Lowering Kit

[Bob Seliga]

I'm considering trying one of the lowering kits that are available thru MidAmerica or Corvette Central. Does anyone have experience with these? How difficult are they to install? Do they improve cornering? Do they require alignment adjustment?
I'm trying to improve track times.

[tf95ZR1]

Rear is easy. Just swap out (2) bolts.
Front is a PITA. You have to remove the front
Transverse Spring. I got a new allignment just
to be sure. I just like the look better.

[tccrab]

I've wanted to lower mine, but have held back because I don't want to mess up the high speed stability of the car.
I've not yet been to "Where Life Begins" and I've heard that lowering the back can cause instabilities up there where the air is a lot denser. Remember that "Flat Spin" in the movie Top Gun? It would surely suck to do something similar to that on the freeway at warp 1.8.

Besides, I scrape the front air dam getting out of my driveway now with the car at stock height. If I lower it even an inch in the front I might not be able to get out of my driveway without leaving parts behind.
And some day I might actually have to go over a speed bump in a parking lot and I don't want to leave my exhaust system on that speed bump.


TomC
"Crabs"

[Bob Seliga]

I would lower both the front and rear for consistancy. By bringing the front end closer to the ground, less air should get under the car. The center of gravity should be 1" lower which should theoretically make handling better. Does anyone have an idea about alignment - stock or something else?

[Z51JEFF]

You do have to get the car aligned after its been lowered and as far as taking the speed up to the a$$ pucker zone,not in my car.Get it up to about 110,hit a bump and it gets pretty scary.Theres very little rebound in the suspension so you get thrown around abit at speed but my car will never be raised back up to stock haight,not while I own it.A lowered car isnt for everybody,most seem to think its a waste but thats just the way I like my cars.I went with the addjustable spring from VB-P mainly because I didnt want to cut my stock spring.I avoid speed -Mountains- and steep driveways.

[cward]

I believe that if the car is lowered equally front and back, then the rearend will be light at 180. I have done that and to get the rearend to stay where you want it, we had a front to rear rake of 1/2 ". That is measured from the frame just behind the front wheel to just in front of the rear wheel. The car had coilovers and was very low to the ground with very stiff suspension. However, that setup was stable at 200 mph. With stock suspension and only slight rake, car moved around at 170+. At 180, it was interesting on a rough road. Depends on what you are trying to do. Open Road Racing is alot of high speed. Driving on the street or on a road course where you don't get above 150, probably that lightness in the rear would be offset by better balance of the car. In that slower speed area, the problem is the load unload side to side movement of the suspension and that can be a real problem, especially on a rough track such as Texas World Speedway. If you are serious about track racing or ORR, then my recommendation is coilovers. Most of the time, I stay out of these discussions as what I wanted out of my car is not what most people would be happy with. I drove my car on the street but most people would not like how it sounded or felt like inside the car. Bob and I were about the only people that didn't mind as we are both deaf anyway. #364 was setup to go as fast as I could make it go with limited rwhp and almost no thought given to comfort.

Curtis

[8upZR1]

What happened to #364?

[cward]

After 4 great years of racing, #364 met an imoveable object at about 50 mph. I loaned her to another ZR-1 owner to drive in a "safe" low speed autocross. Turned out to be not so safe for the car. At least she went out racing.

Curtis

[HIZNHRZ]

Sorry to hear about #364 Curtis. Did you replace her?

[cward]

No. Too many other things that are higher on priority list. Racing is a black hole for money. But I still have many friends that I have met because of #364 and many very good memories of her giving me everything she had. To me, that car was special.

Curtis