So I am possibly thinking of lowering my C7GS and was wondering, if I decide not to do an alignment, will it eat up my tires? I have previously already done an alignment when I first got the car and the tires are in really good shape still after 20,000 KM.
Also, for those who have lowered their car, did it lower it on average about .75 - 1 inch all the way around? Did it cause rubbing issues when when you hit dips on the road?
I am trying to weigh the pros and cons...

 

It will slightly change it, it may still be within specs after doing it, but then again it may not have even be within specs to begin with. You should get it checked afterwards for sure!

 

If you do it you should definitely have the alignment checked. I did mine and it lowered it .5-.75 inch all the way around I believe. I wrote down the before and after measurements, but I'll be damned if I can find them now . As for the bumping or scraping, I haven't scraped on anything that I wouldn't have scraped on if it were still stock.

 

I cut one rib out of the front on mine and left the rear alone. They are both all the way down and the car ride close to stock not enough difference to really tell(I do have a z07 package). The alignment was off pretty bad in the rear if I remember but im sure it was off before. Everything else was in spec or very close. I did recently upgrade to a dsc controller and lg sway bars also I feel the car is alittle more nimble and funnier to drive

 

OP;

Corvettes were born to hug the road, and Corvette owners quickly become accustomed to clambering in and out of a low-slung vehicle. Yet with only about four inches of clearance for the front air dam and five inches for the chassis, Corvette owners also become wary of steep driveways, speed bumps, and soon-to-be familiar sounds of plastic scraping on pavement. So what's one of the first things many Corvette buyers do to their car? Why lower it more, of course.

Lowering the car on the stock bolts means that -technically-the car is still within manufacture's specifications. However, a little goes a long way. Going lower doe's not increase the stiffness of the springs, and bottoming into the bump stops will become harder to avoid.

After driving the vehicle a number of miles to help the car settle in on its new height value, it's important to realign all of the wheels.

Please note; Your headlights will need an adjustment as well.


Many thanks,

Ray

 

hmm didn't think of this

 

I lowered my'14 (it looked practically like a 4x4) all the way which gave me an inch difference.
I had it aligned and went on a~600 mi. Road trip. By the 500 mi. point I had a distinct pull to one side as the car "settled".

I had it aligned again and all was well.

I did have to be very careful of speed bumps and transitions, especially with both of us in the car. I always put the mode into Tr when going over speed bumps (riding the brakes on the down side) Taking things at an angle helps some.

I did not lower my'18 because of the splitter and side skirts. It also did not have the large wheel gap.

 

Thanks for all the information guys. I would have thought that 0.5- 1 inch in ride height would not be a big deal and would still be within the manufacturer's specs but apparently not lol.
I do have the stage 2 splitter and the side skirts and as we speak my wheel gap is about 3.5 fingers give or take. It will probably look a better when it gets lowered but I keep asking myself, is it worth it?

 

I am with you. As a new C7 owner, I also wanted to reduce the wheel gap, especially in the rear, and was surprised to find out there was a such thing as "lowering bolts" or even lowering the car on the stock bolts. I've been a longtime sports car owner and modifier and I've only known springs or coil overs as a method of lowering a car, so I was immediately interested in a free way to reduce the wheel gap on my C7. After reading a lot of threads about it though, I'm kind of skeptical as to whether or not it is worth it. I haven't read much positive about aftermarket lowering bolts at all... at least not on these forums. And lowering it on the stock bolts might still cause some issues, though I can't exactly tell what. I do understand that any lowering will at least require an alignment check, if not a realignment, and that's fine.

There's just something a little more sleek and visually appealing about a car that doesn't have 3" of wheel gap. The lines of the C7 don't make it look too bad stock (compared to many other cars), but the car would look perfect about 1.5" lower all the way around.

 

Just my experience with lowered Corvettes, last year I looked at two 2015 Z06 Corvettes, both had been lowered all the way down on the stock bolts. Every tire on both cars had steel cord showing on the inside of all 4 tires and about 50% tread on the outside of them so evidently they did not have the alignment reset on the vehicles after lowering them. Also when pulling back in the driveway after test driving both vehicles, the owners told me to slow down and go in the driveway at an angle so the car would not drag and hit the concrete. I asked both owners, did it drag before you lowered it and both replied no and these were not steep driveways at all. That was enough for me, when I got the car I bought home, first thing I did was set it back to stock height, then put a new set of tires on it and had the alignment checked. Have had no problems.

 

Stock height wheel gap

 

I lowered my 14 all the way on stock bolts and didn't like the look with the wheel gap being much larger in the back. I ended up raising the front 8 turns from bottomed and balanced the gaps (still slightly less in the front). After making sure the suspension had settled I took it for an alignment and found that every reading was within spec. He did tweak it to get to the center of the range but the lowering didn't significantly change the alignment.

 

For all the reasons mentioned in this thread I decided against lowering mine although it would definitely look nicer.

 

Lowered my GS about 10k miles ago.Maxed out on stock bolts.Had to add adjustable toe links to the rear to keep the tires of the inside edges.
Car is sick handling with no wandering.