Guldstrand suspension

[32valvesftw]

Well I dropped my car off with Corey H yesterday to get headers and a dyno tune. When he was looking the car over he mentioned how low it was and then looked underneath, he said that it had Guldstrand Camber rods, in the rear and some other Guldstrand stuff that I do not remember. When I was under the car previously in the front, I noticed it Heim jointed sway bar links and a big fat sway bar with poly bushings and grease fittings, I believe these are Guldstrand items as well. I cannot find much information about the Guldstrand setup on C4s. Seems like C2s and C3s were really his thing. I know that Dick Guldstrand (Mr. Corvette) passed away, his website seems to be down as well. The searches I ran here and on corvette forum did not reveal much.

So my questions are this, is this part of a kit? or perhaps just owner purchased improvements. My car is black and I noticed that almost all of Guldstrands test cars were black, probably means nothing. I bought this car from California as well. History is one thing, but my other minor concern is that a local alignment shop would not know what to do with the car if I ever need an alignment.
The car is Black on Black 91 #984.

[LGAFF]

post some pics....that's a very unique ZR-1!

[32valvesftw]

When I get it back I will take some pics of the rear suspension. The rest of the car looks like any other black ZR-1 just abit lower.

[jcruz]

When I get it back I will take some pics of the rear suspension. The rest of the car looks like any other black ZR-1 just abit lower.

I have a Guldstrand car too! My hood is signed by Guldstrand...the signature looks good but the date has become a bit faded and hard to make out. July 1995 I think.

Interestingly, mine is a 91, red/gray, and also came out of CA. The car has been lowered too. And, I'm #987 ;-)

I've always been curios about the modifications made but I'm completely ignorant on the services and suspension changes Guldstrand specialized in.

I tried contacting his shop a couple years ago with no luck. I saw all his inventory was on e-bay last year as well. Now, with his passing, it will be even more difficult to get any information.

I'd be very interested in any pics or other information you can provide. I'll get some pics the next couple of days and get them loaded to compare.

Thanks,

John

[32valvesftw]

Wow #987 and mine is 984, whats the chances of the VIN Numbers being so close? Is the suspension the only thing that he touched on yours? Having the car low looks cool but is bit of a bugger to live with. I hate speed bumps!!!
The guy in California that owned the car for long time, the owner before the guy I bought it from, would not release the paperwork, manuals, etc for car the cause they were signed. Not sure by whom.

[mgbrv8]

I did a article on him in this past Heart of the beast publication. From my research it seems that he did extensive suspension and chassis work like what can be seen on his LT5 powered GS90. It would be interesting to see how much of his amazing work can be found on your car.

Dave Hetrick
Editor and Chief for the ZR-1 registry

[jcruz]

I did a article on him in this past Heart of the beast publication. From my research it seems that he did extensive suspension and chassis work like what can be seen on his LT5 powered GS90. It would be interesting to see how much of his amazing work can be found on your car.

Dave Hetrick
Editor and Chief for the ZR-1 registry

I've been snatching up old magazines where Guldstrand was on the cover and/or the subject of an article :-D

[32valvesftw]

John,

Where on your hood did he sign?

[gbrtng]

Detlef Stevenson worked with Dick on the GS90 and brought it to the NCM in April 1995; Detlef might be a help - maybe someone on the west coast could look him up.

[XfireZ51]

I did a article on him in this past Heart of the beast publication. From my research it seems that he did extensive suspension and chassis work like what can be seen on his LT5 powered GS90. It would be interesting to see how much of his amazing work can be found on your car.

Dave Hetrick
Editor and Chief for the ZR-1 registry

Dave,

What were the suspension mods Guldstrand did? How are they different from what DRM has done?

[jcruz]

John,

Where on your hood did he sign?

On the driver side, just behind the wheel well.

I'll get some pics posted tomorrow!

[mgbrv8]

Alot of chassis stiffening via braces. And he also replaced the rubber bushing with ball bearings and improved links and joints. He also added coil overs and did away with the leaf springs. To name a few.

Dave




Dave,

What were the suspension mods Guldstrand did? How are they different from what DRM has done?

[XfireZ51]

I have the DRM Rear linkage brackets to be installed this winter. Seriously considering the V2V braces as well.

[batchman]

I waited too long gagging on the price (ok, saving for them) for the Guldstrand adjustable sway bar end links. Finally got ready, went to buy, POOF site and he are gone.

I have a bit of a preload on my front bar, it may be due to not being level at install or the bar itself, but for corner weighting on my new setup I'd really like to have a set of these links.

If one of you wants to swap back to stock end links I'd be very happy to buy your Guldstrand parts.

Thanks,
- Jeff

[RussMcB]

Jeff - A thought: I haven't looked closely at the ARB ends and links to see exactly what it would take, but could you fabricate one adjustable link for one side of the ARB? As long as one side is adjustable, that should be enough to eliminate preload. Hope that makes sense.

[batchman]

Hi Russ, y'know I thought of that but they appeared to sell them as pairs. Actually that was one thing I was looking to confirm when I found they were gone.

Especially since they looked like they'd be heavier than the stockers.

I was a little concerned that if I found I wanted to try and add preload I could wind up overloading the stock link - it doesn't look overly strong, a sign of good engineering I think ;).

That's a good question to ask the guys that have them - were they installed as a pair or only one per end?

Cheers,
- Jeff

[RussMcB]

I have never seen them not installed as pairs, but I can't think of any reason why you can't have one end fixed length and the other end adjustable. On all my race cars I've only adjusted one side as the final step of an alignment so the end attaches without preload.

I think the only reason they sell pairs is so you have the convenience of adjusting whichever side is easiest to reach. :-)

Oh, and maybe if your car is lowered a lot you might want the end link lengths to be different than stock to avoid binding.

[32valvesftw]

Here's a few pictures, the front sway bar mount looks to be lowered, the camber rods in the rear I think are the Guldstrand parts, the front bar and mount maybe too??

[Erik]

Alot of chassis stiffening via braces. And he also replaced the rubber bushing with ball bearings and improved links and joints. He also added coil overs and did away with the leaf springs. To name a few.

Dave

I know I?m digging up an old thread here, but I?d love to know where Gulstrand did his bracing.

[32valvesftw]

My former Z was a Guldstrand car pictures of the suspension are in my gallery. As best as I can tell there was little or no chassis stiffening. The original FX3 shocks were used and the mono leafs retained. I am not sure if the springs were a different rating.

[Erik]

My former Z was a Guldstrand car pictures of the suspension are in my gallery. As best as I can tell there was little or no chassis stiffening. The original FX3 shocks were used and the mono leafs retained. I am not sure if the springs were a different rating.

Be interesting to know why the one was heavily braced, and yours wasn?t. Different packages, I would guess.

[32valvesftw]

As you know the GS90 and another C4 Corvette are very different and it is likely that the GS90 got the works, I'm sure it did. As far as I can tell there were a few C4 ZR-1 that Dick played with and he had a suspension package for them that was quite expensive about 14K if my memory is correct, and it often is not. Somewhere is the recesses of the internet I found and article about 4 C4 ZR-1 all black that he did various things to prior to the GS90. For what its worth mine was too low for daily driving I had it raised back to almost stock height and in my that opinion improved the car.

[XfireZ51]

The GS90 ZR is THE #1 body style I would love to own. I realize there are only a handful.

[sleazy rider]

looking thru some of my old catalogs, i found a 1991 Guldstrand engineering preparation manual and parts catalog.

there were 3 stages of suspension packages for the c4.

there is no mention of the GS90 cars except for Grand Sport 80A #17 averaging .95 G to take 1st place sports car international skid pad test February 1991.

[wdo-mkr]

global west still stocks the delerin frt upper and lower bushings. I did the rear heimjoint setup on the 415 a number of years ago. I also purchased the adjustable heim joint dog legs for the rear and the antiquated brackets from DRM. That combined with the cbeam plates and the coil overs from DRM made the car very predictable under hard acceleration and in tight turns on "Active Handling Runs" in the hills along the Mississippi River. Looking for the heim kits for the rear on the 93 now.

www.globalwest.net
Part Numbers 1059 and 1060 for the frt upper and lower a-arm bushings.