BrunoTheMellow

Alright. I now have Z06 suspension on my z51 and am wondering if I would rub the top of the fender with wider front tires. This is mostly for research because if I go wider I'd go 1" size smaller diameter tire also.

With that being said, I know the fender is shaped differently on top and rear but can someone do some measurements for me to see if the wheel well contour is different? Like is the cutout taller? Can someone measure like me below:

1) ride height front floor to wheel well 26.0"
1) ride height from floor to jacking point (might need a small tape measure for this) 4.50"

This means jacking point to wheel well is 21.5". If a Z06 yields bigger numbers then voila.

(This is fully lowered on Z06 springs front and about 1/4 up on rear)

Bill Dearborn

With stock ride height settings the Z06 will ride higher than the Stingray. Here is the info from the FSM:


The P Height is the distance from the ground to the top of the arch of the front fender and the R height is for the rear quarter arch. I didn't think there were any real dimensional differences between the wide body front fender and the narrow body front fender. The tire diameters of the base model cars are within a schosh of being the same as the tire diameters of the wide body cars. The wide body cars have 1 inch wider wheels which are offset to push the extra width to the outside. I thought that extra width is why they put the Spat on the front fenders of the wide body cars, otherwise whey install it? I suspect the difference in stock ride height comes from the differences in spring rates and how much the springs deflect along with a factor for wheel travel when pushing hard into a bump or corner. The Z06 weighs more in the front and even with heavier duty springs probably needs a little more wheel travel to keep from bottoming out the suspension.

Bill

BrunoTheMellow

thanks Bill. Aware of the 1/4" different height "setpoints". The fenders are shaped differently at least on the outside. Not sure inside. Also although at first sight it's not a different size wheel house, I was just wondering if the cut of the fender was deeper. I know the spats aren't a direct fit for a stingray.
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Also, the front Z06 springs have slightly smaller pads. But that shouldn't matter much.

Do c7 tires not travel inside the fender during high G corners? Do they stop short of the fender outer top edge? Since the spats do nothing for increasing wheel well space.

This is my z51 with high G corner before swapping to Z06 springs:

X25

Also keep in mind, we measure the FE6/7 cars from the wheel spats, while the base/Z51 cars get measured from the fender itself. Considering the fenders seem to have different designs, it's a bit misleading to compare the heights from that table alone. In other words, our measurement points are different (different design fenders), and I'm not sure if they are the same distance from the bottom of the car on both designs. As such, we should refrain from using this table to compare height differences, using P and R. I suppose the other measurements (like D, etc. from the service manual) would be more reliable.

BrunoTheMellow

That's my point! I want us to figure out the differences. That's why I included floor to jacking point height as that is an identical frame point on all c7s. And if you hold the tape measure infront of the spat, you can get a pretty good estimate of the fender itself.

I believe that would be the most reliable method. You just need a smaller tape measure to do it.

BrunoTheMellow

Alright. I was able to check my friends car and the results were VERY SURPRISING. In short the top of Z06 fender opening is 1 1/4" taller than the z51. That's a huge difference.

Top of Z06 fender: 27 7/8"
Frame: 3 5/8 + tape measure size
Difference = height of fender opening = 24 1/4"
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re measured my car at the same time:
top of z51 fender: 26 5/8
Z51 frame : 3 5/8 + tape measure
Difference = 23"

So the Z06 fender is 1 1/4" taller opening for fitting the wider tire.
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Now granted. Same frame height. Here is how the Z06 wheels and 295 super sports look on the z51. I pushed down the fender hard and it hit. So in order to run wide tires on the z51 , even with Z06 springs need to raise it about 1" taller than a z06 to match the gap on the top of the fender. Or raise maybe 1/2" and run 1 size smaller tires (what I'll end up doing)

JT Corvette

Wow! thats honestly hard to believe!
Isnt the z06 fender also wider?

BrunoTheMellow

No. It's just shaped differently. Now that we know this, the easiest way to picture it is: grab a stingray fender and pull the wheel well up, stretching it up 1 inch. That's the natural shape it would take.

djnice

It seems they added the spats to close the fender gap. Pretty lame.

Another interesting comparison is Z06 to ZR1.

BrunoTheMellow

no. the spats were added to widen the fender or provide rock guards. they do close the gap by 1/2" but you could have just lowered the car by that amount. With no spats you get this:

djnice

Bruno you may be right, but that photo is not a Z06 fender. I would like to see that angle with stock Z06 wheels and fender with the spat taken off.

BrunoTheMellow

The Z06 and stingray fenders are the same width.

Danengraham

Did you measure the diameter of the Width of the wheel opening near the center line? I would have to think its larger all the way around vs just being a taller opening at the very top. It would have an egg/oblong shape too it if it did. I guess it may not be noticeable??. I wonder if this taller opening on the Z, is so the wider tires don't contact the top of the fender under hard cornering/bumps.

Didn't realize it was just the shape of the fender that is different, they really do look like they are wider because of it.

BrunoTheMellow

See above.