moespeeds

Curious what kind of road course car a C4 makes? Those who are driving them on the track, what kind of setup are you using? I posted in the C4 forum so I apologize if this is redundant. In a nutshell I've got 6 years of roadracing motorcycles and teaching for a race school. Last weekend got the opportunity to drive some exotic cars on the track, and found that my aptitude with motorcycles carried right over. I was able to hang with a group of experienced instructors on a track I'd never even been on in unfamiliar cars. Now of course I'm hooked so I'm looking for a track only car, I'll tow it to the track, no need for street niceties. Curious what you guys are doing suspension and brake wise? This year I'm just going to do club days and get my feet wet. Next year, who knows. When looking for a C4 for the track, what should I watch out for? I've owned 2 C5's over the years, but never took them to the track. Thanks in advance,

Moe

Rednels

I think the C4 is still one of the best bangs for the buck in road course racing.

With some cheap mods ( better shocks, lowered, and bigger sway bar) they can handle with the best of cars. Those mods will only cost around $700.

Also, they need a little more power, but if you get them to 400 and up, they are very fast cars. C5's are better, but they are also a lot more expensive.
More expensive to buy and maintain.

Just my $.02 and as you can see from my avatar I am biased towards C4s.

rfn026

I've been using my C4 for over ten years now as a track car. I have no intention of changing cars at this point. I have to admit though if I were looking for a car to track today I might make another choice.

I would have to give some serious thought to an early C5. Prices are roughly the same and there are a lot more parts out there for a C5. The speed of a well prepared C4 and a well done C5 are going to be very similar.

I wouldn't worry too much about modifications. You're going to be slow. There's no question about that. Track events have gotten just crazy - at least here in Florida. At the last track day we had over a dozens tractor trailer rigs. Some had full service crews. This was for a track day - not even a race.

As the economy improves it's going to get even wilder. We had at least 6 fully prepared 458 Ferrari Challenge cars. I couldn't even count the number of Porsche Cup cars. Throw in a couple of NASCAR CUP cars and you'll get the idea.

Buy a car you like. Enjoy that car. Don't even think about turning it into a pseudo race car.

Richard Newton
Race Cars 360

SoDiezl350

Such good advice should cost money

mrc24x

C4 Pros:

-Cheap parts , easy to work on

-If you wad the car up you can buy a roller for $2000 and transfer parts

-A $15k C4 should be as fast or faster than a $15k C5 (IMHO)




Matt

Aardwolf

Very happy with mine. Search my threads for progress throughout my build.

gkull

I also came from superbike racing. I was trying to figure out how to say it. Driving around the track in a low power to weight ratio car is kind of boring. Once you start going fast you will find that the brakes boil over and fail in a few laps even with 600 degree fluid. So then you have to get $5000 in brakes

My advice would be to find a caged car roller or turn key and save yourself a ton of money.

Once I exceeded the 600 hp level in my Vette. Between tires and entry fees I managed to to burn up a set of Hoosier R1's in a two day event. so it is $1500 or more even if you don't break anything. I also go through wilwood big rotors and pads. That comes out to about a $1000 for every race day not including travel and lodging.

After a few years I came to the conclusion that best bang for the buck was open wheel winged formula cars. The older F-Atlantic or F2 cars are fast and fun. I'm also looking at DSR and CSR cars now.

travisnd

When I was doing my research everything pushed me to the C5 platform. The chassis, drive-train, and suspension design are superior.

I was able to build a record-holding PTA/TTA race car for under $30k total including all my spares and consumables.

I've never seen a relatively stock C4 be even moderately fast at the tracks I frequent. There are a couple super fast ST1 cars that used to show up, but at that level you can make anything fast.

A C5Z06 with a good seat and a set of Hoosiers will run circles around most anything. In PTA/TTA the engine is stock (other than an ATI balancer and an oil cooler in my case) and the suspension consists of T1 bars, oem springs, OEM 2004 spec shocks, and poly bushings (my setup).

Furthermore the electronics are newer/more reliable and the LS series motors have more power potential.

Just my $0.02

Black89Z51

I'm just finishing my C4 track car. I've done everything the right way and have taken my time on it. Nothing has been rushed. I've got in the neighborhood of $20k in it. I think it's going to be a good car.

That being said, it still needs about $3-4k worth of parts for me to call it done, but it will be track worthy by the end of the month. I can send you pictures of where it is currently if you want an idea of the work involved.

larryfs

I tracked a 96 LT4 Z51 for years. When I was really serious about it, I was keeping up with the C5's. But who cares, it's just for fun.

The only problem with the C4's are getting parts. I brought the last intermediate shaft in the country, plus some other parts are scarce.

It was cheap to run, cheap to matain, and was very dependable.

Canam

see my avatar. Best bang for buck as stated above IMO. I bought this car fully built ST2 spec last year for less than 9K.

.....oh, Its buggering fast.

Git Er Dun

They are a great bang for the buck!!

I'm selling mine here if your interested:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...post1580296545

ZR1 MK

You can check car set-up, technical articles and pics in my website below my signiture. Plenty of info. Just ask if you need more than you see.
Mike Kryger
427 cu in LT5
cardomain.com/id/zr1mk

Rob31

I picked this up the other day . It has a 4+3 in it right now , no motor .
I may sell in the near future .
Make an offer . I bought it for the trailer & motor .
Exhaust is outta there ,Raced one or two seasons in 2003 .Im told the cage is Chome Moly ,he had a pro do that .
The MSD is gone btw
Hood is intact

Crepitus

Excellent write up on your web site why the holes in the wheel wells?

TJM

I have two C4. One garage queen and one track. I picked C4 because they had for a song. A roller ready for rebuild is $1,000 everywhere.

Great fun, easy to work on. Good stock parts availability.

That being said, they are old. Even low mileage LT4 cars are 16 years old. LT4 can just barely keep up, all things equal, to a 97-98 C5

AND everything will need freshened up on both.

Comes down to what you like to look at.

TJM

PS fill out your profile for all we know your a 9 year old girl?

moespeeds

Well I ended up buying a track ready C5 FRC (still street legal). Picking it up next week. Wish me luck on my new, very expensive, hobby...

Zip Corvettes

Peformance AFX has two C4 road race cars for sale, ready to go.

ZR1 MK

Thanks. Holes increase airflow for engine cooling.