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C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
In
October of 2018 I had a black 2008 Corvette Z06 delivered from a dealership in Texas to North Las Vegas. One of the first things I did was tear down the engine for some upgrades:
- AHP Heads package #4 with Moldstars, titanium retainers & BTR double springs, Johnson 2110 lifters, AHP 112 cam, and race porting.
- Nicky Williams Throttle body and MSD intake
- Halltech Super Bee CAI
- LG G1 Coilovers and Sway Bars
While I had everything torn apart I also re-routed the brake ducts by cutting out holes and mounting speaker ducts in front of the inlets. This worked very well for quite awhile using power stop brake pads on the track. I also changed all the fluids in the entire car and added Motul 600 in it.
These pictures are what AZ Dave sent me that helped me out with doing this cooling upgrade.
I finished the car in February of 2019 just in time for to participate in 3 Auto-X events and get to know the car a little better including myself. Then in March I attended my first driving event with the Audi group for two days at Spring Mountain. In preparation for the event I finally had the alignment done for the car and some new MPSS's to run that I picked up cheap on Ebay as clearance tires. On the first lap of the first session my tire pressure monitor on one of the tires failed. It made it very hard to push the car during the entire weekend as I couldn't take the car into competition mode. It was one hell of a fight with the car during the whole weekend and it wasn't until I had Corvette instructor test drive the car, that he pointed out that the car is no fun to drive when you cant turn off the nannies. SO, the weekend was a wash, but I still learned a lot from the experience. One thing to note that I found out later on is that you can actually disconnect the steering sensor under the dash to fix this problem.
Next in April I went back to Spring Mountain with the Porche group and was moved up from green to intermediate group for the event. It was fun driving during this weekend and I had a blast blowing by all the Porches in my group while battling some new friends I made in a C5Z and C6Z. I wish I would have bought a GoPro before this event to record the amazing time we had driving together. I also got a chance to do ride a longs with two advanced group drivers their C6Zs. This actually paid off as I was able to push myself to be the fastest in my group by the end of the first day by learning from them. Crazy thing was this year in February, I got to run in the advanced group with one of these drivers at Willow Springs, but we will get there later.
I ran another 3-4 Auto-X events through the summer and added TrackSpec vents as I wanted to bring down the temps in the car and reduce the front end lift I experienced during the April event. This and running Aut-X in 110 degree weather made it a worth while upgrade in my eyes. Also, I had used a total of 3 sets of Track Spec pads by this time and went through two sets of Oem rotors that I kept having issues with cracking, so I upgraded the fronts to DBA 5000s in August of last year after deciding not to put in a 3rd Oem set. One last thing I forgot to not was that back in February I picked up an ATI balancer and installed it in the car, which is important to mention for this failure and hard lesson learned in the end of August.
Last edited by Mark Leger; 08-08-2020 at 07:25 PM.
In the last week of August last year, on the run #10 at an Auto-X event I attended at the Auto Club speedway my ATI balancer came apart. My intent that weekend was to try to get some more seat time and work on my building some skills driving the car.
This balancer came apart on the last high speed part of the corner and I braked hard, the steering seemed to lock up and the brakes didnt feel right so off I went taking out quite a lot of cones at the same time. I'm just thankful this happened in a parking lot instead of on an actual course as there is no telling how dangerous it could have been having it fail the way it did. So, I drove home and talked to Anthony about it and got a lot of good advice and to stay away from ATI. Speaking of which, Anthony has an awesome mentor and friend through out my entire journey. He always helps me out with questions and pointers for things to do with the car and practicing techniques while driving at events. So, at this point in time I ordered an Innovator West balancer, AMT camber lock plates, and my first set of Signature series wheels with BFG Rivals. The camber lock plates where needed as I forgot to mention that after each event I found myself having to get the alignment done and was getting tire of it.
In September, I ran the Las Vegas Outside road course twice and by the second time attending the factory bushings in the control arms got so bad that I could hear and feel the clunking of the car going into each corner. Not to mention that I was also experiencing a lot in my right side from going through the corners as I could not keep myself planted in my seat. So, I ordered some AMT monoballs bushings to fix this problem and some Sparco racing seats while I was at it. Here is the link to my thread on these: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...the-track.html
At this time I also installed a racing wheel and six-point Schroth harnesses along with a harness bar from Brey-Krause.
In November I ran LVMS again this time in the advanced group and finally started to really feel how fast I could drive this car on the track when I didn't have things affecting my confidence going into a corner. It took me a little while to get used to the car not having to shift on the bushings and then reshift again prior to going into a corner. I also, didnt feel like someone was stabbing me in my side by the end of the day and of course I made a rookie mistake by forgetting to bring my GoPro with me that day. I did however bring it to the September event I attended and got a few sessions recorded that you can view in my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFt...OLr-9Wg/videos
During Christmas time frame I didn't do too much to the car other than replacing all the fluids and new brake pads again (Power Stops). Before running in ButtonWillow for the first time where I ran one day for the event with SpeedVentures. I competed in the WillWood Corvette challange and got 1st place for my class with a 2:00:3
I managed to only get one good video posted during this event due to the chinese GoPro shutting down automatically all day, which was annoying. Next in February I went to Willow Springs and ran the car for both event days with Speed Ventures while participating in the WilWood Corvette challange.
On day Two I got down to a 1:30 for my personal best time for the weekend. I learned that the brakes were beginning to be a major problem with overheating and seals repeatedly failing. I replaced the right side 3 times and the left 4 times at this point. Also, in two days of running I chewed through a brand new set of BFG Rivals, which I couldn't believe was possible. So, after this weekend I figured it was time to upgrade some things again. Also, no videos of this event since I forgot to bring the GoPro again. One last thing that was cool at this was realizing that one of the advanced drivers in the advanced group on Sunday was someone I met at Spring Mountain previously and realizing just how much I had grown in the time I had last met him was amazing. It would have been nice to have had video of Sundays driving since I ran with a few Vipers, Porche GT3 Cup car, and a Corvette ZR1 drive who came and checked out my car after we had an amazing battle on the track passing one another back and forth in one of the sessions. He was completely surprised at how well I kept up and was able to pass him running street tires when he had Hoosiers on his car. Overall it was a great weekend and I also took the time practicing braking through the corners as Anthony had talked with me about previously.
After this event I was no longer able to go to California anymore due to the Covid crisis, which was fine at first because it gave me time to do a few upgrades. I replaced my Trackspec vents for Racing Louvers and added fender vents at the same time.
His web page is loaded with good data and Al is extremely helpful with providing good information and answering questions you may have.
I also went and upgraded to the radical Racing brakes and built my own wooden splitters.
Last edited by Mark Leger; 08-08-2020 at 07:48 PM.
During this time I bought a 3D printer and began working on designing my own wind tunnel splitters. It went great until about the halfway point of making my 6th revision and final design plan to be used for my splitter on the car that I built except that the 3D printer failed and I'm still waiting on parts for it as we speak. I also added some AJ Hartman canards and his Apex 12 Dual Element Wing to the car and got a great deal on some used tires.
Forgot to mention that I added an Aim Solo 2DL and Smarty Cam this way I don't forget to bring my camera to the track again.
Last edited by Mark Leger; 08-08-2020 at 07:54 PM.
To this point I haven't mentioned my end goals for the next couple of years, which is to get to run in TT with NASA and work my way up to run in ST1 by 2022 season. I finally went to my first NASA event at the Utah Motorsports Club East Track. I ran the car Thursday afternoon for two 30min sessions averaging 1:45-1:50s for times with my BFG Rivals on and Friday by session 4 were pretty much finished at 6 heat cycles total. Saturday morning I got to run in the TT Fury group for the day and ran my Hoosiers for the first time ever dropping my times by 3 seconds average instantly by doing so. My best time for the day was a 1:41.05, but I feel like I can shave off a lot of time as I began to learn the track and the car some more. Its way more different running these slicks than I could have imagined.
During this event I have learned that my brakes are amazing and have zero issues staying cool. I upgraded to a Dewitts radiator and an improved racing oil cooler with 210 thermostat. My temps averaged in the 240s-268 peak, which tells me I was smart to have upgraded this before running the car at this track. Temps were in the mid 80s for the day.
Things I broke and need to replace are:
My windshield as it has a big crack through the middle, power steering pump since it rained all over my windshield and down the car during each session, and possibly something wrong with the engine.
I found what I believed was some oil in the reservoir right before the last session on Saturday, so I wrapped it up and called it a day.
At home I ran compression checks on all the cylinders and did the fluid color change test in the reservoir. No issues and compression was in the 180s for each cylinder and I sent an oil sample off to blackstone for analysis.
Last edited by Mark Leger; 08-08-2020 at 08:29 PM.
My next track day if all goes well will be in September if not I will be going to the next NASA Utah event in October. I also plan to go Spring Mountain again in the first weekend of September to just get some more seat time and practice in. I have attached my a list of my goals that I want to attempt to reach as I continue to progress.
One last thing I need to do is install some splitter tunnels as I currently have nothing but a sheet of plywood on the car and I also plan to install 700lb springs instead of the 750lb springs I'm currently running in the front to help with some of the understeer in the car and get it a little more balanced.
Last edited by Mark Leger; 08-08-2020 at 08:18 PM.
Bought both of these to do my own at home corner balancing. So far they seem to be spot on and now I know exactly where I need to be for my dyno jet certified tune to run my car in TT1.
Love your mods. I did the same as you with my 06 Z06. I didn't notice if you changed your shifter or not but, I used an MGW which I loved. I ran Track Junkie for 6 years and loved it.
No, I never upgraded the shifter. I did add the copper washer to the detent bolt on the transmission 6 months ago and it shifts smooth as butter. Thanks for telling me about track junkies already found a Porche event In November I wasn't aware of, so ill have to save this website to my favorites list.
No, I never upgraded the shifter. I did add the copper washer to the detent bolt on the transmission 6 months ago and it shifts smooth as butter. Thanks for telling me about track junkies already found a Porche event In November I wasn't aware of, so ill have to save this website to my favorites list.
You should look at T-Mod rebuilt shifter box if you want to keep your original shifter but upgrade the OEM shifter box.. https://www.facebook.com/tmodcustoms/
08-08-2020, 06:15 PM
Summer Mods
