I think they're 12"x12"; they were the biggest ones I could find. I jump on both door sills like a monkey for a minute or two to settle the car on cribs. It usually helps a lot : )

 

Vid is sick...Nice

 

Alright, just got back from a track weekend. First time on coil overs and sway bars. Unfortunately I should have bought new rear slicks, I was having a lot of traction issues. I switched to the OEM run flats and was only ~1 second slower than the slicks. Anyways, the alignment seems to be pretty solid. Also you may consider going to whatever the normal length is on LG coilovers. I had zero rubbing or any issues (I'm 1" lower front/back than stock).

 

Finally received my second axle replacement. If I screw up an axle again, I think I'll have to buy it from another dealer; it's embarrassing.


Replaced the front spacers with my own version. These ones on the left shock add 4mm to the height. The ones on the right add 3mm. This means I'll only need 3mm preload (minimum we should use in my opinion) on right, and 6-7mm on the left. These are hardened washers, and match the circular diameter of the bolt holes perfectly.

You Tube

The alignment could change things a lot in terms of clearance. I decided to do the initial alignment; I can easily do all but the toe with sufficient precision.

 

The car is finished, ready for alignment. I plan to be attending the ORP track day on 25th Aug.


I gave utmost care to settling the suspension. Below is my method to settle to suspension and ensure consistency, if not accuracy:

You Tube

1. Move car back and forth on the cribs
2. Jump over each side's door sill for a good 10-15 seconds, as hard as you can.
3. Move car back and forth yet again

The half-shafts are pretty heavy. The right hand side axle is 22.6 lbs.


This time, I took my time to calculate exactly what I want, and I almost hit it at first try!

• FRONT (from ground to wheel spat; add 21 mm for measurement from fender)
  • Target: 649mm; 1mm less than my 650mm target with 315/30/18s to accommodate R7 295/30/18 diameter difference.
  • LEFT: 646mm; 4mm spacer (via washers), 5mm preload.
  • RIGHT: 649mm; 3mm spacer, 4mm preload.
• REAR (from ground to fender)
  • Target: 696mm; 8mm less than my original target to account for much shorter R7s at 315/30/19. The radius difference is 8mm, per posted diameter specs.
  • LEFT: 696mm; 11mm preload.
  • RIGHT: 697mm; 12mm preload.

 

Hey X25 - this site is doing a track build on a Z51 as well, the videos and articles are a pretty good read for the audience here.

http://www.motoiq.com/Projects/Chevr...ay(C7Z51).aspx

 

Yeah, a friend of mine also showed me that site. Now, if only I could get them to listen that T1 kit is a bit too mild : )

 

I don't think any other build can even come close to X25's above track build in terms of technical depth and the selection of mods best suited for the track!

IMO This is a gold standard reference thread for anyone looking to seriously track their corvettes!

 

MotoIQ has been a great site over the years with builds. Various cars too like G35s to Corvettes, etc. Not a bunch of bullshit either. They use top quality everything in their builds and show the true results.

OP I haven't read this whole thread yet but how are you breaking axles?

 

Thanks for your kind words! A friend of mine has finally bought a truck, too, for towing, and I might finally get to plan a trip to your 'home tracks'; it'd be great to see you join us! : )) I'll see if we can do it in winter time..

I'm sure MotoIQ puts a lot of thought to their process, and do their best to objectively test the mods they pick, and give feedback on them. I also went through a similar planning process, and went through a few issues on some of the items, like 600-watt Z06 fan from Chevy perfomance site that my '16 car already came with (no one knew, and GM didn't put a warning), DeWitts rad that I've decided not to install (much different fin design with more back pressure; not clear what the impact would be to the aux radiator's air flow), Cray wheels (designed for Corvette, yet don't clear Z06 brakes), and T1 suspension that actually came with pre-release Z51 shocks that were a bit stiffer than what '14 Z51 ended up getting delivered with. Those shocks (identical to OEM besides valving) might work well with 265 slick tires vs. 245 OEM, but they were not a good match at all for 275 or 315 NT01s. Long story short, they might run into similar issues, and worse yet, not even know what they're missing (e.g., suspension issue became apparent only after switching to 315 fronts), and it would be nice to let them know : )

Axle issue: LG G2 coilovers seem to have been tested for clearance only at 1" or more below stock ride height. To their defense, that's also what they recommend (but I asked them to let future customers know about it, now that we know this might happen). When I limited the drop to only 0.5", the axle boot started to occasionally rub on the spring of the coilover, causing the axle boot failure. I tried to mitigate the issue with a positive caster at the rear, but that was apparently not enough. As such, I dropped the height back to 1" lower than stock, and will try again. Thankfully, I can replace it myself very easily, so at least the cost is limited to about $250 per failed attempt.

PS: After running into this issue, I've researched further, and came up with posts on C5/6 threads about the very same issue with various coilovers. I wish I could find smaller tube-id springs to fit there; that would fix the issue at any ride height. I was not able to find any. I bought Eibach springs with same specs, but they seemed even thicker.

 

sounds great! looking forward to running with you my friend! Me and my friends do 1-2 track days a month so let me know which ones you are eyeballing, I'll sign up for the same ..

one of my friends is considering a Grandsport and I pointed him to your thread as a reference. He's eager to pick your brains on his GS setup. He's a budding hardcore track rat like me.. heck even I might get a GS at somepoint soon..

BTW - Just curious, why did you go with LG G2 and not something more well known in racing such as JRZ or MCS .. I'm considering upgrading to MCS 2-way non-remote with custom 800/1000 springs for my m4.. MCS is what all the hardcore track rats are running over here in bay area.

 

Yep, I'm quite interested to see how their track build goes, given the issues you have seen during your journey! I did tell them on their Youtube page about the 600W fan already being in their Z51 - they did reply with a thanks for letting them know!

 

Sure, we can chat any time : ) Just let me know!

G2 coilovers claim bigger punch than their buck would suggest, LG is pretty well known in the racing world with their successes, and I liked the idea of not being able to adjust it; just one less set of settings to worry about. That said, especially when I tried the R7s, I started thinking about what I could do if I could adjust hi/low speed compression and rebound separately. I am so far happy, but who knows, if I don't sell the car in a few years, I could try different setups, too.

I watched their video, and looks like they will install EVERYTHING from Chevy catalog, which makes me think GM must be giving them the parts to play with. As such, I suppose it would be very hard to change their minds on anything. Let's see what their impressions will be. My bet is that they might not realize anything they might be giving up, since they will not play with different setups. A Camaro 1LE with slicks + DSC, or a Z07 car as reference could give them a much better perspective. Looking forward to watching their upcoming episodes : )

Update on wheels for slicks:
I have ordered my second set of CCW wheels through a forum vendor about 10 weeks ago, but my payment was still not sent to CCW after months of waiting. Considering CCW itself has another 14+ weeks of wait, I would get my wheels almost half a year (!) after my order, even if they could manage to finally process my order today. This is obviously no longer feasible, so I asked for refund. I will look for, and order a cheap set of wheels to play with for the season, and might revisit CCW order before next summer.

 

You and I have the exact same thoughts. There's all this praise about LG coil overs, mostly from people that never track their cars, so just because it's stiffer they think it's got to be way better performing. LG claims so much about their G2 coil overs, which is also why I went with them. However after my first track event I'm wishing I could soften up the rear dampening a little bit. The car feels like it isn't putting power down as good as it could mid apex and corner exit. However it was my first event on the coil overs and my track "season" is just starting so I'll definitely put many more track events on them before I pass total judgment.

That said, I had a terrible experience geting my coil overs and sway bars. First they send me the rear bar to a C6, they corrected that once I found out. Then when I got my coil overs it had the old mounting hardware, which is welded plate to make the bracket instead of CNC machined pieces. They said that they would correct that (and they did) but the single BIGGEST issue I had is that when I had the above two problems I started to question the products as a whole. I looked at manufacturer part numbers and found that my two rears weren't the same. When I e-mailed LG about this it turns out they sent me one of the rear shocks for a C6. How they managed to send three C7 coil overs and one C6 coil over is beyond me. Now it makes me question if the front two are event correct. It was a really discouraging experience and left a bad taste in my mouth about LG.

 

Scary story. I've heard of a lot more of these types of incidents recently. One of my customers had almost the exact same experience with his C6Z coil overs.

 

I've also had a fair share of issues: faulty/clicky ball bearing in one of the mounts, mounts hand-built but also off the specs (did not even fit), and of course, the axle boot issue.

Besides the axle hassle, these are still small issues that they took care of quickly, and these are obviously not deal breakers as long as the coilovers perform as advertised. The fact that they've sent you a C6 shock, though, is mind boggling. This makes me want to check mine, too : )

I am back to the lowered (1"+ drop) height, and will have to get it aligned again on Thursday night; here's hoping the technician will be faster (now experienced), and it doesn't cost me as much this time. I will be trying the setup with NT01s at the track on Saturday for baseline, and will try to hit my former times, if not better. I need to do this to make sure the new alignment (positive caster) and ride height works properly. Once I'm good, I'll switch to my set of slicks, and see what they can do, but it will have to wait the next track day since I don't have the wheels for them, yet.

 

The problem is they (LG) removes Bilstein's sticker with the part number from the shock, at least they did with the fronts. The rears had the sticker still on them and after I did a fair amount of digging, I found that they weren't likely the same shock. When I brought this up to multiple people at LG they confirmed, but it took a couple times of me pushing it. When they sent me the replacement shock (replacement for the C6 shock they sent) it didn't have the Bilstein sticker on it, so I have no way of knowing if it matches my other one.

The springs are a different story. Luckily Hypercoil prints their part number on their springs. So both my fronts match (700 lbs. spring rate) and so do the rear (600 lbs spring rate).

 

Maybe he got three C6 coilovers and one C7?

 

I was thinking about the same thing : ))

 

LOL. Well if it happened mid May then it's possible!