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Hi guys, new to the forum. Just purchased an 02 Z06 with 40k. All original except a ProCharger and ATI Balancer.
Fun car to drive. I am going to dd the car and it will see the drag strip once in a while and a few road racing weekends.
I want to ask about handling. Last night on the highway I hit about 140mph the car seems to be hard to keep straight. Also, when coming out of a corner, if the road is a bit uneven the car wonders really bad.
It stays nice and flat. I like how the car rides in town. Thinking about C6 Z06 shocks. Anybody with experience with them? Thank you!
mine did that when i first bought it with the original run flats, come to find out i had one tire with a small leak and had no air pressure in it. I had checked it the week before and all had pressure, but with no air pressure in one of the front run flats it caused it to dart around a little, scary times
It has Michelin pilot sports. Almost new. 28 in the back 32 in the front. Was 35 front and back when I got the car. But changing the pressures did not help.
Last edited by RockstarAutomotive; Dec 13, 2018 at 11:57 AM.
Have you had the alignment checked? Might have some toe-out in the front.
Also check the front vs. rear ride height, rear should be higher.
Front is way too high. I have not aligned it yet. I will get it on the rack today. I don't want to fully lower the car, but I do need to get the front end down. I will report back one I have the alignment specs. Good call!
Check and see if the car has been lowered, once you get over 125 mph if you do not have proper rake (checked at the ride height or frame tie down) you will find the cars front end starting to rise slightly. You will notice that more if the alignment of off as the car steering wheel feels sluggish. Since I autocross and street drive my Corvette I have "0" Toe and at a few tracks I notice the steering is greatly influenced by the pavement in the braking areas.
Front is way too high. I have not aligned it yet. I will get it on the rack today. I don't want to fully lower the car, but I do need to get the front end down. I will report back one I have the alignment specs. Good call!
If you don't think the ride height bolts have been screwed with, the low ride height in the rear could indicate bad shocks. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the shocks do contribute to the ride height. When I swapped my blown F45s for new C6 Z51s, they jacked the car up quite a bit. Good luck!
Did a quick measure in the parking lot to the top of the wheel well. Goes as followed
LF 27.5"
RF 28"
LR 27.75"
RR 27.75
Also found RF shock leaking. So new shocks are needed. I figure I will wait on ride height adjustment until I get the new shocks. I am thinking C6 Z06 shocks.
An accurate way to check your ride height if you do not have a trim height tool is to use the J & K jacking puck locations, I install a puck making sure it is tight to the frame, measure to the ground, then add the height of the puck to get my height, as noted below you can see Z06 spec is level, coupes & convertibles are 1/4" higher in the rear as they run a taller tire.
For a simpler way using your wheel well heights, I make sure all tires have same air pressure, measure from ground to top of the rim, and from bottom of the wheel well to top of the rim and add the two to get the measurement.
I use both measurements to set my ride height, even with a level rocker height the rear wheel well opening will be higher in the rear than the front, mine is 1/2" 25.75" & 26.25"
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
I agree to check the alignment, I set mine up a little differently than the factory specs and I am mainly concerned with the car driving straight at high speeds... also check the other suspension components for obvious wear or anything abnormal while you have it on the rack
When the C5 was first introduced my local club was fortunate enough to have one of the Corvette developers talk to us. One of the items he did mention was in keeping records, measure the ride heights at the top of the fenders and he said to keep it for reference, as each one will more than likely be different than the rest. When I do alignments on my Corvette, I not only do the caster, camber, toe, rake and thrust but also scale it and cross weigh it with 1/2 tank of gas. For giggles I will occasionally measure the fender heights--they are never the same.
High Speed Handling
