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"Every vehicle has a center of gravity (CG), a hypothetical point that sums up its constituent masses—engine, body, chassis, and cup holders—in one handy location. When we report weight distribution, you can infer the CG’s location in the fore-and-aft direction—in other words, the weight share borne by each axle. The problem is that those wheel loadings, interesting as they may be, are variable. As soon as the car moves, the forces of inertia inflict dramatic changes. Enter CG height: The lower it is, the less wheel loading shifts to the front during braking, to the rear during acceleration, and to the outside wheels during cornering. Racing engineers strive for the lowest-possible CG height because a set of tires delivers maximum traction—and therefore optimal perform*ance—when each tire carries its fair share of the total dynamic load.
CG height will help you grasp why one supercar is able to trounce a similarly powerful and lightweight rival. Dynamically speaking, it is one of the most important differences between a svelte sports sedan and a hulking sport-utility. Total weight, CG height, and its fore-and-aft location are the Matthew, Mark, and Luke of handling-performance secrets."
I've never heard anyone talk about how lowering the car affects the ride of the car. I would think that lowering the car reduces the "spring/suspension" travel and thus hardens the ride. What have you found?
I like Glen's denouncement of "lowered" in favor of "adjusted" a better choice of words might repelled our more senior grumps from polluting my thread.
So far I can't detect any change in the ride difference at all. I do have magnetic ride, and generally drive in sport mode. I have a sense of actually being lower, which is a surprise to me, as I doubt I'm even a full inch lower.
I've considered doing this to my car for some time now but I'm thinking I'll scrape in my driveway. The plastic things already scape every time as it sits now. I guess I could try it and if it's too low then easy enough to raise it again, right?
I'm an idiot in that, if I can do it, anyone can do it.
I have a steep driveway, and a steep parking garage at work. No problems with either.
Seems easy as pie to raise it back again. The problem there would only be having to count rotations of the "adjusting" bolt.
Did you also check your alignment? If not, I would suggest you do, especially the rear toe.
If you search all of the threads here and at the lesser, terrible vette forum, you'll find that nearly every person who checked alignment were still within specs after adjusting the bolt.
If you search all of the threads here and at the lesser, terrible vette forum, you'll find that nearly every person who checked alignment were still within specs after adjusting the bolt.
I'll check too. Eventually.
Maybe you are right but I'm just going off my experience with the C5 and C6. Also you can still be in spec and have an awful handling car.
Gotta love how every time a lowered/chrome or black wheel/modding thread pops up, You have a group of old farts who have to come in here and throw down their opinion. These must be the same folks i see at car shows showing off their dime a dozen bone stock C7 you can find at any dealership lot in large quantities like its something special.
I don't understand you guys lowering your cars. The car is low enough, you have to exercise care crossing road imperfections with the setup that comes from the factory or the darn thing scrapes. Cosmetics, ha!
Gotta love how every time a lowered/chrome or black wheel/modding thread pops up, You have a group of old farts who have to come in here and throw down their opinion. These must be the same folks i see at car shows showing off their dime a dozen bone stock C7 you can find at any dealership lot in large quantities like its something special.
No biggie, it's tradition. BTW, check out any chrome wheel thread! What comes around goes around.
Comparing this to the slammed crowd was some funny chit.
Lol, it's funny by the reaction of some people you'd think you lowered it 1/4" off the ground. Oh well, whatever. Looks good Ben, I'll post my pics tomorrow after I get mine lowered.
At the risk of even more mockery from the local Elks club, I've come to a conclusion after driving 60 miles today.
This is the best bang for buck change I think one can do for the car. It's up there with the z06 stage 1 splitter. Or the Soche magnetic cell phone mount (for the Elks, a cell phone nowadays has a large LCD screen that requires line of sight to use)
Worst bang for the buck? Xpel. What a racket. Hundreds of dollars to prevent possible, future unfortunate incidents. I did it for my front bumper of course. Lowering my deductible for comprehensive to $100 cost me about $30 a year... But I still spent $400 on the front bumper and mirrors.
I dont understand why the corvette has such big wheel gaps. If you look at a lot of high end performance cars they have much smaller wheel gaps. This isnt a ride height thing either. My M3 is higher off the ground than my corvette, but it has very little weight gaps stock.
I would like get rid of that wheel gap the corvette has, but the car is already at a low ride height that i wont do it.
Personally I hate the stuff and the lines it leaves. I pulled the stock stuff in front of the rear wheels off and I have side skirts to protect it. They were small pieces and that was a task in itself getting the glue off and wonder how you could get it off of a hood/bumper if you wanted to.
Last edited by Walt White Coupe; 11-28-2015 at 06:19 PM.
Personally I hate the stuff and the lines it leaves. I pulled the stock stuff in front of the rear wheels off and I have side skirts to protect it. They were small pieces and that was a task in itself getting the glue off and wonder how you could get it off of a hood/bumper if you wanted to.
I agree, it took me hours with a heat gun and a bottle of goo gone to get those two factory pieces off. I can't imagine trying to get something larger off.
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Originally Posted by BenCasey
I like Glen's denouncement of "lowered" in favor of "adjusted" a better choice of words might repelled our more senior grumps from polluting my thread.
So far I can't detect any change in the ride difference at all. I do have magnetic ride, and generally drive in sport mode. I have a sense of actually being lower, which is a surprise to me, as I doubt I'm even a full inch lower.
Senior grumps ? The car being built the first week of Dec is my 70th to myself and as soon as I get it back from B G it's going straight to 21st Century Muscle cars for lowering along with the Z51 sway bar install.
11-28-2015, 01:18 PM
Senior grumps ? 
The car being built the first week of Dec is my 70th to myself and as soon as I get it back from B G it's going straight to 21st Century Muscle cars for lowering along with the Z51 sway bar install. 