Achmed

After how many miles do you typically think they're worn enough to warrant replacing for better performance? I know it depends on the type of roads, driving conditions etc. In general though, with mostly street driving and some track days after approx. how many miles do you recommend changing the OEM ones?

firebirdfan

Definitely by 100k miles.

Performance would probably start to drop off around 70k.

Corvettes have the benefit of not having struts, only shocks. This means that they're relatively cheap to replace in comparison with other vehicles that do use struts. They'll also last longer when compared with struts because they don't have to deal with steering forces.

If you're looking for a performance improvement, changing out the OEM shocks for aftermarket adjustables can (and probably should) be done ASAP. Shocks are one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve the handling of a stock corvette (short of tires, of course).

Supercharged111

I feel like shock tuning is going to be the way ahead for me, but don't really know what to change. I can't drive a car and say if low/high speed compression/rebound is too high/low.

Bill32

First, most people think shocks don't drop off in performance for a long time - they're wrong.

There's only one true way to measure their performance, dyno them. And that's if you have access to the new dyno curves.

If you pull them off and operate them in a vice and they feel weak, you've already put thousands of miles on shocks that aren't up to par.

" I can't drive a car and say if low/high speed compression/rebound is too high/low". Very few drivers can unless they're done a lot of work race cars specifically on suspension set up on test days.

But you can learn your shocks by doing a shock scan (sacrificing some full speed sessions to increase your knowledge).
You can set the bump and rebound to full soft, run 3 laps, increase the bump by 2-3 clicks (preferably done by someone else in the hot pit) go back out for 3 laps, etc. Keep increasing until the tires start sliding over the bumps then back off the setting.

You have to pay your dues to learn about shocks. Your shock manufacturer cab provide better set up info than the paragraph above.

Drivers who buy adjustable shocks and think they should only adjust them one time and forget them are wasting their money.

We do shock scans every year on the first test day of the season.
And while shocks are way more critical on the race cars than a street car, we dyno (and usually rebuild them)at 1,000 miles.