I am mildly modifying my suspension on my 2008 Base and I wanted to run a few questions through the forum. I ordered a Z06 rear sway bar and the WCC lowering bolts. Looking at the original Vette setups, the bars are bigger in the front than the rear...will I be in danger if the rear is changed before the front so it is bigger in back? What kind of problems would I see? More tail happy?

 

Any time you stiffen the suspension at one end of the car, that tends to give more grip to the other end.

So putting on a bigger rear bar without changing anything else, will tend to give oversteer, or at least less understeer. Be careful.

 

Do the bars at the same time -- and even then I'd do a C6 Z51 rear bar if you want factory stuff. The front bars are the same between Z51 and Z06, but the rear Z06 bar is stiffer. Without the big Z06 rear meats, I don't think it'll be optimized. Just my 2 cents..

 

Well, my budget is pretty tight at the moment, recouperating from Christmas. I have the bar and the bolts in my possession and I am going to install them soon regardless. When I can manage a front bar, I will go for it, and maybe at some point go for something more such as shocks/coilovers.

I cant believe how much of a learning curve I am having to go through with this car, as my Subaru was basically the opposite when it came to suspension tuning. Haha.

 

The WCC lowering bolts are notorious for being junk. Do a search.

Adding the Z06 rear bar without larger tires isn't a wise choice.

You should do you homework before buying questionable parts. Research twice, purchase once.

San

 

Could not agree more.

That is why I bought the whole suspension kit form Pfadt so that all the parts work together. It is not always as simple as it looks.

 

I wouldn't put a Z06 bar in back unless you're running a much sticker tire.

You're asking for a LOT of over-steer. Unpredictable over-steer can be very dangerous.

 

with Floyd. Also agree about the lowering bolts you purchased. Highly recommend you look into the ones made by Hardbar before you waste your time installing the ones you got.

 

The car is going to be stored for winter soon and stickier, wider tires will go on in the spring once it is out of hibernation. Thanks for the responses. I will search for a front bar in the meantime...and maybe see about a sort of refund on lowering bolts.

 

I agree with the seemingly negative comments regarding suspension upgrades. It is good constructive advice.

To state the obvious, the Corvette is NOT a Subaru, doesn't handle or perform the same way, the suspension is going to be very different but tunable and predictable. Shocks, springs, anti-sway bars and wheel alignment are a few of the adjustable parameters to work with, it isn't as simple as bolting on a few components and like magic you car performs better. I haven't even mentioned tires and wheels, what are you running for rubber?

What is it you want to do with your car? Do you have any goals you are trying to attain? Any peculiar quirks you are trying to eliminate? Are you doing any auto-cross? hpde events? drag racing?

I just started hpde last season and feel a strong addiction. I started with an '08 Z-51 base model, A-6 to see if I really wanted to do this. For my first year I upgraded the brake lines, installed the pfadt camber adjusters and a high performance wheel alignment (tough to get through a dealership, you need to see a performance shop to really get it right) and had a great time. I also did a Driver Skills day put on by a local Porsche club. They have great performance driving events. I highly recommend them if you want to learn how to drive your car in a safe and sane environment.

The least expensive way to go about this is to have a specific goal in mind, do a lot of research and study before buying components. Heck, Christmas is just over, finances have taken a hit, for most of us driving events won't start until Spring so there is plenty of time to research and learn before buying anything and compromising your car. The wrong or poorly matched shocks and anti-sway bars will make the car handle worse then the base model with no upgrades.

In closing, the basic Corvette is well set up. Everything plays together as a system and just like anything else, once you start making changes in one place it will have an effect somewhere else. For instance, the Z-51 has its own shocks, springs, anti-sway bars, tires and wheel alignment specs. That is a lot of parameters to adjust. Pfadt, a successful engineering group, came up with the Johnny O'Connel suspension package that has shocks and anti-sway bars that are tuned to work together. They hired Johnny to drive the car while pfadt made the design changes based on JO's input. Read about it on their website.

If you are going to track or autocross the car, I highly recommend a Porsche Driver Skills event. This will teach you how your car will handle and give you some idea of what changes you might like to make.