I've driven a lowered S10 for 16 years now. It's not low enough to be deemed a low rider, it's just a little sportier than the stock height. Although it's not a low rider, it's still low enough to scrape against the road fairly often, especially if I'm going too fast and hit a slight elevation in the road.

A C5 is even lower than my truck. Will the stiffer suspension keep it from scaping? I plan to drive the C5 I'm getting very cautiously, and I'm self aware enough to prepare for speed bumps and driveways, but sometimes you just can't foresee slight elevations in the road. Am I destined to bottom out? Is the C5 designed to protect against this? I'm a little worried.

 

You're going to bottom out from time to time. Even at stock height a C5 sits fairly low.

The worst offenders are driveways, road transitions to parking lots that have risers, and speed bumps. I'm at stock height and have a very small inclined driveway and scrap from time to time. You have to attack these things at angles. For speed bumps I use the method outline in the owner's video; slow before the bump, and then accelerate slightly before going over. This pushes the nose up a tad to not scrape as bad.

The front air dams are designed to flex (the middle one is actually spring loaded) and if the air dams are excessively damaged they're one of the more affordable things to replace. The most often damaged piece is the lower radiator support. Regardless of what C5 you look at you will see this area damaged in some way unless the prior owner has replaced it at some point or installed front radiator support "fangs" or bumpers.

You will also want to be careful of all things pulling into parking spots. If you have to pull head-on then leave plenty of room up front. You will likely scrape the lower radiator support at some point. I try to back into every space I can (it's a safer way to park) and avoid spaces that require head-on parking.

 

http://www.saccitycorvette.com/Fangs.html

You will need these.

 

If the car you're buying is at stock height you won't have any bad issues. Buy a set of fangs as was mentioned and you'll be fine. I'm lowered and have fangs and the center air dam scrapes at times but is spring loaded and doesn't worry me at all. Take a chill pill, you see it's no big deal.

 

Are the fangs easy to install? How long does it take? what kind of price am I looking at?

 

The Fangs are very easy to install with simple hand tools. They do a great job protecting the skid bars on the car.

My car is at stock height and I have never bottomed out while driving down the road, and the only thing I have ever scraped is the front air dam when going up a steep angle.

 

This reason has pretty much stopped me from lowering my Z. I LOVE the stance I see on some but I also know there have been PLENTY scenarios where had I been lowered, it wouldn't have been pretty.

 

#1 Rule...don't ask about a lowered Corvette on a forum of Corvette owner demographics


I've driven lowered/modified cars since the 90's, 75% of the time as my daily driver. I did so in the streets of pittsburgh, some of the worst, most torn up and failing roads anywhere in this country. Easily on par with new york, cleveland, detroit, etc. I also drove a very lowered/stanced Corvette.

The fact is, if the car is lowered on "stock bolts" or even extended bolts, the shocks may be a bit overwhelmed and some bounce may be exhibited. That bounce can contact the car with the ground at times. That said, it's usually nothing more than the front air dam, which is a cheap, replaceable...essentially made to hit the ground part...it's fine.

Next in line is the front structure where the "fangs" go. You have to really aim the car at the ground to hit those in my opinion, but regardless plenty of guys on here manage to. Enough so they've created products with wheels that attach and all kinds of other ridiculous crap that's frankly embarrassing.

To directly answer your question....coilovers. If you want to be lower, maintain ride quality, AND have increased stiffness/dampening to avoid some scraping incidents...that's what you need to do.

 

I finally bought a Vette. While cleaning, I noticed this underneath. Is this a "fang" or is it standard? If it's a fang, awesome, now I won't have to buy any.

 

That piece appears to be part of the car. Here is a picture of the fang installed:




It is a hard plastic piece that attaches to the piece you have pictured.

 

Fangs help, however the smartest mod I ever did was when I added the aluminum frame savers with built in jacking pucks underneath my rockers. Saved me from the dreaded parking lot and neighborhood speed bumps over the years. I've actually felt the car bottom out a couple of times but the frame rails took the punch, not my rockers!

 

so fangs are just plastic pieces that cover the radiator support bar? does the radiator support bar provide the same function when it comes to scraping?

 

Yes they are hard plastic of some kind. Yes it does. The fangs just protect them.

 

Am I the only one that has figured out, especially with a lowered car, that when your suspension bottoms out, that your spring rate goes to infinity? That will never be better, no matter how "great it looks" A foot of suspension travel would be awesome!!!

 

how do the metal ones found on ebay fare? I see the fangs being a quite popular reasons but how do these go as far as protection?

 

Fangs are LDPE (plastic) covers that you attach over the skid plate that is in your picture. http://www.saccitycorvette.com/Fangs.html

You can also protect you rocker paners from centering with rocker rail protection like these:
http://www.eliteengineeringusa.com/c...nd-mtg-screws/

http://www.eliteengineeringusa.com/c...nd-mtg-screws/

http://www.aacorvette.com/performanc...products_id=90