Anyone know of a control arm delrin bushing supplier for a C5 Z?

 

VB&P makes the most popular kit for racers that use up the oem rubber ones. They're graphite impregnated poly, but not delrin. The next steup up is metal bushings, but not much fun on a street car.

How do you use your car? If you don't track it then keep the oem bushings in. No matter what you do the polys eventually creak/squeek.

 

I just got my Z06 1/2 year ago. I've tracked it once and intend to continue about 3/year. I felt a lot of flex in the suspensions and would like to begin limiting it. I thought I'd lower the car, use competition tires, more aggressive - camber and bushings. I'll probably get the adjustable Pfaad sway bars.

Tell me about the metal bushings and why they are not fun on a street car. Who manufactures / distributes them? Do I have to have them machined myself?

Mike

 

The car will be very harsh and noisey. I'd start with some coil-overs from LGM, T1 bars, and an aggressive but streetable allignment and go from there. Do the bushings last.

 

Not doing the bushings now will save some money.
When you talk about harshness, do you mean vibrations / shocks in the steering due to irregularities in the road?
Mike

 

The bushings make the ride much firmer and over time they start to squeek no matter what you do. We put a spiral groove in the bushings and used a waterproof teflon grease and after a few months I started getting squeeking out of the left rear.

If you're only doing a few events a year then I'd go with some T1 bars and a good allignment and leave the rest alone.

First thing is to get a new allignment. If you don't have enough positive caster the car will feel very sloppy and numb. Get the caster up over 6 degrees and she'll feel like a slot car.

A few years back my car started to feel very poor on turn in etc. I thought it was the variable rate power steering or something wearing out and after chasing my tail I had my allignment checked... hadn't had that done in the 2 years I had owned the car. Nothing was close to right so I had the car dialed in at the following:

Front
-1.3 degrees camber
+6.0 caster
0 toe

Rear
-0.9 degrees camber
1/16th toe in per side

Whole new car So... get the allignment tweaked first, then see how she feels. If you want it flatter go w/ some new T1 bars but be warned these will decrease street ride (car will be harsher over bumps) and they're not ideal bars for auto-xing.

Unless you're a long time track rat you're not using the car to it's max in stock form and I'm willing to bet lowering it an inch w/ the factory adjusters and getting a good agressive but streetable allignment will do the trick.

 

Oh... and go check out the auto-x & roadracing section of the forum... you'll get way more relevant answers to you tech questions.

 

do you mean toe in?

 

^ Yes sorry... toe in in the rear.

 

thanks, just wanted to make sure. last time i drove a rwd car with toe out in the rear, it was a pretty exciting ride.

 

Its a pleasure to go over your suggestions. I think that experience can save a lot of money without sacrificing fun!
I have kept an eye on the adjustable sway bars by Pfaad.
They have splined plates at both ends with 3 openings to attach the links to. This effectively gives you 3 different leavers, making the sway bar stiffer or less stiff.
This may be the perfect approach to 1. street, 2. autocross, 3. track, in that order of increasing stiffness.
What do you think of this approach?
M.

 

Delrin tends to cold flow over time, and can crack as well. I've used them as subframe mount bushings/spacers in another car/race application with less than desirable results.

I'm amazed that nobody makes TPR bushings for the C5. It is the best stuff I've ever used for bushing material for a street/track dual combo.