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I've heard that the Z51 wheel alignment is set at the factory to be a little more aggressive than the non-Z51. I've done some autocross and track days, but I'm done with that now. The inside of my front tires wear faster than than the centers or outsides. I'm changing away from the stock Michelin Pilot Super Sport ZP tires (sticky but short life) to Michelin A/S 3 or 4s that last longer. I'm willing to give up some handling for longer tread life.
I have two questions:
Can anyone suggest alignment specs for a '16 C7 Z51 Stingray to increase front tire tread life with minimum sacrifice to handling for street and touring driving?
Can anyone recommend an alignment shop in Orange County, California (preferably not a dealer) who knows how to do a good job of aligning a C 7 Corvette?
My guess is that the toe is out of spec. Camber really doesn't wear the tires. TOE does. And be careful with the rear. If the people don't have the rear castor tool, (and know how to use it) it can not be done correctly.
But a Chevy dealer that sells more than a couple of Corvettes, with a certified tech, would be a place to start...
But a Chevy dealer that sells more than a couple of Corvettes, with a certified tech, would be a place to start...
You nailed it here. Some Chevy dealers sell zero-to-few Corvettes, so their shop usually won't have a certified Corvette tech. Having a real expert on these cars helps, especially in the suspension/alignment areas. I just had mine 'street' aligned. It was off fairly significantly.
For what it’s worth, I had noticed excessive inner front tire wear so I took it to a local shop to get it checked and aligned. The car had 13K miles but the front inner most tread blocks were worn almost through the tread. Glad I caught in time. I hope this solves my tread wear issues. I requested to get longer tread life and this is what he set for. From my quick research when I was looking to see who should do it revealed the guys at Performance Chassis are the ones to take it to for my area. It looks like they used less camber than what Ammo's spec sheet shows. I’m no alignment authority but, seems strange that sheet shows the toe measurements in mm vs deg. Is that a typo? Wish I knew how to compare the toe #’s
Last edited by Random Dan; Jan 2, 2021 at 03:52 PM.
From: Syracuse-Central Square New York Winer of the all Corvette race WGI 8/23!
We've aligned many brand new Vetts, They come from the factory barley close! The tolerances are usually huge, sad for a performance car. A lot of negative camber is minimal to tire wear in comparison to toe! Toe whether in or out rips tires apart. We run -2.4 camber front and -2.0 rear on our ZO6 street / track car all the time. Hot laps we bump up to -3.2 front and all the time the toe is set close to 0 for low wear purposes. Rear caster check is a 100% must, we like +.05 to .07.
I've heard that the Z51 wheel alignment is set at the factory to be a little more aggressive than the non-Z51. I've done some autocross and track days, but I'm done with that now. The inside of my front tires wear faster than than the centers or outsides. I'm changing away from the stock Michelin Pilot Super Sport ZP tires (sticky but short life) to Michelin A/S 3 or 4s that last longer. I'm willing to give up some handling for longer tread life.
I have two questions:
Can anyone suggest alignment specs for a '16 C7 Z51 Stingray to increase front tire tread life with minimum sacrifice to handling for street and touring driving?
Can anyone recommend an alignment shop in Orange County, California (preferably not a dealer) who knows how to do a good job of aligning a C 7 Corvette?
The wheel alignment isn't really "set" at all. We've had four new Corvettes and every one of them, at about 1,000 miles, had at least one alignment parameter that was outside of even the huge tolerances GM permits. Sometimes way outside.
You want 0 toe or just a smidge of toe-IN. Never any toe-out unless you are an overcaffinated autocrosser.
Negative camber improves handling but does cause a bit more wear on the inner edges. I run about -.7 camber front & rear as a compromise. If I do a bunch of autocrossing or canyon carving, the outside edges wear slightly more. If I do a 5k-10k mile road trip mostly on easy highways, the inner edges wear slightly more. I've never used the DSC settings but they all seem too aggressive for normal street driving and good tire life.
Set front & rear caster as per the book, being sure that the dealer/shop has the proper tools for rear caster.
Alignment guys question:.... my Michelin front tires (not runflats) for the last two sets are , and have cuped (with alota noise) but normal to good ware across the tread surface. Like even.
Road roiling tire hum continues to get louder and louder with normal use... Is this the Norm for these tires and Corvette?
Alignment Concern - '16 C7 Z51 Stingray
