What have people done to try and preserve their liners. I have 2 track weekends (3 days each) at VIR and WGI and this is what I got out of my rear left wheel well. I replaced these at the end of last season and have big holes again. I sprayed them with track bed liner but that clearly did not help much. So I’m trying to high tech route with some wire fence, zip ties and duct tape (everyone a car goes faster with duct tape ). Curious what other people have done. I’m running Pirelli scrubs on the track.

 

Sorry to see that. It's simply more of what I contend supports that these things are "track cars" in GM's imagination.

 

I get the same thing. There isn't a lot of clearance between the liner and the tire. If you are using the 680 Pirelli the tires probably pick up enough track turds to fill that space. One of the areas on mine that gets hit a lot is where the rear of the liner is braced by a bracket coming from the frame. I get a lot of wear on the left rear but not much on the right rear. Car ride height is stock and equal from side to side so I think most of the damage occurs in hard right turns where the car is pulling 1.3 or more Gs accelerating out of the turn. At both VIR and the Glen there are probably 3 right turns each where you can get that scenario. Add in some curb banging and you get the wear.

Hopefully, your wire solution works. However, be prepared to fix something if the tire catches that wire.

Bill

 

GM never advertised the cars as track cars. They advertised them as the most track capable Corvettes yet. That statement doesn't imply they are full out track cars just the best GM has done with Corvettes up to C7. No previous generation was a good track car without some serious modification. The C7 has most of those modifications. C4s and C5s would over heat the engine oil all the time without adding oil coolers and larger radiators. Brakes were lousy on those cars people that own them would be happy to install a C7 brake system. Even the base Stingray brakes are far better than previous generation's brakes. Same goes with diff and transmission cooling. C4 and C5 came with no aero to improve grip, C6Z did but not very much.

Even the seats were improved to provide increased lateral support and they do that on track. No need to swap in a race seat.

The C7Z and GS really do meet the definition of the most track capable Corvettes yet. I track my 2015 Z07 all the time and the only mod I made was to change the brakes to reduce consumable costs as the ceramic brake rotors were too expensive to replace once per year. My C6Z went through a set of rotors every 2 to 2.5 days so the C7Z was a lot better from that standpoint other than the huge cost of the rotors. I added the GMPP Secondary Radiator which GM made standard in 2017 and have never had an engine oil or coolant over heat situation even in low 90 degree temps. My results aren't outliers. There are plenty of other people who have similar results.

Bill

 

Counting on the zip ties to keep the wire where it is. We will see. Hope I’m right.

QUOTE=Bill Dearborn;1601944936]I get the same thing. There isn't a lot of clearance between the liner and the tire. If you are using the 680 Pirelli the tires probably pick up enough track turds to fill that space. One of the areas on mine that gets hit a lot is where the rear of the liner is braced by a bracket coming from the frame. I get a lot of wear on the left rear but not much on the right rear. Car ride height is stock and equal from side to side so I think most of the damage occurs in hard right turns where the car is pulling 1.3 or more Gs accelerating out of the turn. At both VIR and the Glen there are probably 3 right turns each where you can get that scenario. Add in some curb banging and you get the wear.

Hopefully, your wire solution works. However, be prepared to fix something if the tire catches that wire.

Bill[/QUOTE]

 

Have you lowered the car any? If so raise it back up to stock ride height and that will help. If the tire diameter is larger than stock that's probably most of the issue. My 19 sits higher than my 15 did and I'm getting a lot less wear.

 

You can actually do many things, and I'd not modify the liner like that. If anything, I'd put the mesh behind the liner, not in front of it (to not further reduce clearance, yet protect the stuff behind it).

• Stock ride height will help quite a bit; highly recommended.
• Stiffer bushings will reduce bushing deflection, reducing the chances of rubbing. I just did this upgrade (installed delrin bushings), and they indeed helped.
• Stiffer sway bars would also much reduce the body lean, fixing this issue if you're not too lowered.
• Don't use any tire taller than 680 mm at the rear, and 660 mm at the front : )

FYI, back when I had my C7 Z51 with coilovers (with 750#/in front, 700 #/in. rear springs), I was lowered about 1.25", yet had no rubbing! The suspension travel is huge with the stock suspension, and it is what creates this issue, especially with higher traction tires that increase the lean (suspension travel) even more. Since most of the rubbing happens at high load corners or braking zones, you can mitigate most of the issue with stiffer sway bars (which would fix all the rubbing except in braking zones, if there's any). Stiffer bushings also help a bit.

 

I forgot to add I have the AMT monoballs and z07 springs. That probably has a lot to do with it as well.

 

I have no rubbing, this is simply rubber on the track sticking to my tires and being launched at the liners. The material is too weak to withstand that. My car is stock, only has a DSC controller. It is not lowered and i’m running 305/660 and 315/680 so very closets stock diameter wheels. I agree I should put the Mesh behind it just to avoid any potential damage should it come loose as Bill pointed out. I’ll try that on the fronts.

 

I don't think that's the case. I think the liner first gets "ripped" during occasional rubbing in hard corners, etc. Once there are rips and rifts on the liner, the rubber then starts getting lodged. The liner is actually very sturdy, and I don't think it'd ever let any rubber in when thrown at it, unless it's damaged already.

 

I have to agree with x25. I've had one bolt that was thrown through my liner, and it also came through the fender, but the holes otherwise were caused by rubbing. If you had rubber or rocks knocking holes in your liner they would be knocking holes in your quarter panels as well. I had a bolt do that .

 

I bought some parts off of an old tracked c7z and the left rear liner shows the same rubbing but not to the extent yours is. I hope your able to find a solid repair as I just bought a few fenders liners and the shipping isn't cheap!

 

I guess my wheels have to move a lot back and forth as some of the damage is at the rear at the bottom of the liner. The liner material is some kind of felt and not even close to the sturdiness of a fender. I can pierce it with a screwdriver very easily. Could not do that with my fenders but I admit I have not tried 😬. On the front ones where you have a large part of the liner that is hard plastic and much more sturdy. I have no sign of rubbing there. I’ll never say never of course but I would expect rubbing to start at the top when the car bottoms out and not in the rear and front of the liners. Again my car is stock ride height and the tires I’m using have almost the same diameter as stock fronts are 0.3 inch larger, rears are 0.1 inch larger. If I look at the holes there is almost always rubber stuck into it as well as an amount behind the liner. If I pass off line on the track you can hear the bombardment of pieces of rubber in the wheel wells. It is pretty flimsy material in my mind. I know a fried of mine with a Z06 has the same issue. I do not care too much about these wheel liners being eaten up but there is all kind of electronics behind it that they protect.

 

Changed my approach on the front liners after some of the advice above. If you guys are right and it is indeed rubbing this should not give me any issues getting wrapped around my axle or so. If you look behind the liners it actually has some kind of hard plastic inner liner for most of it except in the rear where I put the mesh / wire. I might still change my rears as well and put the wire inside iso outside the liner.


. It seem the front liner has secondary support behind it except for the rear lower part.

 

How about just impregnating the vulnerable areas with epoxy resin. Just mix some up and make it hard as a rock. Obviously you can't do the whole liner as you would need articulation points for the liner to be installed. I bet that felt material will take the epoxy very well.

 

That’s my next plan. It seems that GM has done that with the upper part of the front liners. See picture above. It looks like it was done under some pressure or heat. Beats me why they have not done the whole liner like that.

 

Z07 car? If not, then yeah. They will get destroyed. And replaced. And destroyed. And replaced. Mesh on the inside sounds like a good idea...

 

It is just a plain GrandSport.... what makes the Z07 special, different wheel liners?

 

Z06 Z07 comes with different shocks and 190 N/mm front spring (as opposed to 117 N/mm), and a bit stiffer spring at the rear, too. This much stiffer spring obviously reduces squat quite a bit. Grand Sport Z07 rather comes with much stiffer front sway bar, which should help in corners, but comes with the standard spring, which should still let it squat during heavy braking.

 

I started another thread in the general section. My Z07 GS has destroyed liners. It's NOT rubbing, it's track turds. Nothing more. Car is 100% stock. I have a new set of liners on my bench that I coated with bed liner. It's not going to last. Did anyone come up with a solution ?

I tried fiberglass mesh, that did not work at all. Bed liner may get another day out of them. I haven't tried reinforcing the back, as that will create installation problems. Any ideas ? I don't like tracking the car like this, too much is exposed.

I contacted ACS to make liners. Not really a response from them.