MongoZ06

I know the coilover debate has been going on for quite sometime on this board and plenty of people have made the jump over to a C/O setup with great feedback on ride quality and how the car "feels" when going around corner...

What I want to know is if any one has seen any reduction in track times by switching from the stock setup to a C/O setup..?

waddisme

I wenty from the Pfadt Sport adj w/T1 bars to the LG Gt2s and saw zero reduction in lap times. I am not the best or most aggressive driver so maybe I am not getting all I should out of them. However, I was driving hard enough to wear the bump stops off my Pfadts and at $70 a pop to repl, I had to do something. If I had it to do over again, I would have went another direction and saved my $2000. Car does ride different, I am not saying better, just different. I am probably in the minority here, but unless you are trying to get the last 1/10th out of your lap times, cost is hard to justify.

HTH.

Supercharged111

What kind of tires do you guys run? My impression is that the extra spring rate is better utilized with sticky rubber, something that induces excessive body roll on the stock components and can otherwise bully the car around. Until then, I would think coilovers are a waste. Unless they stabilize the car during transitions to the point that you can simply put the car on edge with more confidence and cut your times that way.

redtopz

The short answer is yes. But it's not because they are coilovers. If all you did was remove your leaf springs and install coil springs with the same exact wheel rates and shocks as your stock setup, then no I don't think they would be faster. The reason they provide more grip on the track is because they stiffen the wheel rates and use superior shocks in most cases. Combine that with stiffer sway bars, skf hubs, and poly/delrin/shperical bushings and you have a much more track worthy setup than stock that can sustain higher lateral/longitudinal G's and maintain grip over bumpy sections of track. You could achieve the same thing with leaf springs, but the composite leafs are more expensive than $65 coils and more difficult to work with under the car. Therefore, vendors have developed coilover packages which are a bolt-on upgrade to our cars.

It's sort of the same thing with aero and shocks. Yes, they provide more potential for grip, but you have to have the skill both to set them up properly (dial them in) and push the car to use the new potential. Unless you are at the very limit of your existing setup (ie. you have a lot of track experience and you know why your car is not performing the way you need it to on the track), then chances are chasing the next greatest upgrade will not be as rewarding as you hoped. It's best to get the maximum out of what you have until you can identify one or two things that you know for a fact would help you get that next second or two and then install it and spend the time getting the most out of it.

Another approach (which I actually took as a newb) is to install a bunch of upgrades that you see other people using at the track and then use that as a starting point. I started hpde with a 2nd hand set of coilovers, T1 sways, headers, and hoosiers. It took me a while to figure out what the heck I was doing with the car setup and my driving, but after a couple years of hpde I was turning T1 lap times. I'm not sure if it was a shorter path or longer path, but in the end it worked out. The downside with this approach is it's potentially more expensive because you may not be happy with your original upgrades after using them for a year or two and you will have to upgrade twice. A second downside is you just increased the chances for poor car setup and things that can go wrong with aftermarket parts. A third downside is you will be learning in a car that has more potential on the track so it will take more speed to reach the limits of the car which is more dangerous. All 3 of these downsides bit me at one point or another. Sorry this was longwinded, but I just finished a big cup of coffee

naschmitz

If you are wearing holes in your fender liners or bouncing the car off the bump stops, the car is going to be wicked slow as you unload the loaded tires. For me all that took was R888s and a track with elevation change or banking on my F55 base coupe. Could have gone to C6Z06 springs and shocks, but decided to do coil overs instead.

Werks

Same experience for me on my C6Z w/ F55 & R888's!

mnmthoele

I switched to Pfadt SA lightweights last year and love them. I needed to replace shocks anyway, so I just decided to upgrade now rather than buy shocks and then want to replace them a yer or so down the road. The car definetly rides much flatter and predictable. If I would hit a curb the car stayed much more planted. Overall I say get the coilovers

JeremyGSU

Just simply adding coilovers isn't going to drop your lap times if you're not really pushing the car and aren't consistent. And really, any suspension upgrade over stock will drop lap times if you are. I only had lowering bolts and added the $1000 Johnny O'Connell package to my C5 Z and was able to drop my lap times from just that cheap upgrade. But I've done a ton of track days.

I've also managed to pass plenty of C6 Z's running coilovers and Hoosiers in my C5 Z with 555 RII's simply because they don't know how to drive their cars yet or their not pushing it.

People are always quick to put all these mods into their car before they really know how to drive them. I see it all the time as an instructor. Drives me nuts.