how many have installed tpe or l5 widebody kits (front and rear or just rear) and noticed a change handling? What kind of changes did you notice in the handling? I'm guessing a lot more oversteer...so what did you do to balance the car again? DIfferent sways?

 

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same under steer as normal vettes.

Body parts have nothing to do with handling.

Suspension, alignment, width of tires, and width of track can effect handling.

 

True.....but

Adding L5 widebody fenders normally means wider wheels and tires which can and will effect handling.

 

I am in too....

 

I didn't feel anything drastic, but I'm just driving on the street and not autocrossing or road racing. I'm running 335/30/18 on rear with 1" Spacers so it's wider by at least 5"-6" width at the rear wheels and still remains stock width at the front end.

BUT, I will say if I take traction control "off" and then accelerate through a turn...it's coming loose, very manageble....but it would be the same even without wider rear stance.

 

that is the wider track.

in most cases the car will tramel on over cracks in the road. Low speed handling will suck, high speed handling with the proper alignment will be good.


I have a different wide body kit.

in front I run 18x12 with 18x305/30
and in back 18x13 with 18x335/30 with 3/8" spacers on each side.

GM T1 suspension.

Low speeds the car handles like a pig waddling in the mud.

High speed corners of 80+ mph is like a slot car on rails.

Now it is a track car and the front has -2.0 camber and the rear is -1.5 camber

 

Have completed front and rear TPE along with new
CCW wheels but have not driven any distance. To the body shop tracked straight and true. Will let you know in about 4 months when complete.

 

I recently did the l5's on my z and changed the front tires from 265s to 285s (they tuck due to the camber on my alignment) and the rears to 345s I haven't tracked the car yet but during some spirited canyon driving the car feels to cut in to turns and hold quite a bit better. Again take this for what it is worth but SOTP meter tells me it was quite a difference

 

Thanks for replying, this is the kind of info I was curious about.

"pig waddling in the mud" = understeer? Slow Response? so...corning sharp canyon roads at 40-50 should respond well assuming the corning forces are similar to your 80 mph turns. Do the tracks you run have sharp turns similar to a canyon road? How does it handle in that 40-50 mph range.

Its kind of hard to think of the right questions to ask, but I just want to make sure I don't slide off a cliff if I go widebody lol

I'm guessing

 

I have LG coilover and PFADT sway bars on my car with 275x18 and 345x19 PS2's on my car. I run an alignment slightly more agressive than the Z06 specs. Proir to the big meat in the back I could induce throttle over-steer at will. With the bigger rears the car now understeers in the same situations. I will be working with the alignment to get the car more neutral. Overall, handling is better - but a little different.

I'm probably more sensitive to handling and setup than most but I'm very happy and greatly appreciate the additional traction.

 

I understand.

Pig in the mud, is under steer = what we call here in NASCAR land = push.

Handling is to do with alignment and tire size

Tires first:
the close the tires are to the same size the better the handling

Most guys have too narrow a front tire and too wide a rear tire.
yes I know we like big wide fat rear tires.

let say 315s Good over all rear tire performance size

that would be 18x315/30 or 18x315/35

to match for better performance the fronts

18x295/35 but no less then 18x285/35

to go to a 335 rear you need a 305 or 315 front.


again 18s all around. 19s are too heavy and 20s are for parking lot queens. 19 and 20s are just too heavy and wheel weight has a lot to do with performance and handling.

when there are mis match or big width difference between front and rear tires, = understreet or push.

guys on the road course use what we call a square set up

18x315/30 front and rear on 18x10 front rims and 18x11 rear rims.
-3.0+ degrees front and -2.0+ degrees rear camber


alignment:

for better handling look at an aggressive street alignment such as

front

camber: -1.0* to -1.5*
caster: Max but equal
Toe: 1/32" OUT

Rear
Camber: -0.75*
Toe: 1/32" IN

no cross
No ranges
Exact.

HTH a bit

 

tracks I run have 90* to even 110* corners. most road courses are curves 30*-40* connected by short straights. and a few long straights.

here is a good example of extreamly high speed cornering: Not me

wheels IRRC are 17x315/35 on all four corners

VIRginia International Raceway http://vimeo.com/20208440

Road Atlanta http://vimeo.com/17511121

Not me driving

Enjoy

 

Day-um Golden, lotta good info there. Bookmarking this baby