Corvette Jake

For the past few weeks i have been doing research on the effects of lowering a c5 z06 on stock bolts and it seems that no one has a clear answer as to whether it actually improves handling or makes it worse. From what i have read t1 racers are saying it reduces cornering speed, but one would assume that is because the t1 kit wasnt designed for lower ride height correct? I also see a lot of people claiming that it does improve handling on a stock setup with an agressive alignment, but if you drop the car without changing shocks wouldnt you reduce the amount of travel you have and and in turn make it squirly on less than desirable surfaces? Im so confused. And then with lowering the car do i have to worry about corner balancing or throwing off the cars geometry??? Just for the record, im a 22 year old corvette loving porsche mechanic who just wants a daily driver/mountain carver/weekend track racer. Can someone please give me some insight? My goal is to remove some wheel gap while still retaining or improving its handling characteristics all around

laurent_zo6

Your question will be answered if you can find out why the GM engineers built the car at that height.

T4Eater

Depends on what answer you want. Autocross guys BREAK THE RULES on common sense. Autocross guys try ANYTHING to get a faster time. If I told them I run 20psi in the rear and 45 up front and beat everyone, half of them would go out and try it. This doesn't mean its safe or beneficial to road coarse or mountain driving. C5z06s setup for autox drop the nose all the way down which in turn limits travel. Not something you want to do going 150mph. Speaking of ride height- I actually came in here to go find that thread. I was trying to unlower my car... and I didn't even lower it that much... Just trying to get a feel for what was stock, then maybe lower it 1/4 inch or so. Is your car stock? Go measure it for me with some tape. In front of the front jacking hole measurement, and just behind the rear jacking hole. People are saying 5'' in the front and 5 and 3/8'' in the rear, but that seems kind of low. Any clarification on this?

People have said that vettes that were taken to and setup by phoenix racing can't even tell that their car was lowered. I can tell you that the alignment I had was great. zero toe in the front, 1/8th inch in the rear. I think camber was F-.08 Rear -.04. Car didn't understeer.

Socko

There are reccomended gm measurements for "best performance" but its all ********. Mind you, as I say that, my car is set at them and then cross-weighted.

If you never bottom out, its always faster to be lower. So on a flat road all the way down is fastest. The issue is in real life in a vette with its 2-3 inches total travel, at any ride height you bottom out the rear from time to time. On the track its all about what makes you faster. On the street, if you drive at street legal speeds, any height the stock bolts will get to will really be fine. If you drive like a nut on the street, over heaves with the rear lowered all the way its very easy to get into the bump stops which sends the rear end all over if you are spinning the tires and increases the chances for your foolishness to get you in trouble.

Corvette Jake

Believe me lol i have researched the heck out of why gm designed the car this way. From what i have gathered, the stock setup is to make the driver more comfortable at the cars limits on all types of road surfaces, by making it more forgiving through rough corners and giving it a slight tendancy for under steer (unless you just full throttle through the turn lol) which give the driver more of a sense of control. Right?

Corvette Jake

Is there an aftermarket company that makes slightly shorter shocks for lowering these cars? And do you think those would solve and bottoming out problems?

laurent_zo6

That would be also my first "guess". To try to satisfy all types of driving and satisfying none.

John Holmes

Do a search for your Z06 owner's video manual on you tube.
Or try this:

One of the things that the people who made the car tell you in the video is that you may lower the car about 1/2" using the stock bolts.
I have done this. Does it help? Who knows? I feel better for having done it though.
My C5Z is track driven only, never on the street.

JETZ

OLD news, to get them on the transporters!

frank

JETninja

Lowered around 1" on stock bolts. You have to get a new alignment right after or the now increased toe will kill your front tires in a week or two. I went for a pFadt Street/Track setup and love it, it woke up the handling and response.

Corvette Jake

T4Eater i will measure the height as soon as it comes back from the body shop, a truck didn't see me next to him when changin lanes and gave my driverside door sone burnout marks ��

gunluvS14

Don't over complicated things.
Define your purpose/goal you want to pursuit, pick the appropriate tires/alignment, and go out enjoy the car and road.

If you really want to mess with the ride height, most people who did the suspension geometry calculation founded we are not far off from "ideal" in term of roll center, camber gain/loss during roll. There are few suspension calculators out there, and folks already did the hard part and provide the measurement for us in this community. Good luck

example:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-analyzer.html

Solofast

If you want to do it, at least do it right. Here's a link to the proper way to do it so that you won't have to go out and corner weight it if you 're not going be seriously racing the car.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1576940245

If your car hasn't been lowered or messed with if you do it right you won't have to have it corner weighted, just get it aligned when you are done. If it's been dinked with you really should have to get it corner weighted.

As noted above, don't get greedy, a half to 3/4 of an inch is optimal for performance and also plan on getting it aligned after you do it.

These cars are getting older, so unless you have a garage queen it's going to be hard to get the front spring bolts loose. They tend to bind up and if they are rusted you can damage the spring if you aren't careful.

What is really amazing is how lowering these cars a bit an putting in a serious performance alignment wakes them up. The change in the way the car feels and drives if properly set up is really night and day.

Don't be so concerned that some negative camber will eat your tires, it won't. What eats tires is toe out in the front (racers toe the cars out a bit to make them turn in faster), so make sure you keep a bit of toe in and enjoy the car.

And we tested on autocross course and the car is faster with the car lowered just less than an inch. More wasn't faster despite what you may think.

FASTFATBOY

When the alignment is done be sitting in the car

Corvette Jake

Thanks everyone for the resonses. Does anyone know where i can go get my suspension tuned and corner weighted in socal?

2003Evo

Koni shocks are slightly shorter so in order to instaill them you need to lower the car

rjwz28

I got this quote from Excelsior Motorsports in Escondido; I can't really justify $600 for an alignment right now, so I'm just going to spend $85 to have my local guy do it:

Does anybody know offhand how many threads are showing from the factory? I'd like to lower my suspension a bit more as well, but it's in the air and I have taller tires; I don't know if it's been messed with and I don't want to go too low or have it corner weighted.

Sledge Hammer

Do you know how much shorter they are? Any part numbers by chance? I have not seen reference to this in the past. It seems most of the threads I have seen have said when you lower you reduce travel almost to the point of being on the bump stop. This would seem to be a potential solution.

Solofast

I don't know what model Koni's you are using, but I have the 3012's (double adjustable) and they are most certainly not shorter than stock in terms of body length. While they may not have as much travel and you might have to pull up on the control arm to install it, the length of the shock body is, as far as I know essentially the same as the stock shock. If they were any shorter in terms of body length I'm sure somebody would have figured it out by now.

Don't confuse extended length with compressed length.

JETZ

That's what I tell her...all the time!

frank