obi-1
September 17, 2007, 1:41pm
38
My car right now is on the stock springs for the car ('02 Z06), stock '04 Z06 shocks (the best of the stock C5 shocks… still nothing special), a GM T1 front sway bar (38mm), no back bar, VBP Poly bushings, and an aggersive alignment (-2.8 F Camber, +7.4 F Caster, 0 F Toe, -1.7 R Camber, .25" Total R Toe-In). That’s it… well that and 18x11 F 18x12 R with 315/30-18 F 335/30-18 R Hoosier A6s. It is lowered with lowering bolts and corner-weighted.
So I wouldn’t say that stock stuff and lowering bolts don’t really work. 1.39 Lateral G’s is enough that my door panels are broken from bracing against them (I bought some clean ones from a totaled car… just gotta put race seats in before I install them so it doesn’t happen again).
That being said there’s open debate between staying leaf spring vs. going coil over. If you look at the C5/6Rs they’re coilover… so clearly it works. But those cars really need different spring rates for different venues and money is no object. C/Os add unsprung weight to the suspension unless they are an inverted design with AL bodies, spendy stuff. Everything off the shelf is no good for a serious racer (LG, DRM, Pfadt etc.) because they’re tuned too much for a street car that maybe does track days, but probably not on a R-compound. LG and DRM aren’t even adjustable shocks. Pfadt is single but their effective wheel rate is only 30% more than my stock C5Z springs… not enough to be worth the $ for me. They’d put more spring on it… but you quickly get out of the adjustability range fo the shocks. As of yet Pfadt isn’t doing custom valving.
The only “real” option in C/Os for a serious car is going with something built for you. For example, I’d really like double (or tripple) adjust Penskes with remote reservoirs built-out as C/Os. But that’d run my $4-5k and I’m not sure I’m ready to drop that down just yet.
Staying with the leaf setup you have a few options for aftermarket leaves, all around $1k. The set I’d probably buy if/when I got that route are 1200 or 1250 # front and 850 # rear. Stock is 526 # front and 714 # rear. So you’re talking a huge jump in the front… not so much in the back but still significant. I’d still need to match those with a good shock, valved just for my setup. But since I wouldn’t need a threaded body for C/Os that opens up some other options like custom valve Bilsteins, Konis etc. that might run more like 1500. That’s still $2500 total. And really I’d still ‘want’ Penskes so it might even cost MORE to stay leaf spring than going C/O.
I want to see 1.5 G’s on flat ground damn it (my 1.39 etc. are ALL on flat ground only, no banks).
-TJ
That’s a ton of great information there. I’ll probably stick with the leaf setup then. The price is right and 1.39 G is no joke. Plenty for me, anyway. Does the aggressive alignment destroy your tires on the street? Awesome that it’s enough force to break your door panels.
My car already has the same springs as the z06 and front sway bar. I think only the rear sway bar is different - smaller. I will have to keep those 04 Z06 shocks in mind.
I read another thread that argues leafs were fine. Some people don’t like them because of cross talk, but that’s exactly what a sway bar does, anyway.
Thx.