B505

Hey All, glad I saw a few of you guys at California Speedway this weekend! I decided to give my car a spin on a tight course to see what it could do on Sunday's Autocross. I have to say I'm very dissapointed.
I was using the factory GY RF on stock everything. The morning sessions were rained in and the afternoon sessions things were dry and started warming up.

The Track:

Very small and tight box turns with a slalom in the middle proceeded by 2 s curves, a large box, and 2 small s curves. Almost a mirror configuration rectangular track.
avg 40-45 secs dry laps
45-49 secs wet laps

Traction Control:

I tried various runs with the traction control on/off and competition mode. No matter what it was very hard to navigate the car. At these low speeds it felt almost "heavy" and even straight line acceleration resulted in the car stepping sideways because of so much power.

ABS kept getting activated as well, i'm not sure if this is due to the tread on the tires or the stock pads having some tapering effect. Of course the wet track had something to do with this but I'm really shocked by how invasive this system was.

The verdict:

Obviously my car was severely suffering from lack of traction but even in the dry, on the GY, I was very unimpressed by even straight line acceleration stepping the car sideways. I've purchased new tires which I will be mounting soon and taking a look at what I can do about the ABS activating so much.....it could be because of the factory tires not holding the grip or the tapering pads....any thoughts frmo others at autox on a stock setup?

mountainbiker2

A C5 Z06 is very fast on an autocross track. This is what's needed. Extra set of Z06 wheels. Kumho V710's or Hoosiers A6's. C6 Z06 shocks or Pfadt inverted shocks. Race alignment. Lowered on stock bolts. Stock swaybars or 32mm front. That's all you need to do. It will be one of the fastest cars on the track. IMO don't waste your time on street tires.

Driving a Corvette very similar to what I just described. This is me co-driving my friends Z06. Ignore the beginning of the video. That's my car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaO-zKINt8M

My car is much more modified and will only be about 1 second faster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8bUEZoF0B8



Steve A.

autoxer6

I dont think you NEED to change anything. If you blame yourself for the problems you are having I promise that you will end up being a much faster driver.

A Z06 is a VERY difficult car to learn to autox with. It can be very frusterating. The heavy feel and ABS issues can be slowing down your steering inputs and brake inputs. The ABS issues are often caused by stabbing the brake. The main things to focus on are

-Smooth out your inputs. Brake, turn in, throttle
-Look ahead more and brake earlier

You can spend the WHOLE DAY at an autox focused on your driving. Watch where other people are braking, turning in, getting to the throttle, etc. In a Z06 there are few places where you can get to full throttle. It takes a lot of time to learn if 40% throttle or 60% throttle is the right amount. The steering wheel has to be very close to straight to use full throttle.

If a corner goes badly, ask yourself, "what did I do to cause it". There are parts you can buy to improve every aspect of the car, none of them will make up for the improvements you can make to yourself. My comments are an attempt to save you money and help you learn faster.

Chris Shay

MX621

i auto-xed my 02 zo6 for the first time few months ago, i must say i was very suprised, i thought the car would feel big on the track, but no i was very suprised...it lowered on stock bolts alignment is street friendly, but more agressive than oem, on nitto-nt05's... i was 6th fastest on the day, fastest car on street tires.. and o yea, active handling off... i do have previous auto x seat experience in a 225 whp acura integra, with pretty modified suspension.

B505

Thanks for the comments guys I appreciate it. I'm all for training the driver before the car. More seat time for me! I'll be back at streets of willow this sat. The last time I went to that track was a couple years ago in an evo IX. Curious to see how the vette will do.

bgenerous

Autoexer6, I used to drive an 01 Z06 then replaced it with an 06 Z06 and it is a totally different animal. Seat time is everything! I am still learning how to drive my 06 and it seems to require allot more finesse in both the breaking and accelerator than my 01. If you can get to where you are fast on GY RF then moving to Hoosiers A6's will just be icing on the cake. Good Luck!

Brad

B505

agreed! well after much debate as to why my car was feeling odd I found a lot of inner wear on my two front tires, they're balding on the first row of tread on the inside and the next couple rows tapering up from that. Nothing too severe but they were pretty shot. I also discovered something weird with my padlets. Each one is tapering different. On the rear inside, they're wearing on teh bottom of the padlets. on the rear outside they're wearing on the top of the padlets. Anyone else experiencing this? I was aware these were prone to tapering but I expected the effect to be differerent from top to bottom on the front calipers, not tapering on just one pad.....more to come. I'll be back on a big track this weekend! Streets of Willow!

tomc8at

Wah

Don't be disheartened. It is a difficult car to master only for one reason - you can control this beast, you can control almost anything else out there ! When I first got my C5 Z06 (I came from a '95 Eagle Talon AWD), it took me THREE years to get the hang of it. Thankfully I had it before I got a C6 Z06 now.

Since you are used to an Evo, a powerful RWD is very frustrating at first. Where/when you could just stab the throttle mid-corner in a turbocharged AWD, it's a big no-no in the Z06. Another thing different is that you "steer" with rear wheels. This concept was very hard to grasp for me and I can't claim that I fully understand it. To this day, foot- and hand-work of Danny Popp are still foreign to me.

A couple more tips. First, learn to drive w/o nannies. Secondly, use second gear; it makes the car less abrupt to throttle changes.

And, keep practicing.

shakedown067

Ditch those GYs and get some fresh rubber, you'll be MUCH happier. Don't worry about being the fastest guy out there and just have fun. The times will drop the more you get used to the vette in this situation. I've seen C5Zs just KILL at autoXs. Just remember you don't always need 100% power. Sometimes 65-70% will be faster.