oviz06

I have a 2004 Z06 and I'm looking at upgrading to C6 Z06 sway bars and skocks. I'm pretty sure the sway bars will be a significant improvement. I don't know about the shocks. I want a little better handling but not a stiffer ride that would come with Bilstein sports or similar. Anybody has experience with the C6 Z06 shocks?

SR-71

I would stick with your 04 shocks unless you think they NEED replaced. Save your money on the shocks and get a set of Pfadt sways or something similar.

oviz06

I know they are lighter. Any other benefit over the GM's?

oviz06

I was refering to the Pfadt sway bars

SR-71

I think the Pfadts are a good bit stiffer % wise than C6Z stuff and they're adjustable I believe. Just a better made piece imho.

gmccreary

Here's a comparison on sway bars:

Solofast

If your stock shocks are worn out the Bilstein Sport's have almost identical damping rates. Bottom line is that you aren't going to see much, if any difference in the ride, but the Bilsteins are going to last a lot longer that the stock shocks.

Going to C6 shocks will make the ride more harsh because they are matched to stiffer springs and have a bit more compression damping than you need.

If you aren't going to change the springs the Bilstein's will probably give you the best handling you are going to get.

If you really want some more roll stiffness the Pfadt chart is a good tool. Try to select a set of bars that give an equal percentage of change front and back. This is also why some adjustabilty is a good thing.

I'm not fond at all of how Pfadt clamps their aluminum arms on their front bar. Some racers have failed these joints and it is an inherently poor design. Unless you clamp directly around the bar there is the potential for the joint to loosen up, and this joint is clamped at an angle.

LT1driver

what are the damping rates of the bilsteins and the stockers???

Solofast

Dennis Grant (who is an expert on shocks BTW) has the 2004 Z06 and Bilsetin Sports as well as the Bilstein HD's on his web site. Here is a link, the shock curves are near the bottom of the page, but it's worth reading what Dennis says, he really knows his stuff on this subject.

http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets18.html

As you can see in the curves, the front Bilstein Sports are identical in valving to the 2004 Z06 shocks. Since the Bilsteins last a lot longer there is no reason to spend the big bucks for the 2004 stock shocks.

The rears are just a bit softer than the Z shocks in compression, but unless you are a shock tuning expert you aren't going to feel it, and this also takes out some of the harshness that the stock shocks have. In rebound, the Bilsteins have more high speed damping and very similar low speed damping.

Also you will note that the Bilstein HD's aren't bad either, just a bit easier in terms of ride. If you aren't racing or autocrossing the car the HD's are probably a good upgrade that won't pound you on the highway.

Pfadt Racing

If you're looking at shocks and sway bars you may want to take a look at our full Johnny O'Connell package. We designed it as a complete system to work extremely well for Corvettes of all types, but specifically folks who want a performance improvement without sacrificing too much ride quality. The ride quality will be a little stiffer over small road irregularities, but much smoother over high speed or rough patches. The ride quality change is specifically because of the changes we made in the dampers for handling improvements.

Here is a recent review we saw posted here on CorvetteForum:

TXGS507

I am running the PFADT light weight sways on mine along with their Coilovers... My C5Z rides, handles like a dream! you just cannot get that with "stock" sways,shocks,leaf springs.. in my humble opinion.

ipuig

You already have the optimum suspension set-up for a Z06. You can improve it's handling slightly by installing tires with more grip, lowering the ride height to the maximum value recommended by the OEM, and a bit more aggresive alignment. I've seen many very fast stock Z06s at both SCCA & NCCC autocross events.
Learn how to drive your car under track conditions, once your driving skills improve significatly, then consider altering your set-up to suite your driving style.
Or you can do what most inidivduals do, throw away your money on aftermarket parts you do not need without knowing the car's full capabilities with it's current set-up.

LarryDallas

I replaced the shocks and sway bars on my C5 Z06 with C6 Z06 stuff. It made sense to me since I got them all for free from a family member. Is there a huge difference? Not too much. I would say the back end is a bit more loose given the big change in rear sway bar size.

As others have said, if you are paying for a new set I'd look into pfadt or someone else to compare price & performance. If you are getting the C6 stuff for cheap, go for it.

Solofast

Always remember that a change in tire width can effect the understeer/oversteer relationship. Simply put the C6Z bars are matched to a set of wider tires in the back to try to put down the bigger power the C6Z has. The increase in rear bar rates is designed to match that wider tire in the back and keep the car from pushing like it would do if you just put bigger tires on the back and didn't change the bars. No surprise that the bigger C6Z bars would make a C5Z feel loose, they are matched to a set of tire sizes that have (relatively) bigger tire on the back.

oviz06

IPUIG makes some valid points. I have run with the stock set-up close to 20 track days because the car had more to offer than I could handle. Then I felt I could do more so I went to a little stickier tires (Humho's Ecsta XS 275/40/17 and 315/30/18) and got a bit faster. Next I improved the brakes by going with Z51 rotors (if you machine a bit off the diameter and machine a bit off the calipers you can fit front C5 Z06 calipers and pads to the rear of the C5) I'm using different kind of pads to maintain the front bias but the result is significant and the investment is minimal. Next I went to Toyo R888 tires (275/40/17 and 305/35/18) and that made another big difference. That brings me to today and why I'm looking at improving the suspension. After an agonizing amount of research (THANKS to all of you for your great help!!!) I decided to go for the PFADT coilovers as my next change. I'm trying to run that on my track event later this month (if I can get the coilovers since PFADT has them on back order :-)) and figure out how much of a difference they make.
PFADT, knowing what my goals are, what sway bars would you recommend as my next step?

ipuig

Have an experienced driver drive your car with you in it, you will see how much capability it really has with the current set-up.

oviz06

OK, I heard you the first time around so if that is the only thing you have to say look for another posting. I am an experienced driver. I run with the Open Group on my track days and there are a lot of race prepped cars. You can say all you want about the capoability of the Z in stock form but if you put it against a GT3 with some suspension work, wings and slicks driven by a decent driver you don't stand a chance. With the brake work and R888 tires I moved from the bottom of the pack to almost middle of it. With the coilovers I should be able to move up a bit more and that is good enough for now since my car is not a track only but a weekend toy as well. Also, I do 12-14 track days a year so going through 6 sets of slicks is not something I want to do.
PFADT, you convinced me to go with you, now help me get these coilovers!!! You have to have a set hidden somewhere.

Pfadt Racing

Well we do have a "scratch and dent" set of Double Adjustable coilovers that were on our Camaro that we would make a screaming deal on. Comes with a "gently used" set of front lower control arms as well!




The pictured coilover back story: While at the Spectre341 Hillclimb in our 5th Generation Camaro we pushed into the side of a cliff at 60+ MPH, and this was some of the damage left behind. Obviously damage did not occur during normal operation of the vehicle...

In all seriousness we are working on these as hard as we can. The coilover project definitely isn't on the back burner, and when completed will allow us to increase production of an overall better product. It's exciting times at Pfadt Race Engineering and there are some really cool projects going on right now, but first priority is getting Coilovers back online.

oviz06

Good enough! Then maybe you can make sure Valaya Racing's order gets a bit of priority to have them for my March 12 Laguna Seca event.

ipuig

I'm sure you are.