I have driven other sports cars that handle better and do not wander as much as my Z does. I have picked out my some CCW wheels and tires that will provide the lower profile tire that I want. From there: LG has a coilover and swaybar package.....how much of a difference do their sways make over our Z06 sway bars? Anyone know or have experience with them? I want this car to be planted! I still feel it floats compared to a porsche or even my old 350z that was lowered on springs/sways/19 wheels with low profile tires. I have other questions but I would like to start with the opinions on the G2 sway bars,
thanks,

 

Give me a call tomorrow.

 

you're a vendor...correct I am also looking for people who have spent their hard earned cash on sway bars for this car.....

 

Ill be interested in your take off dampers if you upgrade to coil overs (and I am in LaGrange Ga)

 

Any "floatiness" that you will have in this car isn't the sway bars or springs, it is the shocks. Lots of folks will try to sell you a set of coilovers and that may cure what you are seeing as the problem because you are changing out the shocks which is what is wrong in the first place.

These cars are plenty stiff from the factory. There isn't much that springs will do one way or the other to tie the car down.

How many miles are on the car and are the shocks original? You can change to a set of Bilstein sports or a set of Koni sports (not the KHD's) and that will probably do what you want. Other than that, a set of poly bushings in the control arms will also make the car more responsive, but it will also increase the harshness a bit.

Lastly, what tires are on the car? Tires have a huge impact on how the car feels, and a tire with a stiffer sidewall will make the car a lot more crisp feeling.

 

it has 23k miles and I bought the car with new goodyear supercar tires...I know from reading they aren't good tires, that's why I already have a wheel and tire package picked out.......I highly doubt that will cure all of the floatiness and tighten the car to where I want it. I was thinking larger sway bars might help in addition to coilovers or different shocks(like you said) I just do not know about the sway bars......couldn't find much on them even though LG and PFadt and some other companies offer several.

 

could be the tires or the amount of air in the tires.

what are tire pressures at now?

 

I messed with the tire pressure...running 32psi cold. anyone with aftermarket sway experience?

 

i went with C6 Z51 sway bars on my C5 coupe,, night and day difference,,
your Z should be having good bars and shocks from factory,,

go for a new set of sport shocks,,

 

Heavier sway bars will not fix the problem you describe unless there is a problem with the existing ones, (mounts, bushings, end links).
My Z it wandered excessively when going over ruts and swithching from one pavement type to another. I inspected the suspension components and found one damaged rear sway bar end link and the rear toe setting way off.
Perhaps you should start by inspecting the suspension along with checking the alingment, ride height adjustments and camber adjustment bolts (they've been known to loosen) before purchasing suspension components you may not need.

 

It's not a "problem" I have examined all of the the end links, the car handles good, it just floats too much for ME. I have driven a couple of sports cars that stay planted through corners and on the straightaways better than the Z at speeds over 60.......looking for owners who have modified their suspension with something other than coilovers.

 

Mine has 75,000 miles on the original suspension components with the exception of the rear end-links. The car gets autocrossed regularly, I believe the car is fairly planted, especially after I aligned it.
If you are talking about the rear side stepping during high speed corners you can correct that adjusting the rear toe angle and dialing in a little negative camber.

 

First buy either the 2004 (stock) Z06 shocks, OR Bilstein Sports shocks.

 

I would go with a set of Koni Sport adjustable shocks. That is the best shock for a serious street setup. As I noted before, the springs and sway bars of a C5Z are stiff enough for serious track duty. Going to stiffer springs and bars is way past overkill for the street.

If you get a set of adjustable Koni's you can turn up the rebound damping and that is what will give the car a much more "tied down" feeling and will get rid of any "floatiness" that you may not like. Shocks are the single most important component in adjusting how the car feels. Since you want the car to feel more "tied down" than may be typical, an adjustable shock will let you do that.

Avoid any adjustable shock that adjusts both compression and rebound damping at the same time. QA1's and Pfadt's come to mind. The reason for that is that proper compression valving is based on your weight and spring rate, and should not be adjusted. Final tuning is more effectively done with rebound damping. With an adjustable shock that adjusts rebound and compression both with one adjustment isn't really adjustable. That is, you can set the compression damping to where it is supposed to be, but then either it is right or wrong for rebound. At all other settings, the compression damping is off, so it really isn't adjustable. Don't waste your money or time on a shock that adjusts both at the same time.

Adjusting rebound damping (like you get with a Koni Sport adjustable) is where you want to do your tuning and the Koni's are valved in compression for the stock springs. Koni also makes a double adjustable racing shock, but it is very expensive ($2500/set) and doesn't have any rubber in the bushings and will clunk on the street. That's what I have on my car because it is a serious autocross tool. It isn't what I would drive every day on the street if it wasn't.

There is a lot of reading that you can do to educate yourself on shocks for performance cars. One excellent source is Dennis Grant's Far North Racing Pages. http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html If you go there you can learn what shocks should do and what they shouldn't and learn what to do and not to do.

 

I would listen to Solofast, he has provided me with a lot of great information about the suspension of a c5z.

Most would be VERY surprised what a good alignment and sticky tires will do.

 

only to manage your expectations,, a C5 is not anywhere close to a Porsche when it comes to a curve,,

i used to have my mind set every time i drive my C5 if i drove my 996 carrera the night before,,

 

Really, looks like the 996 does not have much more grip than a stock Z.

http://www.europeancarweb.com/featur...est/index.html

 

Thanks, I will read up on that link. So you choose expensive koni's over coilovers for your Z? What else aftermarket suspension components are you running if you don't mind me asking? I plan on getting my Z to the track in the spring

 

I believe I can get what I want out of it.....

 

I autocross the car in a stock class where my modifications are limited. Consequently I can't change springs or rear sway bars, only shocks can be changed, but I want as much grip as I can get out of my A6 Hoosier DOT racing tires. I'm willing to give up a lot of ride comfort for lap times, but what I have found is that if the car is properly set up with the right shocks it will be fast, handle superbly and will remain very streetable.

I can use any shocks, and my double adjustable Koni's are not as expensive as Penske's, so I could have spent a lot more. For autocrossing, if I were doing it again I would probably have just gone with the single adjustable Koni's. I recommended that setup to a friend in Colorado who is doing track days as well as autocrosses with it and he is turning times that are nationally competitive in just a few events with the car and he is very happy with it on the street, track and autocross course. The best price I've seen for a complete set of Koni's is right at $1200. That is very close to a lot of other shocks that aren't nearly as good. Shocks are one area where you generally get what you pay for in that shocks with big price tags are really good, But at the mid and lower end there's a lot of junk out there that is way overpriced. I haven't seen anybody who is really seriously autocrossing winning on anything but Koni's, Penske's or Moton's. As Dennis Grant say's the others are junk. He likes Bilsteins, but I want to be able to fine tune my car between runs and I can't do that with Bilsteins so I didn't go there. Also being able to soften the car on the street and crank in some additional stiffness on the track is a good thing.

I am not a fan of coilovers, most of the kits are overpriced and don't provide any real performance advantage. If you are racing the ability to change spring rates at different tracks is important. If you are doing track days and autocross, and driving the car on the street, the stock springs are plenty stiff, and putting a more money into better shocks has a lot better payoff than coilovers. If I were to go to coilovers I'd look seriously at the Penske's that Gary Hoffman has at Hardbar, they are $550 per corner (+springs) and that's a good price for Penske shocks. I trust LG to be able to provide a good product also, but they don't tell you whose shocks they are using, and that bothers me. Also look at the mounting hardware for the coilovers, many of them are metal joints which work great on the track but clunk like crazy on the street.

I have driven cars with T1 bars on the street and track and they were a bit harsher and didn't make the car magical. That's just my opinion, but the marginal improvement from the stiffer bars on the track wasn't a good trade for what you lost on the street. More important is getting the shocks right. With the right damping the car will feel nicely tied down and it won't beat you to death on the street.

The first thing to setting a car up is to get the lowered about an inch all around, get the alignment and corner weights set and get a good set of tires. If the you were talking about a standard suspension car I would at this point go to Z06 springs and bars, but since you already have these, shocks are where you need to look for improvements. We've come to realize that 99 percent of suspension tuning is done with shocks.

You are already looking at wheels and tires, and after the lowering, alignment and corner weighting I'd do shocks first, and then if that wasn't enough (which I doubt) I'd go to the T1 bars, and only then would I consider springs, which I think are a waste of money. Hope this helps.