Suspension setup
 

I've been doing some researching around on different forums but haven't really found anything conclusive on just daily driving to help soften up the ride a bit and soak up the bumps instead of driving right over them. The car while in my possession will never see track or road racing scenarios, just daily driving and maybe some pulls in Mexico. Anyone have any good recommended setups for daily driving? Thanks

I can't speak in the technical detail as some other posters, but one thing often over looked is the contribution of tires to a car's ride. If you haven't already, switching to a non run-flat touring tire vs a performance summer tire should soften the ride. I don't know if your car is a Z51 or not, but if it is the base car's shocks and sway bar should soften the ride as well.

Yea, the car came with new Nitto 555s so I was thinking that could be a big part of the issue. It's just a regular Z06. I was reading people were going with the 04 Z06 shocks/struts for some track but mostly street and coil overs for mostly track.

The BASE FE-1 suspension "shocks, springs and sway bars" is the lowest impact and handling suspension that exists for the C5.

That said however, we need to know some DETAILS about your car and how you set it up for DAILY DRIVING. PLEASE fill in the blanks:

- Tire Pressure Front-------? Rear---------? TOO MUCH pressure will cause an adverse ride, Recommended pressures that work well for ride and performance are 30-32 front, 28-30 rear.

- How old are the current shocks and what brand/type are they?

You can install NEW GM OEM FE-1 shocks for the easiest shock dampening but on a ZO6, it wont handle as well as it use to.

The C6 ZO6 cars came with some OUTSTANDING shocks. They are a 100% C5 BOLT IN Upgrade and a excellent performance up-grade. If your shocks are worn, it will cause a poor ride and substandard handling. The C5 ZO6 shocks are expensive and do not perform as well as the C6 ZO6 shocks. My 02 ZO6 shocks were shot at 30,000 miles. I switched to C6 ZO6 shocks and have been VERY happy with the ride, handling and reliability of the shocks.. The C6 ZO6 shocks were around $300. for all four shocks from Gene Culley.

See post LINK for all his suspension parts prices:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...rformance.html


TIRES. Low profile tires with stiff side walls can cause a more harsh ride. Switching to standard size tires front and rear may soften up the ride. As stated, NON RUN FLATS are better for ride comfort as compared to RUN FLATS.


Hope this helps.

BC

Thanks. The tire pressure is set to where you mentioned, it could just be the stiff all summer tires plus the OEM shocks/struts that have been on the car for 13 years (car only has 20,789 miles) but I was reading about upgrading to the c6z shocks and probably switching out the tires for all seasons.

i got myself the 10313647/25819268 shocks for my 99 c5 instead of what i suspect were the original, 16 years old 10279660/10416668 shocks. they seem to be softer at low speed and harder at high speed, but the difference is not really significant. you would probably have to dish out the money for vikings or similar to get a really soft ride.

(the new shocks are what gene offers, believe.)