You said Delrin bushings, I hope what you meant was urethane bushings. If the only purpose for the car was autocross I might consider urethane bushings but if you also intend to drive it I would let them alone as stock. Btdt and will never do it again.

 

So I pulled the trigger!

here are some shots of the car I drove home today. Really excited about it and look forward to wrenching on it to bring some of the minor things back to life.

thanks for the help everyone!





I

 

^congrats man

 

Love the silver over red!

 

Very nice. Looks well maintained,

 

Congrats, car seems to be in great condition, you just got the deal of the century! What are your plans for it now?

 

 

My immediate plans are to exchange all the fluids and check brake lines etc., drive it and get use to the car itself. I would like to swap out the suspension bushings and add a sway bar potentially as I'd like to Autocross it in the spring.
I've got lots of planning ahead of me to figure it all out.

What would be the first things you'd suggest I do?

 

I would suggest not doing suspension bushings

 

Looks like you got a great deal. Good luck with it.

 

 

Can you elaborate? The car is 18 years old so I feel the rubber ones are a little worn by now no?

 

Clean looking car. Enjoy it.

 

I have a close friend who’s credentials are way beyond average and is a professional race instructor and corvette expert. His ‘mantra’ when approached by a “newbie modder’ Is the following: “When you can out-drive that car, call me, and then we will talk mods”.
I waited 50 years to have a hot/cool/sports car. I’m a car fan from way back and frustrated customizer so I was anxious to do lots of ‘stuff’. Thankfully I left my Z06 alone other than new tires and my current coupe is ‘adjusted’ for AutoX because of what I’ve learned.
Spend your money on the real maintenance items. Replace ALL fluids, and switch to DOT 4 in the brake lines. New tires are a must but the GM engineers knew what they were doing. No need for a square setup now, possibly never. The Z06 comes with an incredible set of wheels, take advantage of that. Replace the belts and hoses, air filter.
THEN learn to drive the car. As stated above, these cars are better than the drivers who first buy them are. The more you drive competitively, including AutoX, the more you’ll appreciate the skill of pro drivers. Enjoy this car- C5’s are so far beyond what meets the eye it takes familiarity to know their capabilities.
I’m an Autocrosser too. APEX EVERYTHING.

 

Yeah I'm leaning mostly to learn the car over the next year, good advice. Love the black on the hood you have any more pictures?

As far as maintenance and changing things for that sake what should be my top ten maintenance items? Fluid recommendations?

 

Does not sound like a bad price conditional upon it being checked out thoroughly by a good mechanic.

 

First I would recommend you get a hold of the rules for the group are going to autocross with. It can be SCCA, NCCC, DCSCC, etc., then find someone who has autocrossed with those rules for a few years and can maybe guide you. Unless your car has been extensively autocrossed before, the bushings are more than adequate for use. The car looks like it is stock height (some call it the 4x4 look), one of the first mods would be to find someone who can lower it to optimal autocrossing ride height. (THAT IS MOST SLAMMED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE BOLTS), That will greatly increase the handling. After you find the class rules for your local group run 4 or 5 autocross weekends and then find out what you should do next from one of the top class competitors. For example, if running SCCA you might contact Sam Strano for what to add and when, if NCCC/CAM you might contact Danny Popp, etc. The worst thing YOU can do is throw mods at the car without a final plan in mind. I make over 200 autcross runs a year and often see a Newby with all sorts of mismatched mods being in an advanced class and totally ucompetitive. Like others have said, wait till you can get the most out of the car before making any changes.

 

Gordy has great advice. I just wrote a few paragraphs and my server dropped out. I’ll come back later.
You bought a beautiful car with reasonable miles. Mine had similar 3 years ago.
Thanks for the complement. Here’s a couple more pix of my stripes.


Yellow was replaced by metallic white sparkle.

 

I changed all my fluids, after being required by the HPDE’s I attended to have DOT4 brake fluid, that’s just a matter of course for me. After the bearing on my belt tensioner toasted, I replaced it with one from Cultrag Parts, a vendor here, and a Continental ‘Gator’ serpentine belt, even tho’ the belt I had was less than 2 years old. I carefully inspected my hoses and feel that they are in very good shape. Changed the plugs and wires, just because. I now have ceramic pads in the brakes and like them very much.

Gordy’s also correct about finding the group you want to AutoX with. Here in Northern NJ there’s SCCA, the Porsche Club’s and others, some of whom seem a bit ‘too serious’ for me. I just like to have fun with my car. I’m a member of MSNE (MotorSports NorthEast) , and we have lots of events in the Meadowlands Parking lots. Lots of nice people.

Since you’re new, first welcome! Secondly you just joined what most regard as one of if not THE best support forum in the car world. Some of the really fine members have already responded to your post and many more will follow. In fact a ‘certain’ person here was a member of the C5 design team. Doesn’t get much better than that. I cannot even guess at the number of people who’ve been advised and then tackled all manner of jobs on their cars, complex and simple just because of the volume of info and resources here. That includes some very forthcoming vendors as well.

I mentioned tires in an earlier post. If those Bridgestones you have are fairly new, I’d leave them alone and ‘learn’ on them. The C5Z06 wheels are very special and it’s hard to find something to replace them that is better.

Regarding my stripes, they come from vettestripes.com, AFAIC, the best Corvette graphic supplier available. Mike, the owner is very accommodating and flexible when it comes to design decisions. He does have his own mind, however. Since his products are cut on a plotter they are always exact, and if you follow his instructions, and measure about 10 times before you apply the product it’s easy to get a terrific job.

I wish you luck and lots of enjoyment. The more you get to know it, the more you’ll realize what a great car you just bought.

 

FWIW my wife and I modded a C6 Z06 for Cam S class, it is a beast !!!! I'm in my third year of Auto X and trying to learn with the C 6 with about 580 to the rear wheels is a handful, the car has all the good stuff on it Coil Overs, sway bar, poly bushings etc. !!! we bought the C 5 Z06 and left it stock for A street, it has a Strano front bar, duel adj. shocks. hawk pads and running 275/35/18 on the front and 305/30/19 on the rear (RE 71's) I have been driving the C 5 most of this year and feel as I have learned so much more with it, it is very competitive and I think easy to drive, unlike the C 6 I don't have to worry as much about throttle control !!!!