How come GM didn't lower our cars to begin with....the wheel well gap HAD to be noticed. Even with room to budge on the stock bolts, why wouldn't they do it off the line?

 

delivery on trucks, the mass deliver didn't use special ramps.

 

In your Owner's manual, you will find that the factory "strongly urges" that you NOT lower more than 10mm (about one half inch). Going below that will negatively impact your suspension geometry and therefore negatively impact your (excellent) handling.
So...........If you are interested in good handling, follow your owner's manual. If you are interested in looks over handling.......lower away.

 

I strongly disagree. You will have more roll in a turn than you would if you lower the vette on stock bolts. The ride height will affect shock travel therefore ride comfort. But in no way lowering the vette is hurting the handling of your vette.

 

I wasn't questioning whether it was good or bad

I was just wondering why they didn't do it and they left room to budge. Transportation, ramps, etc makes perfect sense.

 

ps. I did lower mine a .5 inch and got it cornerweighted and aligned.

 

Sorry but you are absolutey wrong, and I have test data to prove it.

We lowered my car through a range of height settings (limited by stock bolts since I race in a stock class and can't change the bolts) and compared autocross times for height settings from stock down to the limts of stock bolts. Lowering the car more than about 3/4 of an inch does adversely impact handling and lap times. I have custom made Koni's on the car and they are shorter and don't bottom, so that wasn't an issue. Like most racers we thought that lower would be better, but it simply was not the case.

The reason for this is that the suspension geometry is designed to work within a range and if you lower it too much the roll centers drop and then with suspension movement there is lateral displacement of the roll center and it hurts both grip and response.

This is the reason why, if you take a C5 to an expert setup shop like Phoenix Performance, hand them the keys and tell them to make it right, you will find they won't lower it more than that.

Lots of people think "lower is better" and with these cars it simply isn't the case. Get over it.

If you like or want a lowrider look, you need to get a set of dropped spindles, but really, my car, lowered about 3/4 of an inch is as low as I care for it to be for street driving anyway.

BTW the reason for the large wheel well cutouts is that GM has an internal requirement for tire chain clearance (put chains on the tires and they won't foul the fenders) and that's why the cutouts are oversize. Never mind that it is likely that nobody is ever going to do it, they don't want to get sued because somebody goes off a cliff west of Denver because they couldn't put chains on the car....

 

From personal experience, I know that when I lowered my car, it handled way better than stock ride height. I lowered it using the factory bolts. Just IMO.

 

Maybe its the driver.

 

Jeebus H. people....i wasn't asking about the performance side of it. Granted, you alter the car beyond specs too much, and its going to affect SOMETHING negatively or positively. I was just asking "why it didn't come lowered .5 OEM"

 

you can change height with wheel /tire diameter, w/out lowering suspension...see pic

it dropped the car about 3/8-1/2 inch overall

finally installed my apsis splash guards

 

good call.. love those rims bud. did you have to do anything to change the speedo/tach?

 

did not effect the speedo at all (runs off tranny)...tach reflects change in rpm..due to smaller dia of wheel/tire, so its a win/win....
the only downside...is small sidewall, ya give up some ride quality...but mine isn't a daily driver so , i'm having fun...keeps me awake and on my toes at 63 yrs old.

 

rock on! looks great!

 

Well, since the control driver for the testing works at GM in the vehicle dynamics department, and we mapped out an extensive test program that was expressly designed to eliminate the driver part of the equation, I think we can rule that part out.

 

Probably because many of the waxers would be complaining to GM that the car is too low and they are scraping their precious undersides on a lot of speed bumps.

GM gave you a car that is set up for the "average" driver. If you are on this kind of fourm, you are probably outside of that are more interested in your car than the "average" driver. Just be glad that they gave you the tools to customize it to the level of performance that you desired. Remember, you couldn't adjust the ride height of a C4 much at all. If you wanted it lower, the instructions to do that were in the owners video tape, how much more do you want?

BTW when the C5 was being designed the car originally didn't have as much suspension adjustment as it ended up with. The additional adjustment was put in there to be used by Showroom Stock and SCCA autocrossers who, by the rules have to use stock parts and aren't allowed to change them. The suspension adjustment is designed to cover the range of camber, caster and ride height for both stock and T1 class setups within the SCCA rules. While we like it lower, the stock ride height and alignment is what GM figures the masses will want and it provides good tire wear and sufficent ride height that the car isn't scraping all the time.

 

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I too wonder the same thing sometimes and Im actually debating lowering on stock bolts. I HATE the wheel gap, but I really dont want to be messing anything up ride quality wise. I might just wait for coil overs...

 

I lowered mine on stock bolts but it only lowered the rear half inch and the front an inch


BTW solofast you contradicted yourself here.. Y if so perfect for autocross would they need to be lowered?

Probably because many of the waxers would be complaining to GM that the car is too low and they are scraping their precious undersides on a lot of speed bumps.

GM gave you a car that is set up for the "average" driver. If you are on this kind of fourm, you are probably outside of that are more interested in your car than the "average" driver. Just be glad that they gave you the tools to customize it to the level of performance that you desired. Remember, you couldn't adjust the ride height of a C4 much at all. If you wanted it lower, the instructions to do that were in the owners video tape, how much more do you want?

BTW when the C5 was being designed the car originally didn't have as much suspension adjustment as it ended up with. The additional adjustment was put in there to be used by Showroom Stock and SCCA autocrossers who, by the rules have to use stock parts and aren't allowed to change them. The suspension adjustment is designed to cover the range of camber, caster and ride height for both stock and T1 class setups within the SCCA rules. While we like it lower, the stock ride height and alignment is what GM figures the masses will want and it provides good tire wear and sufficent ride height that the car isn't scraping all the time.

 

Have you tried calling them to ask?