kklocke

A few months ago, I bought my first C2 Corvette (1964). I want to greatly improve the suspension and am focused on the rear right now. It bounces a lot even after installing new QA1 dual adjustable shocks. I have read a lot of the historical threads on this topic, but most appear to be 5 years old, so thought I would ask for fresh information particularly as new products have come out. I want the car to ride and handle as close to a modern sports car as possible and not spend more than I have to. I am definitely planning to buy offset rear trailing arms so that I can fit 265 wide tires on the rear under the stock fenders. I am coming to the conclusion that I am probably going to have to ditch the transverse leaf spring and go with coil overs. It appears that the leading options are Vansteel, Ridetech and Detroit Speed. Would be super interested if anyone has experience with 2 or three of them and provide advice on pros/cons compared to the other options. Also interested in opinions as to how much it matters that the front suspension end up being from the same vendor as the rear - I know that most of the vendors promote that. Thanks so much!

jim lockwood

The greatest bang for the buck can be had by putting everything back to factory-new condition..... bushings, ball joints, alignment. New, modern tires also help significantly.

Discover how good that suspension really is before you decide to change anything. Odds are you will decide it doesn't need any "improvement".

Patrick03

I think the first thing to do is get your suspension in good condition. New trailing arms are a good start. The offset ones buy you a little extra room for wider tires. Can only go so wide before the tires hit the frame though. I put VanSteel trailing arms on my '64, with a composite spring that was in the 300 lb range. QA1 all around with adjustable in the rear. Make sure all bushings are rubber. Poly is only good for the front sway bar. Every other joint needs the rubber to work right and survive. With this setup my car handles very well and I was surprised at how well it did on a closed road course.

Suggestion is to get your suspension close to stock but with the new components mentioned above before you drop big bucks on parts that might not get you all that much. You might be surprised with how well your car turns out.

This C2 is probably one the baddest C2's out there, and the suspension is mostly stock:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/08/...augh-corvette/


Patrick

hornetball

I'm another rocking a "stockish" setup and turning in some really good laptimes. I basically have the F40/F41 setup on a '64. Bilstein shocks. Cut 1 coil off each front spring. Delalum bushings on the front control arms. Fresh rubber on the trailing arms. Solid rod end camber struts. 1" front sway with poly. Careful setup and Hoosier TDR bias ply race tires. Nice balance and hangs with the Miatas in the corners.

BTW, C2 and C3 suspensions are basically the same (some geometry changes on the camber struts to change the rear roll center). Maintaining the factory suspension means great parts availability at reasonable prices.

Many of us vintage race the C2. The fancy aftermarket stuff is not allowed.

GTR1999

Well first off, great to see another 64 on the road with a new owner. Drive it.

Now, one of the things I see a lot of is what I call online parts madness-trying to make a 60-year-old car compete with a 2022. Yes, it can be done but you WILL spend a lot more than you have to. If money is not an issue, God bless you- you're very fortunate in these days of uncertainty. You can build a whole new car and plop the 64 body on it and go, figure in excess of $100k.

If that is not the case, then I would stop for a moment and really think about what you want. There is this mentality out there that corvettes were sloppy slugs 60 years ago and that the parts and systems today are so much better. They were not slugs and were the best handling performance car GM sold. Now some new systems do offer a change, but the question is do you really need to go that route?

I think the answer to that question is what you're going to do with the car. Corvettes were never bouncing when they were new or correctly rebuilt. A lot of that started way back when glass springs became the "thing" and the shocks were valved wrong and the car bounced. A c2 or C3 was never a drag car, although they can be made into one. They were road touring cars, with the option of a little 1/4 play as well. Too much even with the 327 engines under 375hp, would break a lot of IRS and differential parts. Muncie's didn't last long either.

Offset arms are ok, I am building a set now in fact. The only difference is the offset, the bearings and axles are the same. I use the offsets with the upper safety link option. Nice to have if you do plan on thrashing the car at the track.

Coil Overs work but so does the stock suspension. I'm not saying you don't need coil overs, buy them if you want. All my vettes have been built with stock parts and they handle the roads fine. Yes, I custom built the diff and arms and cut down the common play found in them, but the IRS is all rubber, and it works. I don't road race. Stock arms work well as long as they are not rotted or bent. 64 outer axles are different than the 65-82 disc brake outer axles. They are both good about 400-450hp when, with some abuse, they will snap or twist. If that is what you're going to do, get Tom's 31's, I am also building some TA using those now too. Great axle and you won't break it. They set up differently than a stock 17 spline axle though.

Since you're thinking of going over the '64 IRS and diff you should see if they are original or have been worked on.

If original, the 64 differential is not good, it's actually like the 63 and pretty bad in stock form. So, I would be looking there to see what is going on. Many of the original 64 diff's no longer have the DANA posi or gear set in them since they failed in use, especially spirited use. The std 64 diff was in fact an open diff, which was stronger than the DANA posi. Eaton's have been used from 65-79 and while they also break they're much better than those 63-4 DANA's.

I am assuming, and I may be wrong, that you have a plan from engine to diff. Everything should be matched and planned out otherwise you will be changing parts and may not like the outcome. For example, if you are going to pop in an engine that is 2-3x the rating of the original car you will have to address everything south of the flywheel. If you're not sure what that means, you will find out soon enough when the car is in use.

Good luck, 64's are great cars I would love to have one and just drive it.

Stingxray

You can do allot to improve the C2 & C3 Rear Suspension. Bob Riley & John Greenwood did tons of research back in the day. The C4 suspension has allot of Greenwood and Dick Guldstrand. influence. The biggest draw back to c2/c3 was their trailing arm's propensity to toe-out when suspension's under load (Squat) Some of us have fabricated our own version's of Riley's design . Here is a lengthy thread .

5 link Suspension

Mine was great fun to build.................
But very time consuming .

kklocke

My goal is to drive it a lot. I did not buy it to just look at. I do not intend to do any drag racing. I will probably not do any autocross with it either, but I would like for the suspension to be tight enough that it could at least be capable of doing so. I do want more of a touring car that is comfortable to drive and has fairly tight handling. I know you can't really compare them, but right now the car's handling isn't in the same stratosphere as my Porsche Boxster S. I do have to narrow the gap significantly from where it is today to be comfortable driving it on a regular basis.

The previous owner did convert it to 4 wheel disc brakes. The rear axle ratio is a 3.08 and the car does have positraction. The engine is pretty strong as is. Down the road I may increase its horsepower some, but don't anticipate huge increases. I do want to upgrade the transmission as even with the 3.08 rear axle ratio, it runs at a pretty high rpm at 65 mph.

I appreciate all the advice. I will go ahead and try a new 9 leaf rear spring to see if that gets the rear suspension to a level of acceptability.

Vega$Vette

With 3.08 gears it should be less than 2500 rpm at 65 mph.

Are you considering that pretty high?

jim lockwood

Good point.

OP, if your basis for comparison is the near-idle RPM of modern engines at highway speeds, throw that out the window. SBCs of the era loved to rev and ran comfortably at RPMs which would frighten modern engines. With a 3.08 rear, your engine is probably struggling to get into its happy zone.

jim lockwood

Before you toss money at a spring, be sure all your suspension bushings are in factory-new condition. You may be surprised at what a difference such a minor thing makes.

Case in point: My '63 roadster. All suspension bushings have been replaced. Everything is stock. I live in the Sierra Nevada where twisty roads abound. When I'm on my game, no one can keep up with me in the twisties. No one. And yet my '63 is supremely comfortable as a cruiser.

I encourage you to resist the temptation to catalog-engineer the suspension on your car until after you experience it as it was when it left the factory. No, it won't ever feel like your Porsche but I submit that has more to do with engine placement than any particular deficiency on the part of your Corvette.

68hemi

A lot of good info for the OP to digest.

I have never seen any of these expensive “catalog engineered” suspension parts to be any good and you can certainly do better with the info listed here in this thread. Don’t waste your money on this stuff.

I have been looking at all of this for 3 decades and have come to the conclusion that in addition to good, factory type parts and setting all you need are GOOD tires, shocks and a “sport alignment”. This is all you need to create a car that the average and some above average drivers can not drive to the cars ability.
I have Avon 205X15” racing tires (no need for anything larger) QA1adjustable shocks and the car will pull 1g. I KNOW the car is beyond my driving ability.
This is an age old subject that seems to be people being sucked into all of this aftermarket suspension hype.

Patrick03

I've been very happy with my composite spring. I think the key is getting one that is close to the same pound rating as the original and use adjustable rebound shocks. Saves weight as well.

hornetball

I should have said "hangs with the Spec Boxsters in the corners."

GTR1999

You may find springs on backorder now.

Nowhere Man

most people fail to realize that the common van tire everyone runs for looks is a horrible choice for handling these cars are designed for in stock trim

jim lockwood

In my not-always-humble-opinion, modern van tires are better and grippier than the bias ply tires the factory installed.

Nowhere Man

yes that is true. But the common van tire still has its limit well below the cars limits.

68hemi

Yes but people today are comparing modern cars with our 50+ year old cars. Their cars are usually lighter with suspension systems that have been tweaked by factory engineers over the years to handle with those type of tires. If you want your old Corvettes to hang with modern cars the tires are the key component.

jim lockwood

There is always a "yes, but....."

Nowhere Man

I don't think anyone in the 60's was racing these cars professionally on the OEM tires, bias yes but not the OEM tires. I sense a trend when it comes to handling, tires tires and tires