Aaron-

There is a HOT debate over this a few threads up, started out calm enough then as CF would have it...turned into a pissing contest of who had more cerebral capacity

I am planning a suspension upgrade for my 97 that currently has the base suspension- I am going with C5Z springs and was looking at the matching C5Z sway bars and end links. But from what I read here I might be better served with the C6 Z51 bars and end links...so you are saying they are direct swap in w\o added re-engineering rquired?

Thank you in advance!

 

Aaron, I'm one of the pissing combatants named in byte_me's last thread reply above. Can you give us...errr....us, an answer on this please. I'm about to order bars and have my weekend set aside over Easter to do the install along with my C6Z06 shocks on my 1999 C5 base model. Before I go and order as planned more expensive Addco bars I'd like to know which would bars I should go with.

Padrino

 

Yep. The C6 Z51 bars are a bolt in to a C5 chassis. no re-engineering required. The C5 and C6 chassis like a lot of sway bar stiffness. If you are going to use a factory set of bars the C6 Z51 ones are the bars to use.

If you are really looking for the goods, check out our Pfadt bars. Adjustability, light weight and great looks.





-Aaron

 

Padrino,

There are a lot of choices with sway bars. Most things come down to what are you planning on using your car for. Technically, you can use any C5 or C6 sway bars on your C5.

We build two different sets of sways for the C5 cars. Our Street package and our Competition 'Pfatty' package. They streets are built as an upgrade for that works well on the street and is good for some auto-x and an occasional track day. The Comp package is designed for someone who is doing several track days a year or has a dedicated track car. The Comp bars are on many pro-level race cars.

All of our bars are rate adjustable on the front and rear bars. They are also complete with endlinks and poly bushings. All of them are designed as an upgrade to a Z06 or Z51 car. We feel that that is the baseline and minimum stiffness that is really good for the Corvette. As you can see from the chart in one of the earlier posts, the rate of our street package is about 2x the stiffness of Z06 bars, and the Comp package is about 3x. Both of our packages are stiffer then the other commonly available aftermarket bars.

In terms of shocks, the C6Z shocks are a relatively poor upgrade in my opinion. Those cars (C6Zs) tend to be harsh because of the compression damping in those shocks. We are launching a new set of shocks that have superior performance to the Z shocks and offer 16 way adjustability. That allows some suspension and ride quality tuning.
Retail on these units is $890

later,
Aaron

 

Arron,

I thank you very much for your advice and wish I could afford your set up. However, being married and wanting to remain so, I followed my wife's advice...it better not cost too much! So therefore, I may not have the perfect setup but it's got to be better than my 9 year old stock system.

Regards,

Padrino

 

Quick question from a suspension noob..

Will coil overs improve traction from a stop? I don't know anything about suspensions really so maybe I am barking up the wrong tree here and there is a better option.

 

^^Yes, if properly set up. When you accelerate you want to transfer weight from the front of the car to the rear. Look at a well set-up drag car when they leave the line. You will notice that they lift the front tires which puts all the weight on the rear. Transfer weight to the rear tires improves traction.

Hope that helps.

 

Hey thanks for the reply, I know about weight transfer but just based on experience, I'll have to do more research around the forums.