AFR VETTE

Ive been thinking about it for a while and would like to improve the handling on my C6 z51 coupe. A friend of mine suggested coil overs, but he said by doing that it eliminates the active handling. Can anyone verify this? Does anyone have any suggestions on what i should do?
Thanks
ADAM

AutoCutter

Not to be a smart a$$, but the best suspension mod you can do is go to driving school.

You need to define what kind of driving you have in mind to get any useful opinions of what you should/could do first.

By the way, going to coil overs should not disrupt Active Handling.

ztheusa

Are you driving past the limits of the Corvette suspension? Why?

mpuzach

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish?

Shrike6

I have to agree about the driving school thing. A highly skilled driver will do more with the stock Corvette suspension than could be accomplished by an untrained driver with a race-prepped one.
If you don't believe it, take one of Spring Mountain's courses, and they will prove it to you beyond any doubt. AND you'll have a great time doing it, and come back with improved suspension for your Corvette!

GM

Keaka26

From what I've seen of other Z51 owners around here they are swapping to Bilstein Sport shocks for better ride quality and improved handling, and either leaving the Z51 swaybars or going to Z06 bars... Im actually upgrading my base suspension to the Z51/Bilstein combos...

MNVette

I drive the F55, and I swapped out my standard stabilizer bars for Z51 bars. Other than that, I cannot imagine what else I could do - there is no way I can outdrive my setup. I agree on the driving course.

AORoads

I'll vote, go to driving school. (see a trend here?).

Think about it for a moment. There was a thread just last week about how the C6 handles and something about well, yeah, but if Johnny (O'Connell, Corvette racing driver) came out and drove the car, the SAME car that everyone said was slow, he'd be faster. True? True.

If you took YOUR car to say, Spring Mountain, or Bondurant, and took a few laps, no lessons, and get your best time, then hand the keys over to one of the instructors, how do you think they'd do? Better? Better.

Coilovers for the street, I'd bet many would say it doesn't make sense. Better shocks for the street, you can go Koni, Bilstein, etc. But it's still, ALL about the driver. Until you're at your best, the car can't be any better than the driver.

johnodrake

That's what I'm going to do A good alignment will improve handling too.

thetopdog

Why does nobody else see the appeal of a better handling car? The Vette is not perfect. Most people here couldn't fully exploit the handling potential of a 350Z or even a Miata, but we still bought a Vette. Driving school may be the best way to improve lap times, but maybe he just wants his car's handling to be more responsive or have better 'feel'

not08crmanymore

race driving school!

JLMounce

Another vote for driving school. If you've never spent a huge amount of time ON TRACK behind the wheel, this car will chew you up and spit you out.

I've had a number of track days in the C6 so far this year, and I keep getting quicker, on a bone stock car.

After driving school, your first order of business would be getting the crappy rolling stock off the car. Get some decent tires on the car.

After that, there is a lot you can do to the stock suspension to increase handling. Corner weight the car using the stock bolts, then give it a performance alignment.

With the driver training, good tires, and a properly tuned suspension, I guarantee you'll run circle around the guys that spent their money on fancy coil overs.

LS6dude

To many people think there vette is end all of be all....get over it. It can handle better.

calemasters

The RPO F55 shocks are not coil overs. If you install coil overs, you will loose an expensive option, F55, MRC.

KMK454

There's a difference between wanting to drive a car at 100% (driver's ed) and just wanting a great handling car with a great handling feel... The C6 puts up great numbers but there is much to improve in terms of feel, connection to the road, and communication. My mom's damn BMW X5 SUV has a better handling feel than the C6, but the C6 will run circles around it.

AHTTG

There's a difference between driving faster and improving handling so that the car feels better.

Look at his avatar... I think I see a v12 ferrari and a 911 in there. He probably knows a litle about car control...

johnodrake

The question is not so much can it be better, and it can. Indeed, any car can be made to handle better. Heck, even race cars at the premier level have handling issues. It's the degree that makes the difference.

The Corvette is such a great piece for the money. As has been said many times in this thread, you can't handle what it has now. That said, for those that want to work on handling there are many options. What I would not want to see is for GM to spend a lot of money - which is passed on to us as buyers - to improve handling. Incremental improvements are of course welcome, but major expensive changes are, in my opinion, best left to the after market.

BlueSpeed

bilstein sports on my Z51 made a very noticeable improvement in the handling dept. and no loss of ride quality, if you like you can search my prior review.

Firedog

He was born in 1987....

AORoads

Excuse me, but if you look beyond the avatar into the profile, you'll see that OP is 19. That doesn't mean s/he hasn't had a car control course (but hasn't said so, yet), but those aren't "his" cars in the avatar, I think