Stage7

I have a set of coilovers coming for my C6 next week. Can someone recommend a shop to install, align, corner weigh, etc?

Thanks!

95jersey

Phoenix is not too far away in Eastern PA.

I asked ECS on a few occasions if they thought about getting into this business, and they seem to have interest. If your in Jersey, you may want to contact Doug and ask if he would do the work.

sefa01

Joe Casella, who heads up PDA and owns IMP, uses an alignment guy who is very goood. he's done track alignments on my cars. Give Joe a call at 973-253-3900. He's in Clifton, which isn't that far from you. Tell him Steve with the CTS-V and the DSOM C6Z referred you to him.

You can dictate any alignment you want and you'll get printouts of everything. And the price is very reasonable.

DOUG @ ECS

Thanks 95,
We can certainly do your coil overs and corner weighting, however we do not do the alignments in house. We use a professional shop right down the road that sets them to our specs with a print out. They have all been right on and we have been very happy with them so we do not plan on doing the alignments here any time soon. (there is only so many hours in the day)

Which coil overs did you go with?

Stage7

Thanks for responses! I went with the pfadts. The LG's were my first choice, but I could not get enough feedback from current owners regarding street manners to pull the trigger.

Then I saw someone selling a brand new set of pfadts on ebay and I won the auction last night.

wtknght1

As I've said before, if you own a vette and haven't taken it to Joe, Kurt and the whole Phoenix crew, you have missed the boat. These guys do some amazing things with these cars...with direct input from John Heinricy on the latest and greatest. Nuff said.

95jersey

And the price tag to boot as well. I like Phoenix and they have TONS of experience, but at the end of the day we are doing HPDE, not racing. Car set up is not THAT complicated, especially at the HPDE level. Cornerweight is not rocket science, and allignments are pretty generic as well. So it comes down to tires, sway bar, spring selection.

I say if you have limted funds, get a good allignment, then cornerweight and you are pretty well set for HPDE. That is 95% of the game, anything more is luxury spending. Sure Phoenix will help get that additional 5% out of your car, but unless you are racing, in my opinion, save your money.

wtknght1

You get what you pay for. And OBTW, Joe charges less than dealers do (and most shops quite honestly). I'd compare his quality of work and price to anybody else's.

My point of going to Phoenix is that you can do it right the first time... instead of guessing/thinking/believing you're getting it right. I did HPDEs for years and years and am kicking myself that I didn't know about those guys much sooner.

A properly set up car is the "platform of learning"...similar to a good instructor. If you don't have things set up properly, or have a good instructor, then it's basically like garbage in/garbage out. They are worth every dime.

sefa01

I brought my C6Z to Phoenix for alignment and balancing. All I can say is that I wasted a full day (about a 2 1/2 hr. drive for me) and about $350. When I first got the car back, it was handling worse than when I brought it. I drove about two miles and brought it back to the shop. Kurt, who heads the shop, went with me for a ride and saw how badly it was handling. We went back to the shop and they worked on it for about another 1/2 hour and then I took it home. It ended up not handling any better than when I brought it there.

wtknght1

Did you talk to Kurt and/or Joe afterward about this...and if so, what did they say?

sefa01

Why bother? Kurt knew I wasn't happy when I left. I wasn't going to make that long drive again.

I know Phoenix does good work since I see cars prepped by them all the time when I do HPDEs. Just unfortunate that they couldn't get my car right. Funny thing is that I was willing to pay a lot more than $350 if I could get it to handle like the C6 that I traded in on the C6Z. Second funny thing is that if they'd be able to fix my problem I had discussed bringing my CTS-V to them since I knew they prepped some CTS-Vs for SCCA events.

No hard feelings. Just another one of life's experiences.

ddl6289

What specifically about the handling of the C6 was better than the C6Z? Did the C6 have suspension work done? Do you think there is something atypical about your C6Z or does a C6, in general, handle better than a C6Z? I thought that a C6Z would be as good as, or better, than a C6, but that's only a guess since I've driven neither car.

sefa01

My C6 drove like it was on rails. The C6Z is twitchy--the car doesn't like anything except smooth pavement.

There was a whole thread on this. Refer to:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1572790

chuntington101

i have heard the z's are a little twitchy at the back end. still very fast around a track if you can stay just uner the limits! only a little slower than the 599GTB!

Chris.

trumper Z06

Sefa01... what year is your C-6 Z06 ? We hear that GM has changed the shock damping on the 07's !!!

I picked up my 07 Z06 in December... the car was extremely "twitchy" at first and I was becoming a little concerned.

After a month and ~ 1200 miles, the shocks & suspension smoothed out... that jittery/skittish feeling has gone.

Reminded me of the first Q45 we had back in 93.... it had the very same break-in sensation... suspension was very tight/bouncey for the first ~ 1200 miles... then the car became "user friendly".

For HPDE... You also might look at using Kuhmo V-710's if your not using them already. They get by with less negitive camber (-1.5)... compared with Hoosiers or Goodyear GSCS dot "R"'s.