What would you do?

[ZWILD1]

So if you had a car like mine with one of Haibecks 510 packages. Would you rather do coil overs and lower the car or do a gear swap? I still have the 3.45 gears. Been thinking about doing one or the other.

[G8nightman]

Coilovers


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[billschroeder5842]

My initial gut tells me the rear end gear, however the 3.45 is pretty stout for the street. Coil overs would give it a good look and be "used" every day on every mile.

Go Coil overs!

[bowtiguy]

coilovers..these things sit too high stock.

[conesare2seconds]

4.10s. Coil overs don’t really handle better than stock, they’re basically for cosmetics. Rear gears wake the car up and make 6th gear usable.

[EvanZR1]

I have a 391 motor from Pete, and had him install DRM coilovers at the same time. At the time I was worried 4.10s would be too much with the extra power, now i wish I'd done 4.10s instead of the coilovers.

[WARP TEN]

4.10s. Coil overs don’t really handle better than stock, they’re basically for cosmetics. Rear gears wake the car up and make 6th gear usable.

I certainly second that. The standard suspension is fine--time and again owners who run touring laps at the NCM track are amazed at how well the car handles given its age. I did 4.10 gears in both the '93 and the '95, almost as a first mod for each (along with a Hurst short throw shifter and Corsa exhaust). The '95 later got the Haibeck 510 package. I think the gears really make the car more driveable both about town and on the highway. If you have one of the aftermarket exhausts with a lot of resonance 4.10s make that more livable by raising the rpm point at which one normally cruises on the highway. So my vote is definitely for 4.10s.--Bob

[DRM500RUBYZR-1]

My answer?


https://southjersey.craigslist.org/pts/d/vineland-4-corvette-zr-rear-complete/6931487375.html


Marty

[secondchance]

4.10.

[Karl]

Coil over suspension and some type of frame stiffening device. Either the Vette 2 Vette system or a 4 point harness bar from exotic muscle.

There is a night and day difference in the quality of the car ride.

[Demps]

So, I saw y’all at BG tearing up the track. IF the car is living on the track & it’s a long track...I’d do coilovers. They are very nice to have. If you are driving the car on the road, the 4.10s are so functional that you’ll wonder why you haven’t done them before. Wish you were closer so you could see. Coilovers are nice...gears are instant.

Ted

[Ccmano]

So, I saw y’all at BG tearing up the track. IF the car is living on the track & it’s a long track...I’d do coilovers. They are very nice to have. If you are driving the car on the road, the 4.10s are so functional that you’ll wonder why you haven’t done them before. Wish you were closer so you could see. Coilovers are nice...gears are instant.

Ted

What Ted said :thumbsup:.... depends on how you use the car.

I would add, coil overs don’t necessarily improve the handling but they do allow you an additional parameter to dial in the suspension for track purposes.
H
:cheers:

[DRM500RUBYZR-1]

So, I saw y’all at BG tearing up the track. IF the car is living on the track & it’s a long track...I’d do coilovers. They are very nice to have. If you are driving the car on the road, the 4.10s are so functional that you’ll wonder why you haven’t done them before. Wish you were closer so you could see. Coilovers are nice...gears are instant.

Ted



Absolutely!!!

[32valvesftw]

As the owner of a lowered Z ...my advise is re-gear. In my opinion the hassle of driving it lowered in the city offsets the handling gains. That said my next mod will likely be DRM coil overs so I can raise the car about 1/2 - 1 inch.

[ZWILD1]

So this is a question for Marty. Are you the person in the Craigslist ad selling the rear?

[DRM500RUBYZR-1]

Yes, that is me.
Thanks,
Marty

[Karl]

I would save my money and do both at the same time. It may save on the installation by doing it at once.

[lfalzarano]

4.10’s for normal driving, plus the car remains stock looking. If you will be driving on the streets, you will get trapped going over a speed bump or a driveway with the car lowered. Mine is not lowered and it can still run into a speed bump with a scrap. Obviously you don’t go there again[emoji16]


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[S.hafsmo]

Where do you guys purchase the 4.10 gear set? Is it the Viper gears?

[Paul Workman]

I've access to stock suspension, stock gears AND coil overs with gears, both cars with generally similar engine mods.


Gears: Noticeable "snap" on the street. Run out of gas on the top end. Too much shifting in mountain twisties. So, (for me) a tossup. Like conesare2seconds said: depends on how you drive it. Me? I'd like gears for general driving - and might take the plunge at some point....MIGHT being the operative word.

Coil overs: Meh. I'm not particularly impressed with coil over suspension. I do like doing the twisties tho, and the stock suspension doesn't leave me wanting for anything better. But, I don't do HPDE stuff either, and those guys opinions would be more germane to the coil over question. Stock is pretty hard to beat.


I might do gears at some point, or an engine upgrade to one of Pete's 391s. But, coil overs are definitely a NO-GO for me.

[Z51JEFF]

Ain’t no ride like a loooooooow ride!https://i.postimg.cc/63Hp4mV6/E313-D677-BD0-D-44-F1-AD1-C-B050-A4609631.jpg (https://postimg.cc/ft9N65g1)

[ZWILD1]

My first Z also a 91 had headers and the big 3" B&B early free flowing exhaust system and mufflers. Along with the 4.10 gears. I liked how it drove and felt. My current car has more power making 528 at the crank and almost 450 at the wheels thanks to Marc Haibeck. I wonder if the gears would be better used in this car. As far as the coil overs go. The biggest advantage I see is in lowering the car. From my understanding better handing comes from the transverse leaf and using stiff ones.

I know that you can lower your car with the stock springs but you can't easily put it back up or down. I have to say that I was impressed with how the car handled at the BG HPDI this year. I think the cars look better lowered. I'm sticking with stock wheel for now as I just bought a nice set of the painted 95 ZR1 painted A-molds from a fellow member. I never pushed my first car to find out top speed with the 4.10's but I did have occasion to go over 155 mph. I just don't want to spend money and then hate the outcome.

Freshly installed painted A-molds. The chrome rear A-molds were showing some pitting in the center recessed lug area. Like they all do over time.

[Karl]

Where do you guys purchase the 4.10 gear set? Is it the Viper gears?

I have a Dana 4.09 gear that came with the car.

[Hib Halverson]

4.09/4.10 axle

Great for drag racers with sticky tires. Ok for easy street driving.

No so great for aggressive street drivers unless you have sticky tires. Otherwise first gear is pretty useless.

More shifting on the street.

Top speed will be less because you're out of rpm in fifth and even with the 4.09/4.10 gears sixth is still to tall.

Coil overs

Depends on the particular coil over kit and how much work you want to do. Some coil over kits actually reduce travel compared with stock. If you then lower the car below stock, you might look cool but you end up with inadequate suspension travel which makes the car handle and ride poorly

Even if you go to coil overs, they don't work very well unless you select the correct wheel rates and know how to properly set up the system.

I agree with those here who have said in most cases coil overs won't improve handing all that much.

My advice is to stick with the 3.45 axle unless your a drag racer and if you want better handling, rather than coil overs, put stock, late C4 Z51/Z07 springs and bars on the car along with better tires and an aggressive alignment.

[Young1]

Spend your money on sticky great tires and great brake pads. You will gain a huge amount of confidence in what the car can do. Lowering it a bit with longer bolts and shims is cheap too. Coil overs will not make up for sub par tires.

[ZWILD1]

I have the Michelin PS2's and I changed out the brakes to Porterfield pads. It really worked well at the BG HPDI event. Those PS2's were great. I know some have gone with a bit less gear like a 3.70 ratio. Doesn't seem like many have gone the other way with something shorter than the 4.10's.

[rkreigh]

Coil over suspension and some type of frame stiffening device. Either the Vette 2 Vette system or a 4 point harness bar from exotic muscle.

There is a night and day difference in the quality of the car ride.


my 90 drm car had a 4 pt bar in back and that car drove really good


I think both the vet to vet and internal bar and the front camber brace would all be good mods


I like the DRM coil overs but some of the more modern products coming with non fx3 better and lighter shocks is what I would recommend


demps has some good ones that really looked nice.

[EvanZR1]

Having DRM coil-overs now, IF I were to do coil-overs again, I would have gone with something like the Van Steels with the manually double adjustable shocks. DRM coil-overs reusing stock shocks, to me doesn't give enough adjustability. Even in track, the car is still under damped. Makes for a good riding car, and it handles ok, but nothing like what a modern car does, or for that matter, even my old 92 LT1 car that had stiffer rate fiberglass springs and stiffer fixed rate shocks.