Yaroslav

Who had experience with coilovers and know which is better?

As i understand Penske is much better,just because of the price...

Short-Throw

The C6R uses Penske...... and no not because they are sponsored.

However it's not that simple. What you may not realize is that there are other considerations depending on your driving skill and times you take the car out.

The Penskes are world class as proven by Pratt and Miller. I would guess that 99,9% of us are not professional drivers and do not have our own crew and shop. The high end Penskes do not come without other costs. They require a lot more maintenance. They have to be rebuilt after so much time and use. This really isn't practical for most of us as we just want to go to the track and spend time driving, not putting the car up in the air.

I have read positive and negative things about Pfadt but do not have any personal experience with them.

It's very easy to go to a coil over and think you have the best because you made a nice improvement over the stock system. Example: Upgrading to R-compound tires for the first time thinking they are the best not realizing that slicks would take it to an ever higher performance level.

If I had unlimited time, resources and money I would go with Penskes!

After much research I believe the best decision for those of us that are not racing for a living is Moton. They require very little maintenance and depending on how many adjustables (2-4) you go with, may take an initial track session to set up. They are a bit pricier which is why you'll see more people recommend the cheaper systems out there.

They make both street and race set ups.

http://www.motonsuspension.com/index.php?item=products

Here's what's going on my car.






Mike

Yaroslav

Thanks for great info Mike
How do your coilovers behave on bump roads at high speed?

allanlaw

He has no idea - his car is in pieces being built from the ground up . . .

Short-Throw

Allan,

That could apply to many things about me!


Yaroslav,

While Allan is correct, I have driven and been in other cars with Moton.
They handle amazingly. Depending on your needs, you can set the adjustments accordingly. As you get into the 3 and 4 adjustables, it becomes a little more complicated to set up.


Mike

allanlaw

He asked how "your" Motons work, my dear Short-Shift and, of course, I'm correct in saying you haven't the slightest idea except to the extent you squeezed them with your hands . . . I'm going to try to start a dialog with Pfadt regarding their coil overs on C6Z's, like, whether they've done any yet. I would want to keep the possible adjustments to a minimum.

XPC5R

If you want to keep adjustments to a minimum, consider LG's coilovers (or shocks alone) They are race quality, non adjustable Bilsteins, revalved to LG's specs - based off their World Challenge race car development. No guesswork involved. He has used the same shocks for years now in the race cars, and seems to do ok against the high dollar x-way adjustables

No bias here, I use Penske's - excellent quality and capability, but do need to be refreshed about once a year.

Yaroslav

2way?

Aaron Pfadt

Nice discussion.

I just wanted to step in and make a few comments. There are a bunch of shock options out there for the C5 and C6 Corvette. Most of them are very good pieces. It really comes down to what you are looking for in your car. It is very hard to say what is "best", because what is best varies from user to user.

If by best, you mean fastest on the racetrack, then pick whoever has the highest rate springs out there and start with that. Or you can pick who has the most adjustability and get a bunch of data acquisition equipment and tune them in. If by best you mean a great street ride and improved track performance, check out our products.

To some degree comparing our product to the Penske's is like comparing apples and oranges. We build a steel bodied coil over that is built to provide great performance and durability. The Penske shocks are aluminum bodied remote reservoir race shocks. They are not meant for daily street use and require a high level of experience to tune.

As long as you define the question correctly, you can't go wrong. There are a lot of choices and they all have pros and cons. Pick what suits your needs.

As always, feel free to call me to discuss any car setup questions.

-Aaron

63Corvette

Aaron you are remarkably candid, I'll say that about you. Considering that (at least for some of us) our lives are on the line with our race setup, that is a good thing. I admire your honesty....something that is in very short supply in today's "bottom line" marketplace mentality.

allanlaw

Let me pose the question I sent to you via your website - do you have any of your coil overs on C6Z's ?

Aaron Pfadt

Yep, we sure do. Several of the Z cars also see some track use. I feel that our coil overs are a good upgrade for the C6Z because they increase the spring rate and provide some adjustability to the damping.

Probably as important of an upgrade on the C6Z would be a set of our Pfatty sway bars to get that odd setup that GM put there off the car.

Our front Pfatty bar is 2+ times stiffer than the C6Z bar. Our rear is actually softer (as is the T1 bar that is so popular).

-Aaron

Bahnzii

Though I don't have a C6Z, I did upgrade my '06 C6 Z51 to the Pfadt sways and coilovers.

I have been very pleased with them and Aaron was a great help.

My car is a daily driver and sees between 25k - 30k a year.

I have had the suspension upgraded for about 15k miles now, I changed the suspension over only after 1500 or so miles.

Mid corner bumps are less twitchy, wheel hop under launches is non-existent and the ability to set the suspension for a cruise with your wife/girlfriend and then kick it up for track time is what sold me.

These are single adjustment, so the dial controls both rebound & compression. I would like to have some rebound control but then I would have to go to the cost of 2-way adjustables, which I wasn't ready to do.

The C6-Z51 suspension and C6Z are very close in setup so my comments shouldn't be too far off from the C6Z.

The comment about the Motons being nice is true. I got a ride in an STi that upgraded to Motons - - what a kick *** ride.

As everyone has said, determine what type of driving you are going to do and then look at coilovers that cater to that style and get some referrals.

If you are ever in NorCal ping me I can take you for a ride

0David_Yu

Some interesting info here. I am looking for a ride no stiffer than stock on the road, but easily adjustable to give excellent track performance.

I prefer Colin Chapman's "softer spring, stiffer rebound damping" school of thought to the Porsche RS "concrete everything" approach.

I have been directed to Mallett's Penske set up, but I was not aware of the need to rebuild Penskes regularly. Is that true of their road shocks or just their race ones? If so, why would theirs need more maintenance than other makes?

Moton only seem to list their race shocks rather than Clubsport for the C6 Z06. Is that what Short Throw is going for?

For me, adjustability is for between comfortable road use and agile track capability rather than tuning it racecar style for each individual circuit to get the ultimate lap time.

Short-Throw

David,

I am putting on the 3-way Motorsports for my project car.

I will be doing my street/track Z06 car later this year with 2-way Motons

You're ride preference probably makes Moton not a viable option. It is an aggressive shock. Plus, I would only put on a 2 -way for a street car.

Although they don't list any specific setup for the corvette street car, there are plenty of permutations that a good shop can implement.
We have a few Z06s here than are 90% street car with Motons.
Excellent communication, but you will lose that factory ride.


Mike

0David_Yu

Cheers Mike; looks like my search continues!

Just as a matter of interest, what does 3 way adjustable give you?
I thought there was just compression (or bump) and rebound?
Or are they variable rate shocks?

Aggie #5

for what it is worth. I have motons on one of my 944Turbos S cars and love them. I recently ran my 04 Z at a track where I was wishing I had the motons. On a high speed left hand sweeper leading into a righthand off camber / decreasing radious turn my Z would get tail happy at speed. I had no way of adding a little bump in the front to slow the weight transfer. I needed ajustability for that corner. All other corners were fine. I was about .3 seconds slower in my Z that my 944T and it all was due to that one corner issue. One click of bump in the front or one click of rebound in the back and I would have picked up those tenths. I am getting motons for my Z.

Exterminator

Mike, I was under the impression that you were going to be using stock springs + Moton adjustable shocks as opposed to coil overs. Is that incorrect?

Short-Throw

Ahhhh.....validation!

Short-Throw

Robin,

No stock springs.