gfacter

I just purchased my car yesterday

07 Z51 2LT Coupe

I hope to get out for at least 10 days this year

Here is my plan for track friendy mods, I have a few questions also

I already have some new 06 Coupe wheels, I will get tire sensors and a TPM reset tool. Going to try some R6 or perhaps Michelen Pilot sports, all depends on what fits. For now I will be driving to the events on these tires

Bleed out the OEM brake fluid and replace with ATE blue

Get some carbotech pads Xp12-10?

I was thinking about getting a more agressive alignment after perhaps lowering the car (if this a bad idea to lower it?) if anyone can recommend streetable specs please do so.

should I change diff and or trans fluid early? (it was done once or twice a season on the S2000)

Overfill the oil 1 liter? the Manual recomeneds this. Does everyone do this?

Is the oil going to need replacing after a 2 day event? I usually dont change it every event

I will likely get some headers and some kind of intake and perhaps a tune once I get comfortable with the power stock.

After 5 years with bikes and low HP cars, I am excited to have some power to use.

Thanks

George

wallyman424

#1: pads + fluid
#2: alignment Fcamber: -1.5 Ftoe=0 Rcamber: -1 Rtoe: +.25 (+.125 each side)
#3: wheels/tires

overfill 1L: one QUART!
replace after 2 day event: no, not really, just keep tabs on the level, you will burn oil on track
diff/trans: would be prudent to put synth's in there. just remember to add the GM LSD additive for the diff

theres plenty of other stuff to be done before power mods.

gfacter

Thank you.

More camber in the front? Is caster adjustable on these cars?

wallyman424

caster adjusts to match camber, they go hand in hand. when you adjust the camber, the caster changes.

you want more camber in the front to help with turn in and tire wear. -1.5 wont destroy streetability. the rears are more sensitive to neg camber changes since they are wider than the fronts. -1 is a nice balance for street/track. more and you risk premature wear on the insides.

John Shiels

Brake fluid use Castrol SRF everything else pales in comparison. You pay more but it last longer with no bleeding. Get some brake ducting if you are going to run race pads.

I tested my oil at 1500 track miles only. It would be good for another 1000 miles according to the testing. It will be dependent on the temps your car sees. I run hard but the temps on a stock car is definitely higher than mine so it may not last as long. Your GM oil monitor is accurate and concurs with my testing. Even if you do it at 50% or 30% oil life left on the DIC it will be long after 2 days.

Remember a 6 point harness to keep you in place = HP. Which will never reduce the reliability of the car.

gfacter

I never tried SRF, but I have gone though many cans of ATE, I would get some bubbles after a event and did a lot of bleeding.

Not sure yet if I want to go to a 6 point and race seat again, I did that with the S2000 and was getting close to a NASA H1 car. It was nice not having to think about holding you self in the seat.

Here is my last outing at Summit Point

Last C5

"Not sure yet if I want to go to a 6 point and race seat again, I did that with the S2000 and was getting close to a NASA H1 car. It was nice not having to think about holding you self in the seat."

The six point is almost a necessity in the C5. Crow Enterprizes sells a nice cam lock six point with pull up lap belts that's specifically designed to fit the C5s stock belt anchors. About $150 and you get to enjoy the drive with out shredding your left knee on the speaker cover.

John Shiels

One liter does it at 69 bucks but then you have none extra so you need two. It is worth every penny. I went 900 track miles no bleed to see how long it last. Bleed sooner but unlike other fluids I have run you can go a long way without bleeding every day or event. Go to a professional race and SRF is by a huge margin the choice. It is about double Motul 600 $$ which when I used it was not lasting long at all. Price by volume not container.

gfacter

I will give the SRF a try once I get the bleeding down, I had to change calipers and also added steel braided lines in the last 2 years on the Honda and it took lots of fluid to get all the bubbles out.

gfacter

Are the OEM seats safe with harnesses?

For now its a CG lock for me I guess.


The six point is almost a necessity in the C5. Crow Enterprizes sells a nice cam lock six point with pull up lap belts that's specifically designed to fit the C5s stock belt anchors. About $150 and you get to enjoy the drive with out shredding your left knee on the speaker cover. [/QUOTE]

gonzalezfj

If you are in Maryland, do yourself a favor and get the car over to Phoenix Performance in PA. They will do everything that your car needs for the track, including brake fluid changeover (you need a Tech III to do it correctly), lowering and corner weighing.

They will recommend the Hawk DTC-70 pads. You will like the results.

I don't let anyone else touch my cars (C5Z and C6Z).

Frank Gonzalez

gkmccready

Ditch the cheesegrator rotors. Buy C5/base-C6 caliper brackets and run C5/base-C6 rotors. Get some track pads, PFC 01s have been working well for me. Brake fluid, I went with Motul RBF600.

Alternative is Hardbar's PFC calipers and rotor setup. :-)

Ditch the stock wheels. Call CCW about wheels for the C6. John will put you in 18x10+18x11 with 275/35r18 + 305/35r18 Toyo RA-1s if you're going to drive to the events. Others have had good luck with 315s on C5Z rims for track events, too. (I ran stock wheels and tires for the two days I got out last year.)

I think I'll lower the car this year once I fix my driveway. :-) Last year I ran the following for a street/track alignment on the stock wheels and runflats:
Front: -1.1deg camber, -0.6deg toe (out), 7.5deg LF, 7.9deg RF caster
Rear: -0.9deg camber, 0.8deg toe (in)

To do it again I'd probably go 0 toe in the front, and I'd even up the caster.

The car has plenty of power stock -- get more grip and more brake before you worry about more power. :-) I'm looking closely at swaybars right now because I'm not keen on the transitional response. I'm also going for the Hardbar studs and camber kit very shortly so I can swap between a street and track alignment.

glen
'06 z51

gfacter

Ditch the cheesegrator rotors.

That's on the list also, will just use the C5 rotors plus the brake caliper piece I need.

Ditch the stock wheels. Call CCW about wheels for the C6.

$2000+ for wheels are not in the budget, I would really like to stay with RA1's though as they are very consistant.

jrz1

Power is fun but if you want to improve lap times go suspension before power mods. It makes a much bigger impact on lap times.

gkmccready

I'd look at 4 18x10.5 C5Z rear rims and run them at all four corners. That'd been my plan for a while but I couldn't find any. http://www.houseofwheelsonline.com/ says they're getting a shipment of factory rims in January, though. IIRC, $210ea plus shipping. And the 18" rear tire should save you enough money in the long run to make it worthwhile.

You could run the 305/35r18s on all four corners.

gfacter

That's more reasonable, will they accept the tire pressure sensors?

From what I read here I will need them on the car.

Running the same tire all around will change the balance of the car, I want to make sure that's what I want first.

gkmccready

Since they're factory rims and C5Z had tire pressure sensors, yes.

That, unfortunately, just depends on which post you read. The best theory I've seen, and the one I like because it should work for me, is that if you run all four wheels without sensors you'll be okay. If you have a sensor on any wheel then you require all four or the car will think you have low pressure in the remaining wheels.

Not having a diameter difference front:rear also means no Traction Control. I'm not sure how it'd affect your Active Handling. The assumption is that on the track you intend to turn off the nannies.

Seems like your best bet may be to get some DRM brake ducts (or C6Z ducts), throw on the C6-base rotors & some pads, get a simple alignment, and take the car out for a day on the stock tires... see which direction you want to go. That was basically what I did last year except I also put a Hardbar harness bars and TeamTech harnesses into the car. Then you can decide what you like or don't and go from there.

glen

gfacter

Thanks Glen,

Sounds like a good plan, I havent been on street tires for a few years, I will need to remember they will get greasy after 8-10 laps

I just wish Toyo make the bigger tire sizes, my tire guy tells me the R6 hoosier has much better life and is less prone to heat cycles, but I think he just wants to sell me more tires

Happy Holidays

George

gkmccready

I was in the same boat last summer, the F1 Supercars weren't as bad as I expected. In the end, though, I decided I want DOT-Rs, and swaybars, and Hardbars Stud & Camber plate kit. DOT-Rs are obvious. The swaybars should make the transitions and bodyroll better. And the stud & camber kit will let me easily change between a street & track alignment.

I wish somebody would make a 325/35r18. I called around to a bunch of tire companies last year about 19in tires that'd fit the rear of the C6 -- the most common response was that they didn't currently offer anything and had no timeframe for when they might. The second most common answer was that I should look into running 18in rear tires.

Does anybody have any info on this new BFG R1 tire I keep hearing about?

Bill Dearborn

This sounds like your first venture in the Vette.

1. For the first couple of track days I would stay with the stock rotors and see how things go. They are not necessarily the terrible things you have read about on the forum. After you have some experience with them then you can decide what to do. This will probably save some money since you will have a better idea what mods if any you want to make. These mods are also related to wheel size so tire availability/pricing is a consideration.

2. Change the brake fluid to a higher temp fluid but I have seen many C6 novices do just fine with a fresh load of good ole GM DOT3. I have also seen them do just fine with the stock pads.

3. As for oil changes on my C5Z I usually go the whole year on one oil change since I do not get close to the mileage limit. This is with 10 track days and more than 20 autocrosses per year plus normal driving. The oil change indicator is a very good indicator of how your oil is doing. It monitors oil temp and time of operation and does a very reasonalbe calculation of how well your oil is doing. I now use this same feature on my 2003 Tahoe tow vehicle and it has cut the number of times I change the oil in it also.

4. When you put the extra quart in for track events make sure you notice how high on the dip stick the oil level is and then just keep it there. You do not need to drain any out after the track event even if you didn't use any. The engine will not suffer with the extra quart in it.

5. Tires for C5s and C6s are always an issue since selection is limited. Only a few tire makers make the tires in the stock sizes. This makes them more expensive in some cases. The T1 racers are allowed to use non stock wheel sizes to get around some of these problems. A lot of people use the old C4 GS size wheels for competition. These are all 17 inch sizes and if you decide you want to go that way then you will need to change your front brake rotor size (refer back to 1). If you decide to go with 18 inch C5 Z06 rears all the way around then you can make other decisions as far as brakes, etc. There is no need to worry about tire size impacting ABS, TC or AH functions as long as the front and rear tire diameters are equal or the rear diameter is greater than the front.

6. I am not familiar with the C6 TPM issues other than as a bystander so I am not sure what should be done about an extra set of sensors.

There have been a lot of good suggestions made on how you should proceed but I recommend you first get a good baseline on how well your car will do in stock form before you start making mods.

Bill