captaingeek

I'd love to get one of these cars but have a somewhat steep gravel hill to contend with. Tested a buddies c6 on my drive and it definitely was eating up gravel with the wind / splash guard. I think that part would definitely wear away or need to be removed. The bumper didn't hit but the black plastic was in the gravel.

What are my options short of paving the drive I live on?

Could I get some higher profile wheels, tires or adjust the suspension? I plan to use this as a DD.

01vetter

You can raise the suspension if you don't mind the SUV look. I wouldn't worry to much about the black plastic spoiler lip. It is on a spring and can be replaced if damaged. You don't want the nose, rockers or under carriage to scrape.

tbrent

I have driven mine up gravel driveways and roads no problem other than how long it took because of being careful... Gravel drives and roads have a more exaggerated hi-center than paved roads. You know how when you are driving on a paved road and the car pulls you in the groove? I don't have any problems because I will keep the tires on the high spots next to the lower grooved spots.

My car is very low, about an inch and a half of clearance to the air dam up front.


Leaving my sisters driving off to the right side. If I drove down the center the air dam would scrap the whole way.



These pictures were taken at my sisters house and her lonng driveway

The air dam up front under the bumper fascia is three pieces.
left-center-right.

Lots of Vette owners will do a little trimming on the left and right. I have seen and heard of half an inch to an inch. The center is where all the air is directed up to our radiatior so you should cut that. As long as you aren't bottoming out the center piece at 30 mph you should be okay as it's spring loaded and designed to a little bit of a rubbin. You might have to replace yours every few years maybe but I usually just get down on the ground and rub some tire dress on my corner dams if they get a little scuffed...

Sorry for the rambling but I hope this helps and if your gravel hill is a lot different than "typical" gravel drives or roads maybe post a picture so we can see what you're dealing with if this ramble of mine hasn't helped

tbrent

Oops. Didn't see you already addressed the center piece. You also brought up another good point..

Frame savers up from and or "fat daddy's" or "fat mommas". Can't remember what they are called. Help keep you from adding character to the subframe up front

captaingeek

Thanks for the notes. Now would higher profile tires or 18-20" rims give better clearance?

troyguitar

My driveway is a 25% grade down to my house and the C5Z is just barely able to pull into the garage without scraping the nose with stock tires at stock ride height. The air dam scrapes but the actual paint clears the pavement by maybe 1/4" or so.

Y'all with lowered cars must live in flatland or something. This is as low as I can go without scraping the paint every time I go in and out of the garage!



I'm guessing that the car could probably stand to run taller tires and gain some ground clearance that way. Stock front tires are 25.4" tall on Z06, if you were to run something say 26.5" tall you would gain just over half an inch and probably not have any issues with tires hitting the fenders. Getting something 27.5" tall in the rear would keep it from looking unbalanced too. The only downside would be the ~5% change in effective gear ratio.

Adrians99FRC

I have a 1/4 mile long gravel driveway with some deep ruts, potholes, and a hill that likes to wash out every time it rains

Went to northern tool and bought a landscape drag .. Like $80 or so and now I have barely any rubbing if any

Just drag it behind the lawn mower a few times every couple weeks to level things back out enough to where I don't scrape

BKH

I have a gravel drive about 100 yards long and a lowered Z06. I set the box blade on the tractor at 1.5" off the ground and just kept making passes until no gravel was touching the blade. I have to touch it up every few weeks but it only takes a minute.

captaingeek

I got the car and feel ok about backing it part way up my hill. The air dam is definitely scraping. When you say rockers, do you mean the 2 prongs by the air damn? Are those on springs? I'm not hitting those.

I think the most scraping I'm hearing is from the exhaust. Maybe I can tighten that up. I'll have to post some pics so you can see what I'm dealing with.