I only dropped it 1/2" because of my steep driveway (I came close to scraping before dropping it....now I pull into the driveway very gingerly), but it made a very apparent diffference in handling - all for the better. I'm definitely getting a few more mph out of turns, and the car seems quicker to respond to steering input, not like it was slow previously. Certainly the best 'free' mod out there....not including the cost of the alignment afterwards, of course.

By the way, the car looks better now, too! I'll update my sig pic eventually....

 

I love the looks of lowered C5's!

Lowered mine 2 1/2"s all for free!!!

 

Oh, I do that - trust me. I would not have a front facia if I did it any other way :) When I do occasionally scrape (maybe once out of every five times out of the driveway - and usually only if my neighbors park a little further forward than normal :smash: ), it's only the flexible side air dams that are hitting - no real damage done. I never scrape the frame guards.

 

pburant:
Did you do it yourself, did you use any "lowering kits" for the front? Did you have room to lower the car more? How did you lower exactly the amount that you wanted. Also was alignment necessary? Thanks for your input, this will be my next mod.

 

BTW how 'bout some before and after pics, if its not too much trouble.
Thanks.

 

I will see what I can do about that...the trouble is, I spend all my free time driving instead of taking pics! I'll look at some of the before shots I have and try to take an after shot in the same position/angle/lighting. I think the biggest reason it looks better is the center of the wheel well radii are now much closer to the center of the wheels. The car does not look lowered to the casual observer, however.


I sort of did it myself. My GM mecahnic happens to be my brother, so I was there under the car with him while he did it. No lowering kits were involved - I believe that's only necessary when you want to lower the front more than an inch (I'm sure you can get an accurate number with a forum archive search). My brother seemed to think, judging from the length of the bolts, that it could have been dropped upwards of two inches, front and rear - this, however, doesn't account for any travel stops that may be in the way and need to be cut in order to lower the full amount the bolts would allow.

To get a consistent drop at all four corners, we measured points on the car to points on the alignment rack - four points on each side of the car - just in front of and just behind each wheel. There was minimal guesswork since it was easy to keep track of how many 'turns' were applied to each bolt (it was also very easy to put the car back down on it's wheels and measure again). Note that we didn't have to remove the front wheels to lower the front, but we did have the advantage of having the car up on a rack. The alignment afterwards was very necessary. As could be predicted, the camber was the most off.

As a side note, I did not drive the car before doing the alignment. Many claim this is necessary to allow the car to settle. While it is true that a Vette's suspension will 'settle' after lifting the wheels off the ground, it is only due to the suspension geometry and the fact that the wheels are at the bottom of their travel when they first touch the ground. The wide tires combined with a stiff spring then hold the car up higher than it normally would be. Driving the car ten feet will cause it to 'settle', or, if you have the car on a rack, you can simply tug the car down on it's suspension several times as we did. No further 'settling' has occured.

Good luck - I highly recommend this mod.



[Modified by pburant, 9:03 AM 6/12/2002]

 

OK - here's the best I could do until I'm graced with some nice weekend weather and the patience to stop driving and take pictures!

Here's a before and after in the same pic. The image on the left is before. The images are close to the same size, but the angle is slightly different. I think you will be able to see how even a half inch difference brings the center of the wheel well radius closer to the center of the wheel:



Here are closeups of the front and rear wheel wells after lowering:



Here is more of the car after lowering (sorry it's so dark):



If there's interest, I'll make an effort to get better after pics that can be compared to a before pic such as the one in my sig.

 

looks good, I now have a good idea of what a difference it makes.
thanks

 

This was a very satisfying mod.:yesnod:
Here's an inch drop on my car to compare to:

Before


After

 

:cool: Looks good. :cheers:

 

Both lowered 1 inch with stock bolts :smash:
Thanx to Patches :cheers:

 

for FREE???? what, when , where, how???? what have I missed?? clue me in please!! thanks :cheers:

 

I lowered my previous C5 about 1/2 inch like you did. I think that makes it look just right, and doesn't cause too much scraping.

 

I wonder if anybody makes a low-profile air dam? That would be very useful for all the folks that lower their cars. I hate scraping in parking lots and corners where the payment is uneven.

 

Check the forum tech tips for how....

It's free because all you do is back out some bolts. It's not entirely free because even a small drop will affect your alignment, so it will need to be realigned after lowering.

 

I was thinking about this, too. From what I understand, the plastic pieces are pretty cheap from the dealer, so you could easily cut down the ones you have on that are already scraped at the bottom and get a replacement set for if/when you ever sell the car or return it to it's stock height for other reasons.

 

I trimmed an inch off my air dam using masking tape and scissors, took 1/2 hour start to finish. Does not affect cooling or stability as I just completed a 6000 mile drive through the US going for the most part a high rate of speed and in between Kingman and Las Vegas it was 119 degrees and the car ran just slightly over its normal temp. The scraping is now almost non existant, and my car is much lower than yours! :cheers: