Greetings fellow CF members,

I have a rather strange question for all of you that already own a C6. I am having the hardest time finding information on the front and rear ground clearance.
With all good luck, my car should be here by no later than Valentines day (this is me, giving myself the worst case cenario)....she is supposed to go online on the 9th of Jan. 06....but anything could happen, right? Well, here is the kicker....my driveway (may the curse of 1000 frogs come upon the builder of my house) is at a "lovely" 40 to 45 degree angle, and even now, I have to go in to my garage by zig-zagging into it (I have a Z28) I start out on the left hand side, facing the road (I always back into the garage), and move over to the right, and end up zagging back to the left to park....well, it is pretty steep, to say the least.....I don't mind going out there measuring the "safe zone" for my new Baby....but need to know how many inches there are from the ground to the front nose,and the rear bumper.......hopefully I won't have to take a special driving course to get her into the garage Please, if you guys don't mind, grab your measuring tape, and let me know what you come up with.
Thanks in advance (hopefully I won't have to sell my house )

 

The air dam is 3.5" from the ground, it'll almost certainly scrape, but then that's more or less normal. The good news is that although the car itself is lower, it's front and especially rear overhangs are much shorter than your Z28, and the air dam is much closer to the front wheels, so there are places it won't scrape that the Z28 does. Also, less need to take things at an angle. The thing to really be careful about is the concrete blocks you find in parking lots - you can hit the radiator support on those. Don't know that it would break something in a few hits, but not somewhere I'd want to go. So don't pull in as far as you're used to doing!

I can measure heights, but it won't help too much without looking at the distance - let me see what I can do in the way of a model.

 

My measurements for the front taken several months ago on a level surface are:

air dam - 3.5"
front fasica - 6.0"
behind wheel - 6.0"

Don't have for the rear. Hope this helps.

 

The front air dam on my 05 C6 is 3.5 inches above the ground, but some have reported as little as 2.5 inches.

 

First off. 40-45 degrees is awfully steep. Are you guessing? Because if you are, I'd bet that your driveway isn't as steep as that. I have a as steep a driveway as I know of and my C-6 clears a lot better than my lowered Mustang GT did. 2nd, it is not the steepness of the hill but how it begins and ends, ie; if it begins/ends with a soft curve rather than an abrupt angle, you'll have a much better chance of clearing. Finally, the dam is not what you need to worry about. It is made of a very flexible rubber that is made to scrape from time to time. You won't find a member on this forum who doesn't hear the sound of the dam scraping from time to time.

Oh, congratulations on your new vette; enjoy!

 

I am telling you, going out of my garage right now, looks like climbing Pikes Peak in Colorado....the angle I gave is a guesstimate, but it is pretty steep, and no slight curve to it on the bottom, just a dip, and in the garage I go...My Z28 is not lowered and I never hit the Cats or anything other than my pipes, which I am ashamed to say are missing a good 2 inches off the very bottom end, from scraping....needless to say, now it doesn't scape anymore.....but before selling the Z, I will have to replace the pipes...well, most people when they come to visit, they don't dare come into the driveway....one buddy of mine swears it's the devil's driveway, and refuses to drive his car into the garage, he just hands me the keys... since I know the angles front to back, I don't scrape....but to get back to the topic....I went out to measure the Z's front and it sits exactly 6 inches off the ground.....but she's parked outside, in the driveway from hell...I will measure again when I have her on level ground, and not the rocky mountains. Thanks for the congrats....I can't sleep....it's terrible.....but a very joyful event. Thanks to everybody for the measurements.....this will help

 

Do you ski or snowboard? A tripple diamond (really advanced) run has a slpoe of between 38 & 43 degrees. I believe that snow won't hold on a mountain after that. But we're talking cement, not snow and I suppose 45 degrees is possible on a driveway although they would have to pour a really thick batch of concrete in order to get it to stay in the forms at 45 degrees.

Consider what the fellow posted before. The wheels on the C-6 were pushed very close to the corners front and back. That I'm sure helps the car lift quickly as you go onto the slope. Good luck. And try to get some sleep, cause you won't get much after you get it and drive it, not for a while at least!

 

Eros,

Is this your place ???

 

Someone who's good at that math thing can give you the actual degrees but taking a quick measurement -- the front spoiler is 3.5" off the ground as others have said with a distance in front of the tires of 12-18" (12 on each side to 18 in the middle) which I guess to be around an 11 degree angle and in the rear the exhaust tips are 9.5" off the ground and 28" back from the tires giving maybe a 23 degree angle.

I know mine scrapes the front going into normal looking driveways so yours is going to be interesting.

--Dan

 

OMG! U got to be frigin kidding... who the hell approved that driveway... I hope it doesnt snow or get cold enough to ice over... thats got to be a photohack.... you might as well forget about getting that vette up/down that thing.. thats insane or a weird camera angle...

 

I can't imagine that the local planning board or building department approved a driveway with that grade. You should check the local ordinance for you town and see what the max grade is (%). I bet you that was designed incorrectly!!!!!! Call a local Civil Engineer and get them to check the grade of the driveway and get corrected if possible...

 

OMG......no way, that is not my place............they will need a ski lift to get in their garage.....lol.....after having seen that, I don't feel too bad

 

I thought my driveway was bad.

 

And as bad as that is it is probably only 30 degrees or so. (Have to go find my protractor...)

 

 

I hope that's a joke. I make it about 26.5 degrees!

 

Check out my photos, as I have a steep driveway:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/phot...cat/500/page/1

Check out photo #3, my old C5, and the last one on page 2, with my wife.

That's a steep driveway, by normal standards. I had to move the house back 10 feet, and down 5 feet, before the motorhome could even get in the lower RV garage. (I mean while the lot was being graded.)

My C5 and C6 always scrapes big time, coming and going daily, for years, without any ill effect. OK, the front air dam has a slightly ragged lower edge, but you have to get down on your hands and knees to see that. The C6 seems to scrape a bit less, maybe due to less front overhang.

 

That's really funny! But even a driveway this steep is less than a 45 degree slope. Nuf siad.

 

Measure from the ground to the frame rails.

In front of the front jacking puck holes and just behind the rear jaking puck holes on the frame.
The rear should be 1/8 to 3/16" higher then the front for aero rake purposes.

Left side of the car should be 1/8 to 3/16" higher the the right side. This is to offset the ride height when the driver is in the car, then right to left will be equal.

 

Wonder if you could put a 4 post lift on the sidewalk so you could lift your car into the garage?