New to me: C5 Z06 Corvette

[Aguilar]

The C5/C6 are just fantastic cars! Congratulations on the purchase! I work at Pfadt Race Engineering in case you have any questions about your Corvette's suspension.

Thanks! Pfadt Race Engineering has some serious hardware for the Corvette.

The car is being shipped to FL and I'm missing it like crazy. Just received a MGW shifter and knob and can't wait to try it out.

[mariok2006]

Thanks! Pfadt Race Engineering has some serious hardware for the Corvette.

The car is being shipped to FL and I'm missing it like crazy. Just received a MGW shifter and knob and can't wait to try it out.

Better start working out the right arm.

The MGW requires some effort.

[compy222]

you're not encouraging my itch to jump from the s2000 to a Z06.

[Aguilar]

Quick update.

Car got shipped from Honolulu, HI to Orlando, FL without incident. Since I picked it up I've logged over 6500 miles; it's been about 6 weeks.

Broke the 4th gear synchro key(s) in the transmission, so instead of rebuilding it I said the hell with it and got a RPM stage V t-56; this one should last a little longer. Also installed the MGW shifter, no more missed gears!

Did a road trip from Miami to El Paso, and got a nice rock chip in the windshield. It was small and got repaired, but still sucks. Luckily the front end of the car held up great, with minimal paint damage from road debris. Spent a good 2 hours with cruise control at 89 MPH thanks to Texas and their 80 MPH speed limit on I-10.

The Nitto NT05s are down to the wear bars, so replacements are due this week. Hit up the local 1/4 track and ran a best of 13.2 @ 108. I know, the time sucks but traction was nowhere to be found, plus the altitude, and the hot engine, etc, etc, etc... I'm afraid I'm going to be hitting the drag strip every Friday, it's pretty addicting.

So for now I'm really tired of daily driving this thing. It's been my only car for over a month and now I get why people don't want to daily some cars... they can be a pain. Don't get me wrong, this car is a blast when you open it up, but it's definitely not meant to be dealing with traffic. If all goes well I'll be moving to a new home soon where it will sit pretty for most of the week in a two car garage.

[Juiced6]

if you are going to keep drag racing the car i would suggest beefing up that rear end

i have seen a few Vettes break at the track when they decide to hook


i know there is a brace that you can buy for it that is supposed to help a lot

[Aguilar]

I hear you. I know I will be putting a lot of stress on the clutch and rear end, but at least it will be in street tires and with stock power. It's a good way to practice the launch and shifting LEGALLY.

Once I get situated I will start coming out to Arroyo Seco Raceway for HPDEs, which is what I truly enjoy.

[JustinCSVT]

Yeah with stock power he'll be fine, especially with that trans.

[Juiced6]

Yeah with stock power he'll be fine, especially with that trans.

famous last words


if you are running regular street tires and have a little spin out of the hole then yes the stock rear end will hold up all day long

but i have lost track of how many camaros, firebirds, vettes, mustangs, g8s etc that have broken the stock rear end at the racetrack.

http://www.performancebydte.com/component-parts.asp

$380 + shipping and helps reduce wheel hop.

[JustinCSVT]

famous last words


if you are running regular street tires and have a little spin out of the hole then yes the stock rear end will hold up all day long

but i have lost track of how many camaros, firebirds, vettes, mustangs, g8s etc that have broken the stock rear end at the racetrack.

http://www.performancebydte.com/component-parts.asp

$380 + shipping and helps reduce wheel hop.

Yup seen it before. Read all of the threads on CF years ago. Would I run one...probably not. I've done a lot of runs in my car on DRs without a problem.

My uncle has never blown up a diff in any of his Corvettes (has a 600whp C5Z, C6Z, and ZR1). Same with another uncle who has 2 C6Z's pushing at least 670whp.

They probably do help a little but in my opinion, it seems like more luck of the draw than anything. There are guys out there repeatedly cutting 1.4x 60's without them and doing fine.

[checkoutmyjunk]

In the future I want long tube headers, intake, and tune; that should put it in the neighborhood of 400whp. The priority now is learn how to drive it and find its limits, its plenty powerful as it is.

I have intake header, x pipe and a cat back, here are my numbers.

2002 z06



Here is a pic, sold the wheels. Coming from gti's makes a big learning curve. I must say that I daily mine and love it.

[Juiced6]

Yup seen it before. Read all of the threads on CF years ago. Would I run one...probably not. I've done a lot of runs in my car on DRs without a problem.

My uncle has never blown up a diff in any of his Corvettes (has a 600whp C5Z, C6Z, and ZR1). Same with another uncle who has 2 C6Z's pushing at least 670whp.

They probably do help a little but in my opinion, it seems like more luck of the draw than anything. There are guys out there repeatedly cutting 1.4x 60's without them and doing fine.

i guess i like the insurance of it

and for under $400 is not terribly expensive

[Aguilar]

I have intake header, x pipe and a cat back, here are my numbers.

Looks great! Those are the numbers I will be aiming for.

The diff brace might be good insurance... but that's what, 15 extra pounds? No way Jose.

[Juiced6]

I have intake header, x pipe and a cat back, here are my numbers.

2002 z06



Here is a pic, sold the wheels. Coming from gti's makes a big learning curve. I must say that I daily mine and love it.

that car is sharp

[BltByKrmn]

Out of the many cars I've owned, the C5 is one that I just can't get out of my head. If there was room in my life for a real sports car, I would strongly consider picking up a 3rd C5.

Best of luck with it.

[hrama803]

Just don't drive it in the winter, even with snow tires. You will dead.

Could be a mistake but the "you will dead" made me laugh out loud

[sullie]

I remember when you bought this - very, very nice looking car!

Quick update.

Car got shipped from Honolulu, HI to Orlando, FL without incident. Since I picked it up I've logged over 6500 miles; it's been about 6 weeks.

Broke the 4th gear synchro key(s) in the transmission, so instead of rebuilding it I said the hell with it and got a RPM stage V t-56; this one should last a little longer. Also installed the MGW shifter, no more missed gears!

Did a road trip from Miami to El Paso, and got a nice rock chip in the windshield. It was small and got repaired, but still sucks. Luckily the front end of the car held up great, with minimal paint damage from road debris. Spent a good 2 hours with cruise control at 89 MPH thanks to Texas and their 80 MPH speed limit on I-10.

The Nitto NT05s are down to the wear bars, so replacements are due this week. Hit up the local 1/4 track and ran a best of 13.2 @ 108. I know, the time sucks but traction was nowhere to be found, plus the altitude, and the hot engine, etc, etc, etc... I'm afraid I'm going to be hitting the drag strip every Friday, it's pretty addicting.

So for now I'm really tired of daily driving this thing. It's been my only car for over a month and now I get why people don't want to daily some cars... they can be a pain. Don't get me wrong, this car is a blast when you open it up, but it's definitely not meant to be dealing with traffic. If all goes well I'll be moving to a new home soon where it will sit pretty for most of the week in a two car garage.

If you're looking for a tire recommendation, I put a set of Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval RFT's on my 2009 C6 Z51. So far so good, I've had them a few months now, maybe 1,000 miles or so. These came highly recommended on the CorvetteForum website.

[Aguilar]

So, I just was driving a couple of days ago and noticed the car now has over 20,000 miles.

Only 2800 miles in 10 years, and I've put 17000+ in 7 months.

The car is still all stock, except for the zip-tie mod to the original airbox with a K&N drop-in filter. I ended up buying Continentals ExtremeContact DW tires, which are not as hardcore as the Nittos, but they are fantastic street tires. It's amazing what I can do with these tires in the rain.





Ran a 12.9 at 110 mph with a really easy launch (2.2 60') at a DA of 6500+. Went back a couple weeks ago and trapped 111 mph, but got a lot of wheel spin and it was only a 13.1s. I'm really happy with the car and its performance even in stock trim. I'm waiting for the holidays to treat myself with a couple of mods to make it sound better and go quicker.

[Aguilar]

Maintenance and cleaning day.







And a couple of videos I took at the local 1/4 mile track this Friday:

[nmap]

It's awesome to see folks out there really enjoying their Corvettes!

One thing to keep in mind is that the DTE/ECS Trans braces is that they really aren't designed to help reduce wheel hop... however they can help prevent the diff/transmission assemblies from cracking if you're drag racing the car aggressively. The Pfadt Trans Brace however is designed to eliminate power train shake, which manifests it's self as wheel hop. They can both be used together.

By the way, great call on the upgraded RPM internals. RPM does fantastic work! We send folks there all the time for upgraded diff/transmission work.

[Aguilar]

I'm trying to launch easy and avoid wheel hop. My average 60' is 2.2s, so it's pretty slow off the line. I've learned a little bit about drag racing and gotten a better feeling for shifting at 6500 rpm. It's also good to see how I fare against the higher HP cars.

The GT500 in the video trapped 2 mph higher than me, but I beat him by two tens of a second consistently. In the video you can hear his car struggling with traction with Nitto NT555 at 20 psi; maybe he was feeding too much gas too early.

I'll try to get some better videos. Unfortunately the test-n-tune at the drag strip only opens at nighttime.

[mellbergVWfan]

So, I just was driving a couple of days ago and noticed the car now has over 20,000 miles.

Only 2800 miles in 10 years, and I've put 17000+ in 7 months.

Dang that's quite a lot of driving. Is the car your DD? What sort of mileage have you been getting?

[titleist1976]

Stupid question: No helmets are required in a car that fast at the track?

[mariok2006]

Stupid question: No helmets are required in a car that fast at the track?

Usually if you dip into 12s regularly they require a helmet around here.

[mariok2006]

I'm trying to launch easy and avoid wheel hop. My average 60' is 2.2s, so it's pretty slow off the line. I've learned a little bit about drag racing and gotten a better feeling for shifting at 6500 rpm. It's also good to see how I fare against the higher HP cars.

The GT500 in the video trapped 2 mph higher than me, but I beat him by two tens of a second consistently. In the video you can hear his car struggling with traction with Nitto NT555 at 20 psi; maybe he was feeding too much gas too early.

I'll try to get some better videos. Unfortunately the test-n-tune at the drag strip only opens at nighttime.

What psi are you running in your rear tires at the drag strip?

[Aguilar]

Dang that's quite a lot of driving. Is the car your DD? What sort of mileage have you been getting?

The car was only my DD during July - August, but in those months I probably drove 5k miles. I averaged 25 mpg at 80+ mph and around 18 mpg in the city.

What psi are you running in your rear tires at the drag strip?

Around 25 hot. It hooks good as long as I keep the revs low and don't go WOT too soon.

[Aguilar]

So I reached my goal last Friday, getting that 12.8 at the expense of the dreaded wheel hop.



I think I have gotten consistent enough with the current setup. My 3 previous runs were 13.0 at 109 mph with easy launches, so I decided to go a bit more aggressive and as evident in the video it doesn't work too well (except for the faster times). According to the dragtimes.com DA Calculator, my time would had yield me an 11.9 at 118 mph at sea level, which is definitely not bad at all.

Here's the time slip. The Camaro SS running next to me was all stock and running consistent 14.5s. The second gen GT500 was back with M/T ET drag radials this time, and managed a best of 12.8 also.

[Aguilar]

First time out with Pan Am SCCA here in El Paso. A great bunch of people, a big parking lot, and plenty of fun runs.

[Lexi]

I had today off for Remembrance day and was doing brake service on the Forester. The vette is already put away for winter storage but I needed to move it to make more room in the garage so I took it as an opportunity to go for a spin abound the block. Forester may have lots of boost but I do love that feeling of instant torque.

[Aguilar]

At Arroyo Seco Raceway in New Mexico. Stock car, stock brakes, DOT3 fluid, Continental DW tires. Drove it there and back home after a full day of lapping without issues.

[Aguilar]

Some of the scary moments:

[Lexi]

Fun ! Letting off the gas a bit much going into turns ? Seems to recover quickly enough.Not bad for a set of DW's. Spring is almost here and I'm getting the itch to get the vette out of the garage and onto the track. Will mostly likely go NT-05 as my street/track setup.

BTW - what traction control setting do you run on the track ? Full on ? Comp mode or full off ?

[Aguilar]

Fun ! Letting off the gas a bit much going into turns ? Seems to recover quickly enough.Not bad for a set of DW's. Spring is almost here and I'm getting the itch to get the vette out of the garage and onto the track. Will mostly likely go NT-05 as my street/track setup.

BTW - what traction control setting do you run on the track ? Full on ? Comp mode or full off ?

Traction control was full off, even competitive mode is too intrusive for my taste. Most of these were getting to know the track and getting a feeling for the tires, finding how far I could brake into the corners, etc. Once I figured those out and drove smoothly, I could actually get around pretty quickly without losing grip.

I think I will be going back to NT05s (despite the fast wear) or spring for the Michelins, but the DW is definitely a fantastic overall tire, 10/10 for street duty.

[Lexi]

Copy that. I need to learn rwd over again so I will start with all on, probably switch to comp mode a couple sessions in. The MPS get rave reviews but at the same time I hear they are dicy until they warm up. NT05 seems to be best bang for buck, been looking for a while now and they top my list. Its a shame most JDM tires dont even come in Z friendly sizes. Would love to run RE11's for example.

[l88m22vette]

So awesome, love the Electron Blue and the 405hp Good buy, I lust for a cheap one, maybe in Quicksilver...

[Juiced6]

Some of the scary moments:

this makes me want to rethink jumping to the C6Z just because i dont have a lot of experience in a road race car.

Rather get my feet wet in a cheaper C5


just need reality to set it in for the C5Z crowd who still want 25-30k for theirs.