fleming23

I love that this car has 59 miles on it right now... You sir, are a hero!

Also, I thought I read that the rubber deflector in front of each tire helped improve down force (and the reason why the Z07 has them)? Or are you referring to the strip that runs the width of the cradle in the center? EDIT - nevermind, I see where you asked the direct question. Never saw that Ask Tadge. Good to know, I had a new set I was going to reinstall before the season started based on a misunderstanding.

RapidC84B

^ I was also told I can remove them when I install my stage 3 front aero. They're for fuel economy and mine are half worn down anyway.

badhabit_wb

I never put mine on. When the truck came in with my car I drove it into the dealership to have the checks done and I washed it and drove it home with all of the splitters, etc in the back of the car and my truck. But Damn! 59 miles. At least you know what you've got. I'd have probably tried to find a steal on a used one and then had problems because of what was done to the car before I got it.

PeteC7

The track brake ducts work with non Z07 cars also. It took me about 45 minutes to do the drivers side, then after figuring it out it only took about 7 minutes to do the passenger side.

badhabit_wb

The ducts help but they do break pretty easily if you have to take them off. I run them on my z06 but have had to replace one of them.

Poor-sha

I'll do a "Why Did I Crash?" break down on it soon. Short version is cold MPSS tires and driver error. I'll also let you know when I get up to WGI. I like to go with HOD for their 3-day events but this entire year is up in the air schedule wise. I'm trying to determine when I want to send the car up to Katech which means it will be out of service for a while.

Here's the link where Tadge shows that they decrease downforce.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...downforce.html

Mad Dog 24

Sean, I know a few engine builders like to use engines that have miles or time on them. I was told by mine years ago on a couple BB Chevy's for my boat to run it a year first which I did. He said they want the metal to find its natural shape after all the heat cycles before they line bore it and other stuff. Or, it could be a bunch of BS cause they were to busy to build them! This is probably just really old ideas like me. We have a few GS's at WGI that you would swear are Z06's with their performance. In many ways I wish I bought a GS and did just a few mods to 550ish hp. Our speeds are enough when a lot of us are running along side full blown race cars.

badhabit_wb

I agree with Mad Dog Sean. When I was running my c3 my machine shop, that builds Nascar engines among others, told me the same thing. With enough heat cycles things quit moving around. If it were me I'd run it hard this year and then get Katech to work their magic. You'll also see how much improvement the engine mods, etc. make. After talking with you I decided to keep my z06 rather than get a zr1 and concentrate on the driver mod. That and a few changes to keep things cooler.

Poor-sha

I appreciate the feedback. At this point my plan is to break in the stock motor with the requisite 1500 miles, then track it a few times this Spring, and then send it off to Katech. I don't know that I believe what your engine builder said since we're talking about boring and sleeving the block but in any case I do want to do some outings with the stock motor first. The driver mod is always a factor but I don't want to run up on folks in the corner just to have those Z06s blast away on the straights.

badhabit_wb

Yeah I don't blame you for that. I'd talk with Katech and see what they say. We were all running cast iron blocks back then and these are aluminum so that would make a difference for sure. I do know we align honed the blocks because most of them were out a little the first time. The old blocks we built held up a lot better than factory new engines people were buying at the time.

heavychevy

It is rewarding to beat the "big dogs" in something a bit underpowered or overweight. My friends occasionally talk me into driving their cars and some of the most fun I've had was passing GT3's, Vipers and Corvettes in a scat pack charger on street tires and mustang GT 350 on sport cups. I want a Gt350 for just that purpose. Overpowered/overbuilt for DE cars make DE less fun, rarely anyone to play with. Makes DE Fun Again.

That being said I see the appeal to go ahead and build it.

RapidC84B

Dez I see a new line of apparel in your future #MDEFA

Poor-sha

After I got the car back together I still spend several days setting it up. The first issue was ride height and before I installed the FE7 springs I set the adjusters to the same overall length as the FE6 springs that came off the car. However, the first time I lowered the car to the ground I thought it was a 4x4! Some of this turned out to be in my head and some were shock related. I ended up dropping the front and rear all the way down on the adjusters which looked better but what I forgot to consider was that the Tractive shocks default to full stiff with the car off. As a result, the shocks were holding the car up since I dropped it off the lift and it was near impossible to bounce the car in this state. There is a way through the DSC Sport tuning software to kick the shocks in to full soft and a controller reset will do this for a few seconds as well, but the easiest thing to do is drive the car a short distance which will settle the car. As an aside, make sure your toe is at least in the ballpark before pulling the car off the lift because otherwise you will never get it very far or back on the lift.

After dropping the car on the adjusters and taking a short drive I remeasured the ride height both at the fender and using the GM tool to measure the control arms. The fronts were pretty much dead on where the service manual spec'ed them and a couple mils under the center of the range. The rears were way low though. It took multiple rounds of jacking the rear, changing the adjusters, and then driving the car to settle it to get the rake correct. If anything the rear is still a tad low but I plan to run a slightly shorter front slick so it should work out.

I did the alignment in my garage using the Tenhulzen adapter for camber, the GM rear caster gauge, and toe plates. I see why GM sticks with the eccentrics because it really is much easier to adjust the camber and caster and the factory specified 125 lb/ft is a lot of force to tighten them down to. I used the Tenhulzen bracket to hold a laser level on one wheel and a ruler on the other wheel to set the thrust angle which worked well, although I know I'm not at the true 0.5mm of toe that DSC recommends using toe plates. I also realized after I aligned the car the first time that I forgetten to settle the car after adjusting the ride height so I got to do it twice.

Next post road and track test...

Poor-sha

After I got the alignment set I took the car for about a 100 mile drive to try and get some miles on it. My initial reaction was wow this car is stiff! Living on a gravel road you can feel everything with the spherical bushings but the ride was much more harsh than I remember my Z07 or ZR1. It also has a really strange bounce to it in tour that I just couldn't understand and when I got home I decided to look at the data.

Looking at the data it was clear that something was off with the shocks. The shocks were showing very different displacement data even when cruising down the highway and then it hit me. When I was messing around with the ride height I decided to zero the shock travel before I had lowered or settled the car. The result is that the car thought that what ended up being the true normal ride height was really the suspension being compressed and as a result was stiffening the shocks to compensate. This all happened last Saturday and Sunday I was supposed to be at Summit Point for a Seat Time event.

I spent the rest of Saturday going back over every nut and bolt I touched, bleeding the brakes one last time, double-checking and marking the alignment. Sunday morning I loaded the car up in the trailer and when I got to the track around mid-day I found a level spot to correctly zero the shocks. It was time to get out on track and see how the car did. It was also my first time on track since totaling the ZR1 so I was a bit tentative.

The weather was great but the track was very green and had rivers flowing across it at T2, T3, T8, T9, and under the bridge on the way to T10. Not only were getting through the rivers an adventure but more than one of us found out that running through that stream on the way to T3 meant you were entering T3 with wet tires and therefore a lot less grip. My initial plan was to short shift at 5000 RPM since the car only has 200 miles on it but I admit that more than once I ran it up to 6000 RPMs. Enough excuses, let's talk about how the car performed.

In short, the car performed very well. The issue with it being overly stiff was gone and the spherical bushings in particular gave the car a very direct feel that had me recalibrating my hands to slow down my movements. The platform was very stable with the FE7 springs and had almost no body roll or dive. I was running on the OEM MPSS tires and even with those I never really found the limit of adhesion for the car. That last part was really surprising because I tried to do this in the slower sections to see how the car felt at the limit but it really had a lot of grip. I expected better cornering feel with the bearings but didn't expect the difference in braking feel. With no rubber in the way the friction between the pad and the rotor seems to reverberate all the way to the pedal. Generally this was good but it also meant you could feel the grind when the pads were just starting to bed on the rotors.

The only handling complaint I have is pretty minor and that is that the back end tended to move around a lot under heavy braking. I suspect that the toe isn't quite right and plan to take the car up to TPC Racing for a real alignment. Also, this car like every other C7 I've owned pops out of of 5th gear under heavy braking. Last night I fixed this by installing an MGW shifter just like with the prior cars.

I wasn't out to set a fast lap but my best of the day was in the 1:22s. Given all the caveats above (water, tires, driver, short shifting) I'm very happy with that. For comparison, my best on Cup 2 tires in the Z06 was in the 1:17s so I'm pretty happy with that for a first outing.

badhabit_wb

Sean let me know when you find out what's causing the rear end to move around. I'm heading to VIR on Thursday for 3 days and hoping I find out I still had a little steering input in when I hit the brakes. I honestly don't think so though. If it's still there I'll check my alignment and adjust from there. I have a new take off supercharger I'm going to try after this weekend. Hopefully it will work fine without a tune. If not it's coming back off.

pjazz

So you got a bit carried away on breaking the engine in.....

Mad Dog 24

Sean after all that work I would call it a success... so far. I'm interested in what you find at TPC when it goes on a alignment machine. I know your using different rear toe bars so curious what the rear toe curve is on those, static-up-down. With out pulling my data I think I'm around 1.2 degrees toe out under heavy braking with the back up, no wobble on entry. Works for me! Surprised you didn't install the AMT blocks or maybe your waiting.

This will be an interesting thread, looking forward to its content.

ErnieN85

I really like camber plates, initial setup is difficult, but after that things stay put unless you change it

badhabit_wb

I'm with you. Once it's set up you don't ever have to worry about caster. You just set the camber where you want it and dial in toe.

RapidC84B

I've found the C7 has nowhere to really push to settle the suspension. If you take a fender off the car you'll see 5-6" of just air space under neath due to how it slopes to make room for the headlight. You're pushing down on plastic composite and you can see it flex. C5 you could push on the harder fiberglass inner fender with the hood up. Rear is similar... I usually pop the hatch and push on the trunk tub vs. any of the body panels.