[Z06] LG Motorsports GT2 Coil-Over Review… from a Regular Joe.
07-26-2010, 02:56 AM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
LG Motorsports GT2 Coil-Over Review… from a Regular Joe.
LG Motorsports GT2 Coil-Over Review… from a Regular Joe.
Disclaimer
First and foremost, I want you to know I am not a racing expert, nor do I consider myself one. I wish I was, but I just ain’t. So the following review must be taken with this fact in mind!
That being said, I hope this adds an interesting twist to the usual coil-over review, because too often such review quickly boils down to “you totally must do it!”, or “unless you’re tracking your car, it’s not worth it”. As it turns out, there is a gray area between those 2 extremes
Apologies for the long story, I hope to enjoy it!
Where I’m Coming From
As stated above, I ain’t no Michael Schumaker. I do however enjoy spirited street driving, with an occasional road mountain drive here and there, but my Z06 still must be considered a daily driver.
I found that the stock suspension on my 2009 C6 Z06 felt too scary and uneasy on less-than-perfect curvy roads. I’m not calling the stock setup inadequate, but I was looking for an upgrade which would allow me to get a better feel for the car’s limits, as I get asymptotically closer to the so-called 10/10. So I recently decided to take the plunge, and buy a set of LG Motorsports GT2 coil-overs.
Coil-Overs!
I bought the set at Total Performance Solution (TPS) Motorsports here in the SF Bay Area (in Campbell, to be precise), and had them installed by them. So far those guys have been quite nice, and they’ve been quite responsive regarding follow-up service, which is often where good and bad shops differ from each other. The install came with a wheel alignment and corner balancing.
Ride Height
After a few trials, the closest we could get the car to stock height was 1.25” lower. I can’t claim to have read all coil-over reviews on this site, but I wasn’t aware installing those coil-overs meant dropping the car this much! Personally, I happen to not care for the “slammed” look. In the end, I highly doubt it would have been a deal-breaker for me had I known about it from the get go, but it certainly would have been nice to know ahead of time!
So there you have it, you’ve been warned
If your car is driven through places where you can barely make it without scraping, stay away from that setup! The first trial was even worse at 1.75” below stock height. I even managed to scratch my rocker panels 
That’s my fault though, as I wasn’t slowing down enough over bumps and such. But as stated above, I want my Z06 as a daily driver, and I wanted coil-overs for spirited driving, not for show!
General Road Ride Quality
Overall, you end up with more feel for the road. I’m still on OEM tires, with the front about 90% gone, and the rear about 20% gone (originals on the front, new set on the back). I can now feel and hear the transverse tire grooves. It’s not too bothersome to me, but I’m going with something like the PS2’s next time around. I know those tires to be much quieter versus the OEM ones.
Also, I did notice that if I hit a bump on the road the car tends to jump a bit more than before. It has the side effect of sending me up in my seat, which can be unsettling... But interestingly, the tires still feel more planted to the road than before, which is ultimately the important part in keeping control of the car. Note that I do not know if this is an inherent coil-over property, or if it just stems from my coil-over settings. I’d be interested in hearing other peoples’ experience regarding this.
Otherwise, straight-road ride is similar to the stock suspension. Driving around town conservatively, you wouldn’t really know the car has coil-overs.
Corner Carving
This is the ultimate reason why I wanted to try coil-overs on my Z06, and at that they deliver in spades!!! The car now remains very flat in corners and, more importantly, it remains much better composed when you go over mid-corner bumps. While I suspect road tracks do not have such mid-corner bumps, I’ve found they occur much too often on regular roads.
For those of you familiar with route 130 going through Mt Hamilton and Mines Road, that’s where I went to test the new setup. It was probably my fifth time through those roads, and it was by far the most fun! It suddenly made the whole investment totally worth it! Not that I was starting to second-guest the wisdom of my purchase, but when spending that kind of cash, I want to make sure it’s what I wanted.
In short, I’m still working my way up in trying to (safely) feel the car’s limits, and the coil-overs setup gives me a better opportunity and feel in doing so.
Problems?
As soon as I came home after the initial install, I removed the wheels, and changed the settings to 8 front, and 7 back. I read a few threads on this forum stating it was a good starting point for street driving.
The fronts adjust quite easily, as it is done via a ring **** towards the top of the coil-over. The rears are a bit trickier: The **** is directly on top of the coil-over, and it is impossible to access it once the shock is installed. So the unit comes with a damper extension piece, which consists of a rubber-covered spring, clamped on each end to the extension **** and a connector which itself gets connected to the coil-over’s **** (you can see pictures of it here: http://www.lgmotorsports.com/catalog...oducts_id=2176).
The install calls for those damper extensions to be quite bent, and unfortunately in my case one of the extensions broke loose from its connection end after “playing” with it for a few seconds
Hard to say for sure what happened, but It does look like the Allen key screw holding it together had been over-torqued, and cracked the spring inside.
I went back to the shop, and asked if they would kindly replace that damper extension, which they did no questions asked. They had to get a new one from LG, though they ordered an extra one to keep in stock in case it happens again. Surprisingly, one of the 2 was already showing early wear despite being new, which suggested to me it would fail in the same exact way mine did, once installed…
Word to the wise: I’m not sure if that’s a common occurrence, but double-check the integrity of your damper extensions prior to installation, otherwise you’ll be forced to remove the whole coil-over unit to fix it, which forces you to also redo the alignment and corner balancing! Luckily for me, TPS was kind enough to redo the whole thing free of charge
Besides that annoyance, the coil-overs appear solid.
Verdict
Earlier I mentioned how coil-over reviews too often boil down to either “you totally must do it!”, or “unless you’re tracking your car, it’s not worth it”. The way I see it, I find coil-overs worth it on the street, because I often drive spiritedly, and like to take curves at good speeds.
But they come with disadvantages, in added road noise, reduced ride height (unless of course you like that look), and a bit of added extra jump when going over straight-line bumps.
If you tend to drive conservatively, with very few spirited driving, then my recommendation is to save your money and to keep the stock suspension, as it is already very capable in most day-to-day street situations!
And of course, if you need an install, TPS is a fine place to have it done at Thanks to Mike, Jason, and Chris for everything!
Side Notes
Coil-overs are the first modifications I performed on my 2009 C6 Z06. I originally planned to install adjustable sway bars like the ones offered by Pfadt, mainly because they are cheaper than coil-over setups. But I recently changed my mind, after reading from various forum members that they had issues with noise. I don’t really care for creaky cars, so that idea was out!
Also, I don’t have anything else to compare this setup against, except of course the stock Z06 suspension. I’ve read many people have had good luck with the DRM Bilstein Shocks. They’re certainly cheaper I’d be curious to hear how they compare. Although of course one of the big advantages with the LG GT2 coil-over setup is its adjustability.
Enjoy!
Geoff
Disclaimer
First and foremost, I want you to know I am not a racing expert, nor do I consider myself one. I wish I was, but I just ain’t. So the following review must be taken with this fact in mind!
That being said, I hope this adds an interesting twist to the usual coil-over review, because too often such review quickly boils down to “you totally must do it!”, or “unless you’re tracking your car, it’s not worth it”. As it turns out, there is a gray area between those 2 extremes
Apologies for the long story, I hope to enjoy it!Where I’m Coming From
As stated above, I ain’t no Michael Schumaker. I do however enjoy spirited street driving, with an occasional road mountain drive here and there, but my Z06 still must be considered a daily driver.
I found that the stock suspension on my 2009 C6 Z06 felt too scary and uneasy on less-than-perfect curvy roads. I’m not calling the stock setup inadequate, but I was looking for an upgrade which would allow me to get a better feel for the car’s limits, as I get asymptotically closer to the so-called 10/10. So I recently decided to take the plunge, and buy a set of LG Motorsports GT2 coil-overs.
Coil-Overs!
I bought the set at Total Performance Solution (TPS) Motorsports here in the SF Bay Area (in Campbell, to be precise), and had them installed by them. So far those guys have been quite nice, and they’ve been quite responsive regarding follow-up service, which is often where good and bad shops differ from each other. The install came with a wheel alignment and corner balancing.
Ride Height
After a few trials, the closest we could get the car to stock height was 1.25” lower. I can’t claim to have read all coil-over reviews on this site, but I wasn’t aware installing those coil-overs meant dropping the car this much! Personally, I happen to not care for the “slammed” look. In the end, I highly doubt it would have been a deal-breaker for me had I known about it from the get go, but it certainly would have been nice to know ahead of time!
So there you have it, you’ve been warned
If your car is driven through places where you can barely make it without scraping, stay away from that setup! The first trial was even worse at 1.75” below stock height. I even managed to scratch my rocker panels That’s my fault though, as I wasn’t slowing down enough over bumps and such. But as stated above, I want my Z06 as a daily driver, and I wanted coil-overs for spirited driving, not for show!General Road Ride Quality
Overall, you end up with more feel for the road. I’m still on OEM tires, with the front about 90% gone, and the rear about 20% gone (originals on the front, new set on the back). I can now feel and hear the transverse tire grooves. It’s not too bothersome to me, but I’m going with something like the PS2’s next time around. I know those tires to be much quieter versus the OEM ones.
Also, I did notice that if I hit a bump on the road the car tends to jump a bit more than before. It has the side effect of sending me up in my seat, which can be unsettling... But interestingly, the tires still feel more planted to the road than before, which is ultimately the important part in keeping control of the car. Note that I do not know if this is an inherent coil-over property, or if it just stems from my coil-over settings. I’d be interested in hearing other peoples’ experience regarding this.
Otherwise, straight-road ride is similar to the stock suspension. Driving around town conservatively, you wouldn’t really know the car has coil-overs.
Corner Carving
This is the ultimate reason why I wanted to try coil-overs on my Z06, and at that they deliver in spades!!! The car now remains very flat in corners and, more importantly, it remains much better composed when you go over mid-corner bumps. While I suspect road tracks do not have such mid-corner bumps, I’ve found they occur much too often on regular roads.
For those of you familiar with route 130 going through Mt Hamilton and Mines Road, that’s where I went to test the new setup. It was probably my fifth time through those roads, and it was by far the most fun! It suddenly made the whole investment totally worth it! Not that I was starting to second-guest the wisdom of my purchase, but when spending that kind of cash, I want to make sure it’s what I wanted
.In short, I’m still working my way up in trying to (safely) feel the car’s limits, and the coil-overs setup gives me a better opportunity and feel in doing so.
Problems?
As soon as I came home after the initial install, I removed the wheels, and changed the settings to 8 front, and 7 back. I read a few threads on this forum stating it was a good starting point for street driving.
The fronts adjust quite easily, as it is done via a ring **** towards the top of the coil-over. The rears are a bit trickier: The **** is directly on top of the coil-over, and it is impossible to access it once the shock is installed. So the unit comes with a damper extension piece, which consists of a rubber-covered spring, clamped on each end to the extension **** and a connector which itself gets connected to the coil-over’s **** (you can see pictures of it here: http://www.lgmotorsports.com/catalog...oducts_id=2176).
The install calls for those damper extensions to be quite bent, and unfortunately in my case one of the extensions broke loose from its connection end after “playing” with it for a few seconds
Hard to say for sure what happened, but It does look like the Allen key screw holding it together had been over-torqued, and cracked the spring inside.I went back to the shop, and asked if they would kindly replace that damper extension, which they did no questions asked. They had to get a new one from LG, though they ordered an extra one to keep in stock in case it happens again. Surprisingly, one of the 2 was already showing early wear despite being new, which suggested to me it would fail in the same exact way mine did, once installed…
Word to the wise: I’m not sure if that’s a common occurrence, but double-check the integrity of your damper extensions prior to installation, otherwise you’ll be forced to remove the whole coil-over unit to fix it, which forces you to also redo the alignment and corner balancing! Luckily for me, TPS was kind enough to redo the whole thing free of charge
Besides that annoyance, the coil-overs appear solid.
Verdict
Earlier I mentioned how coil-over reviews too often boil down to either “you totally must do it!”, or “unless you’re tracking your car, it’s not worth it”. The way I see it, I find coil-overs worth it on the street, because I often drive spiritedly, and like to take curves at good speeds.
But they come with disadvantages, in added road noise, reduced ride height (unless of course you like that look), and a bit of added extra jump when going over straight-line bumps.
If you tend to drive conservatively, with very few spirited driving, then my recommendation is to save your money and to keep the stock suspension, as it is already very capable in most day-to-day street situations!
And of course, if you need an install, TPS is a fine place to have it done at
Thanks to Mike, Jason, and Chris for everything!Side Notes
Coil-overs are the first modifications I performed on my 2009 C6 Z06. I originally planned to install adjustable sway bars like the ones offered by Pfadt, mainly because they are cheaper than coil-over setups. But I recently changed my mind, after reading from various forum members that they had issues with noise. I don’t really care for creaky cars, so that idea was out!
Also, I don’t have anything else to compare this setup against, except of course the stock Z06 suspension. I’ve read many people have had good luck with the DRM Bilstein Shocks. They’re certainly cheaper
I’d be curious to hear how they compare. Although of course one of the big advantages with the LG GT2 coil-over setup is its adjustability.Enjoy!
Geoff
07-26-2010, 03:29 AM
#4
Racer
Thread Starter
Geoff
07-26-2010, 05:35 AM
#5
Just accessing the top of the rear shock shouldn't require an alignment and corner balancing.
07-26-2010, 11:26 AM
#12
Drifting
One of the best write-ups ever for the forum. Thanks. What was the limiting factor in not getting the stock ride height? Was it spring adjustment or was the shock too short?
Gary
Gary
07-26-2010, 12:30 PM
#14
Race Director
Thanks for the write-up, I think you did a great job of showing pros-cons, and I appreciate you being candid.
More often than not, I think some people add mods to their cars and are not entirely thrilled with the end results, but noone wants to admit they wasted money, or whatever.
The other nice thing about your thread is that you chose a mod that works for the way YOU use your car, which is great. Another thing we see a lot of on the forum things like " everyone should do 410 gears they are great and I love mine.." wihtout going through the real pros vs. cons.
Nice work and glad you are happy with the coil-overs.
More often than not, I think some people add mods to their cars and are not entirely thrilled with the end results, but noone wants to admit they wasted money, or whatever.
The other nice thing about your thread is that you chose a mod that works for the way YOU use your car, which is great. Another thing we see a lot of on the forum things like " everyone should do 410 gears they are great and I love mine.." wihtout going through the real pros vs. cons.
Nice work and glad you are happy with the coil-overs.
07-26-2010, 07:34 PM
#15
Racer
Thread Starter
Thanks guys, I tried my best at giving a fair and balanced review
My understanding is that the limiting factor was the shock length. The mechanic who installed it extended the shock as much as he safely could.
Geoff
Geoff
Last edited by Jofu; 07-26-2010 at 07:43 PM.
07-26-2010, 07:38 PM
#16
Racer
Thread Starter
Thanks for the write-up, I think you did a great job of showing pros-cons, and I appreciate you being candid.
More often than not, I think some people add mods to their cars and are not entirely thrilled with the end results, but noone wants to admit they wasted money, or whatever.
The other nice thing about your thread is that you chose a mod that works for the way YOU use your car, which is great. Another thing we see a lot of on the forum things like " everyone should do 410 gears they are great and I love mine.." wihtout going through the real pros vs. cons.
Nice work and glad you are happy with the coil-overs.
More often than not, I think some people add mods to their cars and are not entirely thrilled with the end results, but noone wants to admit they wasted money, or whatever.
The other nice thing about your thread is that you chose a mod that works for the way YOU use your car, which is great. Another thing we see a lot of on the forum things like " everyone should do 410 gears they are great and I love mine.." wihtout going through the real pros vs. cons.
Nice work and glad you are happy with the coil-overs.
Geoff
07-26-2010, 07:52 PM
#17
Racer
Member Since: Jun 2010
Posts: 289
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Thanks for the review!
I'm a little nervous now, I have a set that should arrive later this week. I was reading the installation and it said it recommended the car to be lowered by aprox .5 to 1.5 inches. I didn't realize it will for sure lower it and in your case a full 1.5+ inches. I have the ZR1 front splitter and side skirts and I'm a little concerned about being lowered that much. I don't expect my splitter to never scrape but I also don't want it to scrape everywhere.
I'm a little nervous now, I have a set that should arrive later this week. I was reading the installation and it said it recommended the car to be lowered by aprox .5 to 1.5 inches. I didn't realize it will for sure lower it and in your case a full 1.5+ inches. I have the ZR1 front splitter and side skirts and I'm a little concerned about being lowered that much. I don't expect my splitter to never scrape but I also don't want it to scrape everywhere.
07-26-2010, 08:34 PM
#18
Racer
Thread Starter
Thanks for the review!
I'm a little nervous now, I have a set that should arrive later this week. I was reading the installation and it said it recommended the car to be lowered by aprox .5 to 1.5 inches. I didn't realize it will for sure lower it and in your case a full 1.5+ inches. I have the ZR1 front splitter and side skirts and I'm a little concerned about being lowered that much. I don't expect my splitter to never scrape but I also don't want it to scrape everywhere.
I'm a little nervous now, I have a set that should arrive later this week. I was reading the installation and it said it recommended the car to be lowered by aprox .5 to 1.5 inches. I didn't realize it will for sure lower it and in your case a full 1.5+ inches. I have the ZR1 front splitter and side skirts and I'm a little concerned about being lowered that much. I don't expect my splitter to never scrape but I also don't want it to scrape everywhere.
Geoff
07-26-2010, 10:09 PM
#19
Team Owner
I'd be very concerned about two things. If the highest you can adjust it is 1.5" lower than stock, you have lost a boatload of suspension travel. Second, if it is throwing you up on bumps, you have no rebound damping.
I think you need more set up time. Any car can be made to corner well on good roads. A suspensions job is to properly adhere to imperfections in the road while maintaining body control.
I think you need more set up time. Any car can be made to corner well on good roads. A suspensions job is to properly adhere to imperfections in the road while maintaining body control.
