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so what sway bars are you guys running? I cant decide looking for a package (front, rear, bushings, and end-links) i know usually endlinks are sold seperate so if there is a preffered brand over stock mention them
Pretty subjective, what's your plan? Do you do track days? HPDE? Drags? Steet/ DD? Experiencing any problems with oversteer/understeer? Shocks? Springs? Coil overs?
Just throwing bars on a car won't necessarily get you to where you want to go.
Pretty subjective, what's your plan? Do you do track days? HPDE? Drags? Steet/ DD? Experiencing any problems with oversteer/understeer? Shocks? Springs? Coil overs?
Just throwing bars on a car won't necessarily get you to where you want to go.
i do HPDE, PDX, and track days. currently on stock z06 shocks.
The days of throwing sway bars at a car and making big improvements in handling are long gone. It used to be that hanging bigger bars on a car was a quick way to get a lot less body roll and a lot more grip. Suspension is much better nowadays and if you go at it without looking at maintaining proper balance you are more liable to screw it up than make it better.
To that end you need to look at the total package of springs, bars and shocks and think about what you are doing with an eye to maintaining proper setup balance.
If you don't plan on doing a lot of testing of different bars then look for a package of front and rear bars that are already tuned to give you good balance with your springs and shocks.
If you go off the beaten path of a matched set of bars then make sure you get something that has some level of adjustability so that you can tune one bar or the other and get proper balance.
Big bars can certainly help, but they can also destroy the streeability of your car. I'd look at the Pfadt swaybar charts and see where you want to go. I addition, the T1 bars are considered a bit to aggressive for street use (but are great on the track) and that should give you a data point as to where the stiffness is too harsh for street use.
Here is a link to the chart, and understand I'm not recommending their products, but you should be able to use this to get you in the ball park. And notice that the rear adjustability is shown for some bars and you can see the range they cover.
The days of throwing sway bars at a car and making big improvements in handling are long gone. It used to be that hanging bigger bars on a car was a quick way to get a lot less body roll and a lot more grip. Suspension is much better nowadays and if you go at it without looking at maintaining proper balance you are more liable to screw it up than make it better.
To that end you need to look at the total package of springs, bars and shocks and think about what you are doing with an eye to maintaining proper setup balance.
If you don't plan on doing a lot of testing of different bars then look for a package of front and rear bars that are already tuned to give you good balance with your springs and shocks.
If you go off the beaten path of a matched set of bars then make sure you get something that has some level of adjustability so that you can tune one bar or the other and get proper balance.
Big bars can certainly help, but they can also destroy the streeability of your car. I'd look at the Pfadt swaybar charts and see where you want to go. I addition, the T1 bars are considered a bit to aggressive for street use (but are great on the track) and that should give you a data point as to where the stiffness is too harsh for street use.
Here is a link to the chart, and understand I'm not recommending their products, but you should be able to use this to get you in the ball park. And notice that the rear adjustability is shown for some bars and you can see the range they cover.
mainly looking to tighten the car up. Was considering the
johnny o'connell kit, as a + WCC has then on sale for a $100 off right now, also am looking at putting c6z shocks in.
You might consider the DRM Bilstein instead, they may b a little less harsh and a bit more compliant over bumps. I've read comments where the Z06 shocks increased wheel hop in turns. The JOC bars may be good, I don't have direct experience with the, but looking at the pfadt chart, they appear ton change the bias from understeer to oversteer, but they are also adjustable. There are some posts by Aaron Pfadt explaining their goals with the JOC setup.
If not a daily driver, I would go with the T1 bars and end links (I did myself). A lot of engineering went into those, they work well and are reasonably priced. If you drive some on the street, look into LG quiet end links.
I had PFADT sways installed at CARLISLE.The handling of the car is 100% better.However,they screwed up the job so bad and I'm having such a hard time correcting the problem,i can't recommend them at all. From putting the end links on backwards to the noises I hear under the car it's intolerable. Next week I'm having Z51 OEM sways installed on my base suspension 2014 coupe.Street driving 99.9% of the time and I'll take a 30mph curve at 60 or 70 once in a while when nobody is around.
I had PFADT sways installed at CARLISLE.The handling of the car is 100% better.However,they screwed up the job so bad and I'm having such a hard time correcting the problem,i can't recommend them at all. From putting the end links on backwards to the noises I hear under the car it's intolerable. Next week I'm having Z51 OEM sways installed on my base suspension 2014 coupe.Street driving 99.9% of the time and I'll take a 30mph curve at 60 or 70 once in a while when nobody is around.
Pfadt made three different versions of swaybars, which version a re you referring to and what issues did you run into?
I'm selling my PFADT sways that are less then a month old.What I can tell you is that they kept my 2014 coupe flat in the curves like nothing OEM I've ever experienced. Comes with all end links nut and bolts and clamps I got with it for my c7. FRONT AND REAR BARS. I have a couple of threads open listing the sale so take a look. These
Pfadt made three different versions of swaybars, which version a re you referring to and what issues did you run into?
See the pics and the only issue I ran into was some knocking under the car.I wasn't told upfront about that possibility and it pissed me off so I removed the product.The car though,i handled like it was on rails and flat in curves. I have since learned that I can use OEM end links with these so if they don't sell I will probably go that rout.For now,I have Z51 sways on the car and the difference is quite noticable. Still better then my base suspension but not as good as the PFADT ones. I reduced the price to 450 plus shipping,btw.
See the pics and the only issue I ran into was some knocking under the car.I wasn't told upfront about that possibility and it pissed me off so I removed the product.The car though,i handled like it was on rails and flat in curves. I have since learned that I can use OEM end links with these so if they don't sell I will probably go that rout.For now,I have Z51 sways on the car and the difference is quite noticable. Still better then my base suspension but not as good as the PFADT ones. I reduced the price to 450 plus shipping,btw.
The OP appears to have a C5. Your experience with the Pfadt bars on your C7 really has no relevance to what may/may not occur on his C5, completely different animal.
I can say this, after tracking a fairly highly modified 99 Z28 with Koni yellows, Strano springs on front, Strano bars, aggressive alignment, lowered panhard bar(and other stuff). The car was a street car that weighed 3800lbs and had 385 to the wheels. I went from junk street tires to Nt-05's to old R comps with it. I wasn't blistering quick in it, 1:47 at Barber, 1:59 at NOLA, but I wasn't a back marker either.
Recently I bought a C5 Z06, I tracked it for the first time last weekend. Only mods I did were:
Stainless brake lines
Good pads
Lowered on bolts
Pfadt street/track alignment
Kirkey Seat, harness bar and belts
I ran it on some 5 year old Hankook RS-3's(285-35-18 square), I went quicker in 4 sessions at Barber in the Z06 than I did on R comps in the Z28 with 5 years of seat time.
I can honestly say that it will take me a LOT of track time to extract what this car has to offer in the form it is in now. I won't touch this car for years to come. I may put a better tire on it and maybe a more aggressive alignment on it a year from now. For now I will burn up all my old 17 inch NT-05's and BFG R1's I had for the Z28.
Unless you have a sh!tload of seat time in one of these cars it's hard to see how modding it will make it quicker. Spend money on a GOOD seat and the time to use it on track.
It probably isn't so easy to come up with definite pairings of bars (hence the adjustability) because it depends on other factors in the car and as mentioned before, tires.
I find the C5Z in stock form understeers reasonably badly. Going to a square set up helps a bit, and getting a more aggressive alignment helps more. This year, I went from stock bars to front and rear Strano bars. I set the front at the softer setting and the rear at the middle setting and the car oversteered way to much. I tried going to the softer rear setting but there seems to be some issue with contact with the rear toe links at full droop, (at least on my car) so I went back to the stock rear bar. I am very happy with the balance of the car now but I am on Michelin PSS tires which are certainly not R comps.
My point is, given the stock car with stock everything, I think stiffening the rear would be the obvious choice but going to a staggered set up and more alignment changed the balance of the car enough that actually adding some front bar made sense.
BTW, I would think for just about any car you plan to drive on the street that the T1 bars are too much.
What you help convey is a sense of perspective. Too often people will write about their opinions without any qualifiers. You filled those in nicely.
With my GS, year before last, an instructor friend of mine drove my car in one of the high-intermediate groups. With me in it, he proceeded to pass every car on the track, many running R-Comps. My car has no performance mods, just stock suspension except for camber blocks and he said he was driving about 7/10's. I couldn't do that then and with only a couple of track days in the interim, I can't do that now. Right now I'm more in the middle of the pack. These cars are very capable indeed, hence my questions at the beginning of the thread. IMHO, unless you are trying to overcome some deficiency, your best money spent is on track time, not mods, then if I were driving a base model I would limit mods to OEM components until I hit the high-intermediate stage.
The same argument can be made for going to R-Comps. They are great sticky tires but can hide a lot of mistakes and create a lot of peripheral expenses. From what I understand, R-comps won't give as much warning when they break traction, unlike street tires. I plan to stay on street tires and run with the nannies on until I hit the advanced group. If you want to see where your mistakes are, try running quickly in the rain. Mistakes will show up at slower speeds and with less potential damage. The rain will also make you a smoother driver.
Originally Posted by FASTFATBOY
I can say this, after tracking a fairly highly modified 99 Z28 with Koni yellows, Strano springs on front, Strano bars, aggressive alignment, lowered panhard bar(and other stuff). The car was a street car that weighed 3800lbs and had 385 to the wheels. I went from junk street tires to Nt-05's to old R comps with it. I wasn't blistering quick in it, 1:47 at Barber, 1:59 at NOLA, but I wasn't a back marker either.
Recently I bought a C5 Z06, I tracked it for the first time last weekend. Only mods I did were:
Stainless brake lines
Good pads
Lowered on bolts
Pfadt street/track alignment
Kirkey Seat, harness bar and belts
I ran it on some 5 year old Hankook RS-3's(285-35-18 square), I went quicker in 4 sessions at Barber in the Z06 than I did on R comps in the Z28 with 5 years of seat time.
I can honestly say that it will take me a LOT of track time to extract what this car has to offer in the form it is in now. I won't touch this car for years to come. I may put a better tire on it and maybe a more aggressive alignment on it a year from now. For now I will burn up all my old 17 inch NT-05's and BFG R1's I had for the Z28.
Unless you have a sh!tload of seat time in one of these cars it's hard to see how modding it will make it quicker. Spend money on a GOOD seat and the time to use it on track.
10-03-2015, 09:11 AM
sway bars
