Ianfstew

Hello,

I was wondering what would be the best package to upgrade my 1996 CE's suspension. I have noticed that the suspension has been soft and there is a very large amount of body roll. I am looking for a package that will lower and stiffen the suspension up. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ian

93Rubie

Any 96 has very soft springs which is nice for the ride but as you have noticed it rolls a lot and feels soft. Changing the springs/sway bars/shocks will firm up the ride.

In fact you could change the sway bars and shocks to get a moderate firmness and less body roll without being punishing. The 92-95 Z07 springs I find quite tolerable on the street and handle really good.

MatthewMiller

You really need to tell us how you plan to use the car. Also, we don't really have a way of knowing what your personal tolerance for ride harshness is, so these kinds of advice-seeking questions are always a crap shoot. What I can say is that IME spring rates alone make the ride firmer, but not that much harsher (there is a difference!). Dampers have a much bigger influence on ride harshness, as do bushings. The problem with really stiff springs is that you will want significantly more expensive and stiffer shocks to control their oscillation, which leads to that harshness. The problem with going very low is that you will need high spring rates to avoid bottoming out your suspension frequently, which is bad for ride quality and handling.

My own car is probably toward the extreme of what most people here would tolerate. My car has spring rates of 1125lb/in front and 550lb/in rear (VBP Xtreme), with either Koni Sports or custom-valved Bilsteins. It also has lots of urethane and some rod ends in the suspension. It's not a plush car, but with the Konis on I am still amazed that I find it tolerable on the street. The Bilsteins are pretty harsh. This car was set up for autocross and track events first, and street driving as a distant second priority.

Those rates are roughly four times what your stock rates are IIRC. You could probably cut my rates in half, go an inch or two lower than stock, and be happy with the improvement if street driving is your main use. Maybe something like the Van Steel 660/326 combo (Z51 challenge)? I would still recommend the Konis for that setup. Don't skimp on shocks! People consistently underestimate how important they are. KYBs and other cheap dampers are going to fall short both on ride quality and handling control.

mtwoolford

I have a 96, and when I changed out the rear spring, I contacted VBP and asked what was the max they recommended for driving on the street. Answer: 500 pound/inch. I installed one of their 480 pound/inch springs. It looked like something carved out of a 2x4 compared to the oem spring; I even called them back to make sure they had shipped me the right spring. Replaced all the bushings in the rear with polyurethane. Still stock up front with the exception of replacing the stock rack and pinion (16:1) with a "sport" rack and pinion (13:1) and polyurethane rack and pinion mounts and poly sway bar bushings. Still have the Blistein shocks that came with the car when I bought it. Huge, huge improvement; everything feels tight and connected. A good portion of driving is on back roads in the Sierra foothills...not the smoothest roads by any means... the ride is completely acceptable in terms of ride quality. Hey, it is a Corvette, right? Love it.

Purple92

Assuming that you are interested in mainly street driving, and not setting the car up for either autocrossing or track usage - the first question I would ask is how many miles are on the car - and if an inspection of the bushings has revealed any issues. The car is almost 20 years old - and while the CE ride was not exactly race car stiff - it wasn't like riding in a 96 caddy either.

IMHO - There is a good chance that after 20 years of faithful service the shocks have seen better days. Replacing the factory shocks is relatively easy and relatively inexpensive. I'm running Bilstein's , but Koni's are never a bad choice, and there are certainly many others. (DRM offers Bilsteins with more aggressive valving.) See how the car behaves with a good set of shocks before going too much further.

If the shocks alone don't do the trick for you - I would recommend a sway bar change before a spring change. The sway bar is a torsoional spring, but it imparts no ride quality penalty unless one wheel on an axle tries to do something the other wheel on that axle isn't doing. So it will act like a stiffer spring in a high speed corner, but not when the car is going over a speed bump. I'd go with the 96 GS sway bars or a set of Z-51 Brs from a 92 - 95 and a good set of Urethane bushings. That should really help with the cars "leaning" in the corners. (By the way - did I mention the sway bar change is significantly easier to do than the spring change). Do both the front ands rear bars - just doing the front bar will make the car understeer more...

If that still isn't good enough - start thinking springs. I've installed a set of Urethane bushings on a C4, and while it wasn't that terrible a job - it does take a while, and it does transmit a lot of Noise, Vibration and Harshness to the driver and passenger... For track use or autocross use - absolutely YES, for street use - think about it a bit before ordering the big bushing kit...