in the rear. Car is really fast through the slow stuff(below 70mph) and digs hard out of the corner. But putting it into any corner above that speed is tricky because if you do not do it really smoothly it just sits there and starts bouncing off the bumpstops, not the best feeling in the world.

VinceAD

Giving my car a better look over today it looks like the previous owner had lowered the front but the rear has not been lowered. I guess my next step should be to finish the job and lower the rear. Any reason not to do this?

Solo2GS

There is a lot of things you can do, but I would focus on suspension.

If you Auto-x you have to be careful not to out class yourself. If you don't then have at it!

Start by having a car the is in good mechanical order. Nothing wrong, no major leaks, and reliable...

Onto the suspension... Here are some of the things I have done to mine.

- Nice 30mm front sway bar (from Doug Rippie).

- Replace all the worn out old rubber bushings with poly/graphite. Truly tightens the car up and will make it handle and ride better.

- Replace all the sway bar end links with heim joints.



- Replace all the trailing arms, toe rods, caster rods in rear with heim joint kits.



- Lower the car.

- Nice 4 wheel alignment, with some good neg camber, and corner weighting. I run -2 up front and -1.5 rear.

- QA1 adjustable shocks.

- Stiffer front spring.

More for the track:
- Better radiator (DeWitt)
- Engine Oil Cooler
- Motul 600 brake fluid
- Brake duct cooling
- Race pads (Carbotech XP10's)
- Sooner or later your power steering pump is going to go or you will notice how much it sucks at high RPM and will need to rebuilt it at Turnone to prevent it from foaming, boiling over and whining like crazy...

Obvoiusly track tires (V710's) will handle better than street tires. I run 17 X 11's with 315's all around.


http://www.bauerracing.org

More track tips from my experiences for the newcomer.

Video from last event: Video 1 and Video 2 (Chase cam on nose). Enjoy!

varkwso

spend your money on track time and tires......you have a lot left in the car you are driving...

jeff

VinceAD

Thanks for the info!

VinceAD

Thanks Jeff, you got it boss man! PM me when you hear if the next Seat-Time will be Feb 23rd or when-ever. I'd like to get you as my instructor again.

Vince