Supportive and engaging, Sean S. Has been a true delight to work with since our first contact. Initially, he came to us asking about a suspension for his '05 Subaru Legacy sedan. That ended up being delayed but in the meanwhile he had been planning to purchase a 2002 Corvette C5 Z06. The C5 Z06 one of the best turn-key sports cars even made. In fact, and I've read it quite carefully. I'll admit, I've been curious about this car since seeing it live at autocrosses in the early 2000s.

I was eager for the chance to see what GM had done and what I could do to make the setup even better (if possible!). Always approaching with the attitude of discovery and respect for the work that's been done, then see what can be built upon it. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Has some interesting analysis and data that inspired me to dig deeper into what indeed made those dampers - tuned on the famous Nurburgring - so good. Sean's early emails contained his desire for improvement. Shaikh, I picked up the C5 last Friday. It was a fun drive back.

I just wanted to give you my initial impressions on the stock suspension with about 50000 miles on them. The car is surprisingly comfortable!

The C5-R was a racecar built by Pratt & Miller for GM Racing. It was based on the C5 road car but had a longer wheelbase, wider track, an enlarged 7.0 L V8 and different bodywork with exposed headlamps. Radioflyer97's How-To Post #15: How to adjust the C5 windows for road noise. This is a follow up to my previous 'how to replace a window.

On the highway and in the city. I think I can feel the flat ride spring rates in the works. Over smaller imperfections on the road, the car glides over them very well, a little bit of the impact gets passed into the seat, and the car settles with just one stroke. Over the bigger bumps, the suspension is still fairly comfortable without bounces, but it does feel that the suspension works a little harder to keep the car's composure. Sometimes it feels like the rear of the car accelerates downward after a big bump. Driving over continuous bumps and very uneven pavement, the car still soaks up the bumps well, there is definitely some body motion (engaging the bump stops?). Car feels busy, but not nervous.

Handling is still to be determined. If there was ever a contest of handling capability vs OEM seat holding capacity, this C5 Z06 would be up there on the podium. Chertezh ventilyacii avtomojki. The stock seat is very slippery, and the door panel flexes when I try to brace myself with my knees.

I have not been able to really test the handling of the car. The steering wheel has a bit of a dead spot on center, I think this could be improved with newer control arm bushings and steering column bushings. Turn in feels good, not the super rebound biased feeling. There is just a hint of under steer. The weight transfer feels fairly smooth and predictable, without any wobbly feeling. Once the weight is set, the car holds its lines throughout the corner.

On corner exits, car squats down and goes; I have not dared to really dig into throttle on corner exits yet, but I predict there would be a bit of tail happy actions if throttle is applied more. The car seems to have pretty decent roll control, there is no significant body roll at the speeds I have tried yet. The brake dive is very pronounced. It does not take much brake force to hear the front air dam scraping the road. Overall, I am very happy with the car.