jackson01

WTB-Coilovers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone want to part with a set of coilovers? If so, shoot me a PM. Thanks.

DREGSZ

Even though you didn't ask my opinion I think doil overs are a waste. I raced Big Red with GM catalog susp. parts and it was more car then I could ever hope to master. I can't even imagine how good you must be to need more then a Z07, Z51 etc suspension.

0Randy@DRM

The driver's skill level doesn't have to do anything suspension. A good car even with a bad driver would be faster. Then a bad driver on a good OEM suspension.

What year car do you have.

Randy

jackson01

2001

DREGSZ

Randy, I appreciate that you have suspension parts to sell. My point is that the available stock GM springs, sway bars etc are all 99.5% of the drivers need. I bought sway bar endlinks, heim jointed trailing arms and dog bones etc from DRM and I think Toe bars from guldstrand, but even relatively stock suspensions have so much room for driver growth that Coil overs are very unnesessary.
IMO the setup time to dial them in is more then a driver without a full team can afford.

Or to expand on your theory. Take a top notch racer in a Z51, ZO6 or Z07 car with good heim jointed arms but stock springs and Bilstiens Valved by Jack.
or let's just call it an out of the box, stock, T1 car

Compared to an average track day driver in a coil over car. assuming that somone like a crew chief and pro driver working together spent 1.5 seasons to dial in this system before joe average track driver got it and it performs perfectly at this track...

For arguments sake we'll put them both at Laguna Seca, a SCCA and ALMS raced track, 2.38 miles long w 11 turns.

I'll give the T1 car 8 seconds per lap over the average driver in the coil over car.

Even if you care to argue the difference to 5 or six seconds, which is the difference between Scotty B's record Vette T1 lap at Laguna (1:37.xx)and my best ITE time in C4R (1:43.04) after racing there as my home track for 4 straight years The point is that if you could match or even get close to that T1 lap time, (and I assure you, you can't) then you could work w suspension products beyond the scope of T1 rules but much less radical then coil overs. bear in mind there is about another 10 seconds per lap difference going to C5R's average 1:26 lap time at Laguna, that is 1 second per corner better then then Scotty's T1 time, the speed vision vette lap times aren't much better then the T1 lap times, maybe a second or 2 per lap, and a 1:34 will win almost any GT1 race there.

So my point is, What are you gonna do with Coil overs that you can't do w a conventional vette suspension?

Answer: Nuthin

0Randy@DRM

What every one is looking to do. Drop lap times. I will agree with the stock stuff with good valved shocks do handle well. But not the best!

You are running fast times!!!

Randy

PS back on the subject. There is a set of our superslam coilovers in the C5 parts http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...=drm+coilovers

This setup was kinda of custom deal for someone that needed his car on the ground. Give me a call if you have any questions about them.

DREGSZ

Ok I'll drop it

trackboss

Coilovers are great, but in a C5 the rear shocks are mounted at quite an angle and from what I see the leaf springs actually work in a much more linear way that a coilover. They are very light as well. I use coilovers on all the race cars I deal with, but on my C5 (not a race car) if I upgrade the springs I don't ever plan on using coilovers. Besides you could use any of the coilover type shocks, such as DRM, and still use leafs to spring the car. That would be my prefered setup. I think for those companies that market coilovers it would be a good idea to market those same shocks with proper valving for some of the popular leaf spring combinations such as stock Z06, T1, and the many VBP springs available. The only detriment to aftermarket leaf springs is they cost more than 3 times what a pair of coils cost, per leaf! They also take a little more effort to adjust ride height and corner weights than a coilover combo.

-V