Thinking about doing LG coilovers, has anyone here gone that route?

Bill

 

I have gt2's on my car, they are a hell of a lot better than the factory leaf springs in my opinion

 

Ride height can be adjusted as well, correct ?

 

yes, independent of shock travel as well which is a big plus... in order to do this you have to loosen the lowest ring on the sleeve and screw the body of the coilover onto the sleeve... if you use the spring perch to lower the ride height then you are losing an equal amount of shock travel

 

Yup went GT2's also, what a difference!

 

apparently a really good coilover, but seem to be at least double or nearly triple the price of other known brands , so not sure if they are a good value for the money or not

 

I have a set waiting to be put on, I have at least convinced myself that they will be a big improvement. Height adjustability was my main goal but hoping for other benefits as well.

 

I got mine on a black friday sale through a vendor for quite a bit less than they are normally advertised for, I had to jump on it

 

What makes you think they are ALOT better than the factory leaf springs? Do you track the car?

 

no I don't, on a track the leafs may be fine but they suck on the street in my opinion and that's where most of the driving is done for some of us... I hated the feeling of the suspension being connected from side to side , bumps travelling to the opposite side, or the rear end trying to kick out over bumps when going around corners... also being able to lower the car substantially without sacrificing ride quality is a big plus... coilovers eliminated these issues in my case but that might not be what everyone wants, just my personal opinion

 

Everything you are describing sounds like you just had some bad shocks. I do not feel any of those problems on my car, street or track. If those problems where on every Corvette, don't you think GM would have ditched the leafs? Too many people think just bolting coilovers on their car makes it a much better car. Not the case.

 

I have LG drop spindles & will be doing coilovers this winter but I purchased Ridetech all USA made hardware, Fox shocks & Hyperco coils.

 

Wow, those are nice.

Bill

 

G2's and GT2's here

http://www.customcorvetteaccessories...tteshocks.html


Regards
Chip

 

Very nice Chip.

Bill

 

..for the OP and his original question...

I have the GT2's.
I love them.

Personally, I have experienced the feel of several configurations having started with FE3 suspension and progressively changed to:

a) C6 Z51 sways front and rear with the FE3 springs and shocks; Reduced body roll in hard cornering yet still jumped and settled under cornering while absorbing uneven surfaces.

b) Added GMPP T1 shocks to the FE3 springs and C6 Sways; car still settled and felt soft in gentle turns but handled quick/sharp direction changes much better.

c) Added C5 Z06 springs to the T1 shocks and C6 Z51 sways; Lowered a bit (1/2" or so) the car cornered really well after alignment but actually increased the tendency to hop sideways in rough corners at any speed you could feel the G-forces. Surprised me the first time even though I was used to it and somewhat ready for it. I raised the car back close to OEM height and this didn't really seem to change the hopping sideways tendency.

c-2) Installed a GMPP T1 rear sway bar. I wished I could have found and tried a full set of T1 sways but I could only source the rear. While it did seem to help a little I couldn't tell how much as it still would hop out sideways uncomfortably in rough corners.

My experiences and descriptions are (obviously ) non-professional and non-technical and as I didn't take notes and are totally from memory.

Currently I'm running GT2's with the matching LG sway bars.
The sways are a little bigger/stiffer than T1 sways.
The (single adjustment) shocks are set to 6 rear and 7 front.
The rear sway is in the middle mount hole. The car is lowered.
I'm running Hankook Ventus tires, 275 35 18 front, 305 30 19 rear on replica C5 Z06 wheels (kind of heavy) 18x10 and 19x11.

Night and Day the difference. I now know what true independent suspension feels like and will never go back. Again, a totally subjective opinion but I'm satisfied with the current setup and highly recommend the LG suspension upgrades in spite of perceived cost. Estimate the amount of money (and time) I spent working up to the coilovers and a case could be made to just go that route from the start.

I'm over summarizing the point but if you start reading about LG you'll see the dedicated effort they put into developing and testing the parts they sell. Frankly, they (and most of they're buyers) beat the heck out of them on the race track. I'm good with their cost because I know the value of that.

Those that haven't tried coilovers, whether on your own C5 or driving a friends, don't really know how much better they truly are. Again, my subjective opinion.

Only thing left for my suspension mods will be the LG drop spindles. Having missed last years group purchase, I'm saving my pennies and hoping for another one soon, but not too soon...

Best of luck to you on your future mod(s)!

 

That is awsum and exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks very much!


Bill

 

Ran them, loved them. They test them to the extreme in real world racing conditions.

 

You will experience some installation issues with the drop spindles as I did. I should have called & filed some complaints but I did not.

They did not provide a torque spec for the nut that holds the taper pin into the spherical bearing that replaces the upper ball joint. I called twice, 2 different people & they were confused as to what I should use.

They did not provide tapped holes for the bracket that holds the speed sensor wires on the front spindles, and the spindle has so much extra material that you cannot put the bracket where it was on the stock spindle.

On the rear spindles the brackets that hold the parking brake cable will not fit as original due to the extra material. I used washers to space the brackets out, and will be getting some new brackets to bend properly so they will fit flush to the spindle.

And I also got a better deal from a Vendor on here that was cheaper than the group purchase price.

 

Nice looking setup.
Appreciate the heads up with the extra material concerns and fitment. I had heard there was some "additional" work involved but hadn't heard what.
Actually looking forward to the install challenge even more now knowing I need to somewhat adapt a racing item to a road car...
Thanks!

OP/William, again good luck bradda!