carlvr

Well, after enjoying my Z06 with pretty much only power mods for about a year, its time to do something with the suspension, and tires.. I will not be racing this car competitively.. Some track days when possible and very spirited mountain and curvy road driving.. Right now suspension is stock, slightly lowered on stock bolts and aligned with about 1* of camber.. I am not super interested in a full coilover system. I think the stock leafs are fine and have good spring rates. I want to clean up some the slop the z06s have with the stock shocks.. Mine is an 06 without mag ride.. I want adjustable,... definitely. I like to be able to work some oversteer into the car.... or not, but definitely want to have the ability to do so if I want to. I want to car to ride well! I hate rough riding sports cars, and don't see the point of it with todays shock technology. I want as much grip as possible and will be getting rid of my goofy Michelin PSS front and Nitto Nt05 rear tire set up this car came with, for most likely toyo r888 or Cup 2 set up.. I want to run the front tires as wide as you can possibly put on a z06. I think 295 should be relatively easy to fit up there (if not a 305) and a 345 in the rear..

I am not too thrilled with the way the car feels in hard cornering right now. Way to scetchy, it will understeer and oversteer all in one turn. in slow sharp turns it just plows and the car just doesn't rotate until you dab the throttle a bit and it just oversteers like crazy.. On faster turns, it does feel much better but like I said, way to scetchy and relatively small road imperfections really upset the car.. when you are hanging a long turn at 75mph @ about .9 G, that can feel very unsettling.. So my goal is to clean that up as much as possible... also I will probably run Sam Stranos front sway bar...

I'm in the auto biz and get to drive a lot of different cars.. I have driven Boxters, a GTR, many Mustangs, M3, and all kinds of other stuff. I don't discriminate when it comes to manufacturers and love all capable cars, no matter who makes them or where they come from. My last car was a really fun 2011 5.0 Stang on KW V3 suspension (and a bunch of other stuff off course) and it felt great.. Very stable, capable of easy 1+ lateral Gs, easy to rotate and even with a live axle, not a scary over road bumps.. Now I have my Z and love it, other than that very scetchy handling characteristic and actually not being able to sustain 1g turns.. (even though I thought these cars were supposed to be able to do it stock)

So has any one run any of those shocks I mentioned?, and what have you experienced in performance difference and ride quality?? Are the Penskes and JRZs worth the difference in price?

Thanks in advance

carlvr

bump

LFZ

If you are sticking with the stock leaf springs.....you're best option is going to be some DRM Bilsteins. Otherwise, go full coilover....lots of advantages....

carlvr

thanks for the info but please let me know if think there is an advantage to doing something, what the advantage is? I haven't seen any evidence yet that coilover springs do actually make the car handle much better than the stock leafs.. maybe more suspension travel? maybe some companies actually have much better spring rates for these cars?

XLR8-R

If you don't want to go coilovers, you may want to consider the Vikings. They are adjustable for rebound and dampening I think, and reasonably priced. Or the DRMs if you don't want to try different settings. A lot of your problem now could be your mismatched tires...

Dan_the_C5_Man

If keeping the stock springs, then the recommendation would be DRM.

Most of the aftermarket CO solutions go nuts (my opinion) with the front spring rate.

I will say my stock setup is very stable and the mag shocks work great, even over imperfect pavement (and this is coming from a guy that always goes CO).

I have a slightly stiffer front bar, stock rear bar, and even with the stock 19" / 20" ZR-1 Michelin tires with 25k miles on them, I take every turn right at 1g during mountain runs and it is totally balanced.

I haven't had this car to a proper road course yet (still tweaking the tune), so I can't validate what will happen at the extreme edge (1.2g+ / completely loose to see if under, over or neutral) in a long turn, but I don't expect any surprises.

I have a set up Cup 2's and wheels waiting to be mounted, those will just raise the grip level further.

My old C5 FRC was much better with CO's over mono leaf, primary improvement was rear end stability over bumpy corners, but certainly some of that was the shock valving.

Unreal

Huge fan of the vikings. Had stock, then DRM, then vikings. same with 3 other people I convinced, and not a single one regrets it.

carlvr

thanks fellas.. good info.. I am able to get to about .95G on faster turns but not much more than .85 on slower sharper turns. Somehow I feel under braking going into sharp turns, the front tires get completely overwhelmed. At higher speed turns, the front isn't so bad, it's the rear that can't sit still.. some of that I can attribute to the mismatched tires but the PSS and Nt05 tires I think should be pretty close in performance.. either way, they are both going away soon enough.. but I still need some major shock improvement.. Dan, are the tires on your ZR1 Michelin PSS as well? I am sure the mag ride is a huge improvement over base.. but even the brand new Z06s with the Cup tires go 1.2Gs max so I imagine you will be getting close to that with the cup tires as well.. The thing with me is I want to get the right shocks the first time, and not have to waist time and money changing them again and again.. Sam Strano had great things to say about the Konis so I have been leaning toward those.. I will research vikings as well.. If there is any more imput I would love to hear it

encasedmetal

OP-my car feels the way you're describing in tight turns- and some of it is speed/turn-in technique, but I'm with you in the thought that some of it can be tuned out. I'm running michelin pilot sports all the way around so it's not my tires. If you do swap shocks- please report back with your findings in the new characteristics as I won't be swapping anything out until this winter.

carlvr

will do.. By the way, when I said JRZ on the title of the thread, I meant JRI .. I will try to talk to Sam Strano some more but he talks very fast its a little hard to pick that brain of his. I will probably end up buying from him since he knows what he is talking about...

Unreal

For what you want, I would really look at the LG coilovers though. That is the setup to have.

carlvr

That can be said about all coilovers. Simply because they are coilovers and they cost a lot more money, doesn't mean it the best way to increase performance. I have not seen any evidence yet that the spring rates on these or any of the coilovers are better than what chevy already gave you from the box on a z06. The shocks are where I see most of the problems coming from.. Please correct me if I'm wrong.. I can't just accept that coilovers are better because they are better.. why are they better is what I am wondering? more travel? better spring rates? lower the center of gravity (which they dont)? what is it about coilovers that makes it better?? for example on my Mustang, the factory springs are ****.. sit way to high, move around way too much, you can't lower those things without really messing everything up unless you go with a proper coil over system and even then, you have to choose the right one.. that I understand.. I don't see that the vettes have the same issues .... but once again, I may be wrong..

olddragger

corner balancing maybe?
low speed turns are hard for these big tired cars. I trail brake it.

LFZ

From my experience and opinion. **I have had stock suspension, DRMs w/stock leafs, and 2 different sets of coilovers.

Coilovers offer more all around adjustability and feedback. Whether your're setting ride height, fine tuning the dampening, or even the simply swapping springs to try different rates. Coilovers are the way to go. The stock shocks on the Z are very lackluster in terms of quality and valving. That is where DRM came in to valve these specifically to handle the unsettling rear of Z06 and keep the car planted. DRMs are great shocks right out of the box for these cars, if you want to bolt on and go. Coilovers are not that simple. From my experience, the coilovers give the Z06 an even more planted feel. Maybe not so much more travel, but the ability to take advantage of stickier tires (R compounds) that much more, because ultimately, its all about going faster into the turn, through the turn, and out of the turn.

Tires, aero, alignment, sways, car uses, all add up in the equation as to what best fits your needs. I personally like to tinker and don't mind trying different ride heights and alignments to get exactly what I am looking for out of the car depending on the occasion.

Unreal

Call Anthony and ask him. Lg makes amazing parts.

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

When it comes to coil overs I would not say our sets are expensive when you look at say a $11,000 set of 3 way Penske's or $12,000 set of Bilstein MDS adjustable shocks.....but then again your average Corvette owner doesn't need something like that. Notice I said need, doesn't mean they do not have their place or fitments depending on the car.

That being said our G2 line has been one of the corner blocks of our suspension packages for street car customers and racers alike. While they are not adjustable externally (for now), they do offer a number of easy to work with features. These shocks are built to order for each customer for their needs, you can easily pull them apart for rebuilds, or even a full setup change. Parts for the shocks are easy to work with and inexpensive in case you do have a need for replacement. The Hyperco springs we use can come in a number of rates typically in 50lb breaks to, again fit anyone's needs on setup.

Now why do I, and many others love the G2 line? Simply put, experience. I do not know of another tuner/team that has been involved in the Corvette C5/6/7 platform quite as long as we have on both street and track. Chances are we have seen it, done it, raced it, or built it.

I know a lot of people would like ***** on the shocks and they do have their place on race cars, and in the hands of a knowledgeable person they can help you reduce your time on track but we are talking small gains. If the car isn't working right typically that is a big setup change, not a shock adjustment. We strive to get them right first time around and give you a proven setup that is well balanced (neutral) and you can spend time on track, not under the car turning *****.

For those that HAVE to have an adjustable G2 setup, shoot me a PM and we can go over the options currently out there. We are not stocking these just yet and working on a lower cost way of doing them but we can do single and double adjustable sets.


I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

carlvr

I agree at $2400 they are not super expensive but what is the real advantage of going with the G2 coilovers over the LG Adjustable Bilstein shocks you have on the website?? Also, how do they compare to the Koni Yellows? both are inverted, both are monotube.. I do not need triple adjustable shocks.. Only single adjustable is what I would like because they are easier to tune with than sway bars and since I may want to try different tire combinations, I need to have that ability

carlvr

I see.. thanks for that.. opens my eyes a little more

XLR8-R

Nobody mentioned but I believe coilovers are lighter than the fiberglass leafs as well...

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Our new generation G2's are approx 16lbs lighter total weight than the OEM shocks/springs/hardware