last year at my last track day (it wasn't the last event of the year, it was just MY last event) I noticed a clicking sound in the suspension. I suspected it was a worn end-link which while they make noise isn't that big of a problem and I proceeded to drive the car. When I got home I went to look at the end links and determined that it was actually the ridetech shock had come apart. The lower shackle is bolted onto the body and it had come lose and over the 3 sessions on the track and eventually broke.
To ride tech's credit, their warranty is amazing and in the email they suggested that perhaps the threadlocker was missing/failed as that isn't supposed to come apart and asked that I send in the other rear shock to ensure it was fixed and replaced the shocks. +1 to ridetech (great company, fast service, very easy to deal with)
However as my c6 is the base model and has the factory springs in it i'm left wondering if a stiffer spring setup wouldn't reduce dive on braking and produce some improvements in lap times. which leads me to my question.
Should I put the ride tech shocks back in? Should I look for some second hand z06 springs (or aftermarket aftermarket springs) to accompany them. Are stiffer springs that important around the track?
Should I sell the ride tech shocks and upgrade to full coil overs?
Coilovers made a tremendous difference in ride quality and reducing wheel hop in my 2002 C5 with the Z51 (non-adjustable) suspension.
I had the Pfadt coilovers, way back in the day before they
-had a Black Friday sale, took a ton of orders
-Didn't ship the bulk of their orders
-Shipped some orders incomplete
-Stopped answering phones
-Declared bankruptcy
-Became a division/brand of AFE.
But anyway, buy some coilovers, just not from Pfadt.
Id just get coilovers if you are changing rates anyways. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to swap to another leaf spring unless required by your class rules. You may want to get new sway bars at the same time if you don't have an upgraded one. The leaf springs partially act as a sway bar as well and base bars will be especially light once you up spring rate.
theruleslawyer said:
Id just get coilovers if you are changing rates anyways. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to swap to another leaf spring unless required by your class rules. You may want to get new sway bars at the same time if you don't have an upgraded one. The leaf springs partially act as a sway bar as well and base bars will be especially light once you up spring rate.
i have the strano front bar and Z51 rear bar. Since i don't want to spend JRI/Penske money on coil-overs I was looking at the ride techs or the bilstein offering by LG, both are priced around $2250 +/-. but am open to suggestions from the audience if somebody else has something that is more cost effective.
I don't anticipate competing where I am worried about what class the car falls into.
ClearWaterMS said:
theruleslawyer said:
Id just get coilovers if you are changing rates anyways. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to swap to another leaf spring unless required by your class rules. You may want to get new sway bars at the same time if you don't have an upgraded one. The leaf springs partially act as a sway bar as well and base bars will be especially light once you up spring rate.
i have the strano front bar and Z51 rear bar. Since i don't want to spend JRI/Penske money on coil-overs I was looking at the ride techs or the bilstein offering by LG, both are priced around $2250 +/-. but am open to suggestions from the audience if somebody else has something that is more cost effective.
I don't anticipate competing where I am worried about what class the car falls into.
The Viking berzerkers or crusaders might work for you too. They are in that neighborhood and frequently recommended.
thanks all for the recommendations... I spoke to the wife about it and she pointed out that the $2000 delta would probably be better used for instruction / track time / etc. that I'll find more time /w practice than I will with upgraded suspension. so i went with a set of 2nd hand z06 springs which I got shipped for $275.
Dontcha hate it when they're that right? 
ClearWaterMS said:
thanks all for the recommendations... I spoke to the wife about it and she pointed out that the $2000 delta would probably be better used for instruction / track time / etc. that I'll find more time /w practice than I will with upgraded suspension. so i went with a set of 2nd hand z06 springs which I got shipped for $275.
FWIW look up the casting number before you install them. There is a lot of mistakes with springs apparently- z51 sold as z06 etc.
ClearWaterMS said:
thanks all for the recommendations... I spoke to the wife about it and she pointed out that the $2000 delta would probably be better used for instruction / track time / etc. that I'll find more time /w practice than I will with upgraded suspension. so i went with a set of 2nd hand z06 springs which I got shipped for $275.
Although hard to swallow at times, I have learned that a wife's idea about cars is usually unbiased and rational and generally correct.
theruleslawyer said:
ClearWaterMS said:
thanks all for the recommendations... I spoke to the wife about it and she pointed out that the $2000 delta would probably be better used for instruction / track time / etc. that I'll find more time /w practice than I will with upgraded suspension. so i went with a set of 2nd hand z06 springs which I got shipped for $275.
FWIW look up the casting number before you install them. There is a lot of mistakes with springs apparently- z51 sold as z06 etc.
thanks for the heads up, i just double checked with the seller and they couldn't authenticate it and when I checked the casting its possible it's a GS/Z51 spring, so i guess that means back to the drawing board.
David S. Wallens said:
This is from our C5 Corvette Z06 project, but maybe it helps: How to replace Corvette leaf springs with coil springs.
And also: A mechanical engineer weighs in on Corvette leaf springs.
thanks for sending this along. An instructor with no experience in my car is 2 seconds a lap faster than I am on a 1:20 course, while I won't disagree with you that i could find time with coil-overs, $2000 is also alot of track time / instruction that might help me find those seconds quicker than coilovers...
ClearWaterMS said:
David S. Wallens said:
This is from our C5 Corvette Z06 project, but maybe it helps: How to replace Corvette leaf springs with coil springs.
And also: A mechanical engineer weighs in on Corvette leaf springs.
thanks for sending this along. An instructor with no experience in my car is 2 seconds a lap faster than I am on a 1:20 course, while I won't disagree with you that i could find time with coil-overs, $2000 is also alot of track time / instruction that might help me find those seconds quicker than coilovers...
If you need to replace them, now or at any other point, you might just as well. And you need to fix something now anyway.
I enjoyed learning to go faster once the car did what I thought it should wrt inputs. In my case, I improved more in the year and a half after the suspension upgrade than I did in the year and a half before.
And doing so with lesser tires than better tires in both cases. Back when RE71s (old model) were the fastest tire and I had them on the car, I had some hero (for me) runs followed by complete stinkers. Less available grip forces me to be more disciplined in approach, and I tend to get more consistent.
Less fighting the car made focusing on where I needed improvement easier, and less grip exposed bad habits (that I still hold).
My stuff is just auto-x, though, may or may not transfer to what you're doing. The car was so much easier to drive faster on mountain roads, though, such that shortly after getting them on the car, I wound up scaring myself a bit when I found I was going 10mph faster than usual with the same driving effort ("huh, never had tire squeal there before... ~ Looked down at Speedo ~ holy crap."). That's a little closer, but still not track. YMMV.
