Here is my experience. I purchased my C5 about a year ago. The previous owner had it lowered all the way down of the stock bolts. The stance looked killer, but driving the car was like walking on egg shells. Driveways, speedbumps, valley gutters, potholes.....no matter what angle of approach I took, it would scrape.

A short while after purchasing the car, I put it up on a lift. There was a large dent in the oil filter. 2 of the 4 bolts that connect the exhaust headers to the x-pipe were sheared off. The headers and cats both had some scrape marks.

In my opinion, it's not worth the risk. I raised it back up, not quite to stock height. Even then, I struggle not to hit the skid bars under the front bumper just pulling in and out of my own driveway at a 45 degree angle.

As for upgrading the shocks and sway bars to C6 Z06, I highly recommend, It makes a big difference in my opinion.

 

I haven't run into any bottoming-out problems, even with the OEM shocks that I recently replaced with the C6-z units (great upgrade, btw), and I'm lowered all the way on stock bolts. I'm as low as my driveway-angle will allow, so no coil-overs for me.

 

Chris pretty much hit the nail on the head, but let me add some more important details. I've owned 2 Corvettes now and when I purchased them they were both lowered. My C4 was completely slammed, to the point where it was falling apart and dangerous in the turns. I ended up lifting it back to stock and replacing many broken suspension parts. My C5 was also lowered, not as bad as the C4, but pretty low on aftermarket bolts. One thing you have to consider is the ride. Lowered on aftermarket bolts will ride like total ****, I don't care what anyone says because I've experienced it. If your in a turn and your going high speed, hit a little bump and see what happens. Since there isn't much travel, it will bottom out the suspension and throw you out of a turn, then you either get lucky or you crash. These cars will actually handle better at stock height with good sway bars and shocks, than slammed on stock bolts or worse, aftermarket bolts. On mine I left the front slightly lowered and lifted the back up a little so the suspension has some travel and ride smooth enough without getting trashed. I would stick with stock bolts and play with that. If you want to go lower, then look at other options and stay away from aftermarket bolts.

C5 lowered on stock bolts.

Lowered on stock bolts the way I bought it. Hit a small dip in the freeway that day and almost screwed up my back. I'm 42 and have a good back btw.

C4 slammed with aftermarket bolts. Rode like garbage, almost blew out a few teeth fillings with this ride.

As my C5 sits now, slightly lowered on stock bolts with stock wheels and tire sizes.

 

I'm going to chime in from the coil over crowd. After I installed my coil overs, the car road smoother lowered than it did at stock height on the leaf springs. I didn't change the sway bars and it still corners flatter than it did, and as was mentioned earlier no more rear end hop in bumpy corners. There are no rattles or squeaks. I have a front lip that I have to be careful of, and I have scraped on some monster speed bumps that we have here, but all in all it's livable. I don't track mine either but I personally think that it was worth the investment.

 

Gorgeous car you have there. Hard to beat that stance.

 

 

Used aftermarket bolts, ZO6 sway bars along with metal end links. and KYB gas shocks.

 

Bmore I saw you car at Carlisle parked in the general parking, nice car.

If done properly these cars can be lowered & still ride nice & handle as they should using the stock components and still get your alignment specs back to stock. 1-1/4" is what most of the manufacturers of coilovers that have a specific drop designed into them recommend before you start to affect your suspension geometry. I have pictured 3 front shock photos 1st is stock ride height, 2nd is 1" drop, 3rd is 2" drop with all stock components. I first did a 1" drop on my car without issue, next was to add a drop spindle to gain another 1" drop, I still had stock springs & stock shocks, the spindle allowed me to get 2" drop but have the shock travel of a 1" drop, once again no issues excellent ride & handling. I next did coilovers as I was moving from 19's to 20's & lower profile tires, I went from 255/35 & 285/35 19's to 295/25 & 305/25 20's the front tire height was about the same, the rear was about 7/8" shorter in height, I needed to close the wheel well gap so I have adjustable base coilovers. My wheel well heights on the 19's with drop spindles was 27" & 26" on the 20's 26.5" & 25.75" my lower control arms are nice & level & other than maybe some ride quality issues with the lower profile tires, I am extremely happy with the ride quality which is adjustable with a click 32 adjustments, I still have plenty of suspension travel, car handles fantastic, no bump steer, I did my own alignment so if I need to fine tune I can do that. I have 400" lb front springs & 1 click & 550" lb rear springs & 5 clicks of adjustment. I am 2.5" lower than stock in rear & 2.25" lower in front, my jack puck locations are 3.75" off the ground, which keeps the rocker level & gave me my wheel well heights.

Nothing wrong with having a lowered car, obviously looks better, just be aware of what suspension geometry is being changed based on your selection of parts & nothing wrong with lowering bolts, just don't slam it, bottom out your shocks, & create handling issues that ruin the driving experience. I don't know it all, but have done lots of research because I want to & I want to have a cool looking car & still be able to drive it like I want to, all for the love of the hobby. Nothing wrong with experimenting, how will you know what you like as far as the look or ride quality if you don't experiment, you can always put it back to the way it was.

If anyone local wants to take a ride, I will make it happen.

 

 

I'm lowered about 3/4 of the way down on stock bolts. No issues, other than the front air dam scraping when pulling in to the drive way. I like the look of it a little lower

 

 

 

I had my vette lowered on stock bolts with no issues. Obviously you're already in a very low car so just be aware of your surroundings or roads you're traveling. Since then, I have put in lowering bolts in the rear and removed the front bolts, and added c6 z06 shocks all around. definitely a stiffer ride but still fine and the stance is killer. I've had cars that have been "stanced" so I am very familiar with how to drive them and maneuver in and out of a driveway without scraping.

 

When I purchased my C5Z it was all the way down on the stock bolts, when I took it on the freeway small dips would cause the rear wheel suspension to bottom out hard on the stops and the rear end would bounce around – very dangerous and frustrating. So I installed adjustable coilovers set the shock dampers for a tight street ride (I don’t track it) and the ride is better then a stock height set-up. The coilovers have been om my Vette for 10 years and have never rattled.

I have been told by trackers that once you set the car lower than 1” from stock you start to compromise the design geometry of the suspension. The main reason why the cars are set as high as they are from the factory is to allow the owner to install snow chains, but of course most people would not drive their Vettes in such conditions in the USA but maybe Europe?

If you are going to lower it below 1” go with coilovers you won’t regret it.

 

I put on lowering bolts from Zip Corvette. At the same time, I had C6 Z06 shocks, sway bars, and end links added to the car. This is easily my favorite mod, very solid bang for the buck.

 

Im running no bolts up front and rears fairly low on WCC Lowering bolts. The rear could go lower but would have a reverse raked look.
IMO the car still rides great, it doesn't really scrape on much at all other than the little plastic air dam underneath backing out of my driveway.
I daily drive mine with no problems, I want coilovers soon both for handling upgrades and to bring the front down a tad, debating between adding lip or a tigershark bumper as well but well see... Christmas is right around the corner

 

I'm on longer rear bolts and no front bolts, on staggered 18" front 19" rear wheels from a C6.

Pros:
- Looks amazing
- Wheelgap is pretty non-existent
- It's nice being that much closer to the ground
- Did I mention it looks amazing?

Cons:
- Front air dam scrapes a lot, but the plastic is so flexible it's not that big of a deal
- The lowest point of the car is the collectors from my headers, which scrape over certain speed bumps
- If you ever need a tow, it's a huge PITA. Ask me how I know.
- Aligning a jack with the jack points takes a bit of finesse
- Can't drive the front end up on standard ramps, so that makes simple things like an oil change slightly more annoying


With that being said, I'll never go back to stock ride height. It just looks too damn good. Sure it's a bit stiffer than factory and you have to be mindful of certain routes you're taking but I've driven low cars for so long so it's second nature to me. Plus I'm not intending for it to be a track car, it's my daily.

In regards to your question on carrying a load, a passenger honestly doesn't seem to make much of a difference, but I do tend to be a bit more cautious over certain areas (i.e., roads that I know suck or speed bumps) just to be safe. I frequently take it grocery shopping with my girlfriend or we'll take it to the shooting range with 100 lbs + of guns and ammo in the back and I don't really think it sits much lower than it normally does - the extra caution is just a subconscious thing.

 

I have 97 C5 I just bought little over a year ago and previous owner lowered the car. Every time I pull out of my drive way my front lower bumper deflector scrape. I don't like the ride and handling. I feel every bumps on the road and when i'm turning go over bumper the car jumps and Don't stick to the road. I replaced the sway bars few weeks ago with C6 Z51 and I will be installing with ZO6 shock in next few weeks to month. I want to raise the susp. back up to stock factory height. I researched this in depth but i'm still not clear and lot of the this I read I don't comprehend. I'm some what newbie and any info. and clarification would be greatly appreciated. seems you are very knowledgeable. From my research the stock height for C5 front is 27.5" and rear is 29" is this correct? how do i measure this height? Do I measure the height from flat surface with measuring tape on the ground going up at the center of the wheel to the fender wheel lip? On the front stock lowering bolt is one full turn on lowering bolt equals 1/8" ? how is rear adjusting bolt. I though I read you turn by 1/4 turn? 1/4 turn equals 1/4" ?

I have more questions but I will hold those off till after your response.I'm sorry for over whelming you with so many questions.

 

Looks amazing