Coilovers?
Thanks for all the info.
I was referring to the Chassis stiffener (looks just like a harness bar) made by Doug Rippie. It attaches only behind the seats so I am not sure how much it can do to stiffen the chassis as it does not tie into the front at all.
Doug Rippie and others offer Bilsteins as shocks and coil overs for the C5 and C6, I do not know if they are C5 shocks sold for C6 or specifically for the C6
I may try the Bilsteins and see if they improve the Washboard handling. I'll let you know if I do.
Happy Motoring! and thanks again
C5 shocks should not be used on a C6. Suspension travel is different, C6 has more, so you'd run the risk of topping or bottoming the shocks, and they'd quickly fail. Bilstein is supposed to be coming out with a shock specifically for the C6. I don't know if it has hit the market yet. When it is available, play with the bound and rebound settings to find a ratio that works on your roads. It won't necessarily be the full hard settings.
, I also know that the real world roads are not smooth like the skid pad. Maybe I don't drive my Corvette has hard as some of you but I have never been disappointed in the handling of my C5 or C6. I took a ride up in the hill country and on the curves that said 40mph I took them at 90mph and the G-meter only registered .52g's, I know I could have taken the curves much faster, and this was on a narrow two lane country road that was not smooth. I guess there will always be people that no matter how the cars are built will demand more, and that is okay, it keeps the after market companies in business. But I think for the majority of the Corvette owners the cars capabilities are far greater than most would care to explore.Anyway, that is my 2 cents.
[/QUOTE]We have data in our C6 World Challenge race car (with coil over shocks by LG Motorsports) and we register 1.62 G's with no spikes.
More fun than we should be allowed to have.
Our C6 Coil over shocks are already available. direct bolt up and very effective.
thanks guys.
LG
I think I may be expecting too much from this car. It does have a perimeter frame, not a unibody or monocoque structure. As far as the cowl shake issue, the Vette chassis is stiff but not nearly as stiff as my Z3 M-Coupe or my M3 sedan where (both similar to the Vette in weight, size, mission and weight distribution). The handling of the Vette is remarkable, you can easily exceed posted speeds for turns by a factor of 2 or 3 (as is proper for any sports car) - unless the road is a washboard, in that case use caution! It is this unpredictable nature of the car I find troubling.
The buttoned-down ride you like in the BMWs (I have two of 'em myself) is the shocks, specifically the OEM Boge shock and more generally the Boge and Bilstein monotubes, which cannot be beat. The stock Corvette shock (Sachs) is junk, no matter how much Nurburgring testing they throw at it. So step one is swap to Bilsteins.
Step two is to change tires. The bump-skip is a feature of the very stiff sidewall on runflat tires. The newer Gen GY is better, but cannot approach the compliance of a non-runflat tire. So you will have to trade mobility for feel. This is less of a problem on other runflats because the higher aspect-ratio introduces additional compliance which masks the problem, but it is still a major headache on the thin-sidewall tires worn by the Vette and the Viper.
Finally, all SLA (double-wishbone) suspensions suffer from one major drawback: they are super-sensitive to toe settings. If toe is correct, they perform like nothing else. If they are off or cross-toe is excessive, they get nasty: they skip, skitter, and stumble over bumps, and feel generally squirrely and unpleasant. The Vette rear suspensions are pareticularly susceptible to going out of alignment. This is the first place I would look, because most Vettes come from the factory with screwed-up settings. Spend 100 bucks on a computer alignment and you will probably notice a major difference.
That said, I am highly amused you are suspicious of Vette handling, coming from the king of snap-oversteer, the M-Coupe and Roadster. (Thank god they finally added DSC to the 2001 models!!!) and the terminally-understeering E46 cars. Why BMW insists on using that junky McPherson setup on the front end is beyond me. I agree the Corvette skip is unsettling, but the car will stick way beyond this point and is predictable at the limit, unlike the BMWs. It will also bury the BMW when it is time to get serious in the twisties. Then again, the cars are designed for a large margin of error and are thusly reassuring. You should stick with BMW if that's the feel you prefer.
Last edited by TTRotary; Jul 10, 2005 at 01:42 AM.





