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It's true that upsizing wheels/tires will help put the Z06 sway bars to better use. That said, I used Z06 sway bars with OEM C6 wheels/tires for a while and didn't have any problems. I'd go for the Z06 sway bars especially if you're contemplating upsizing wheels and tires at some point.
Come to think of it, I have some used Z06 sway bars I might sell. PM me if you're interested.
How about C6 z51 swaybars, worth it? I'm going to be adding Pfadt coil overs and I want to upgrade swaybars as well, Pfadt's are too expensive.
If you are not going with wider rubber the Z51 bars are ideal, on my C5 I use the C6Z bars and my mechanic has the ZR1 bars and Pfadt coil overs on his Z and good combo for that tire size and when he goes 20"s and 345 good match. Also I will be putting my Pfats on my C5 this winter to work better with being slammed
I plan on doing the same thing (ZO6 bars and Pfadt bushings) to my base suspension car this spring......all the parts and pieces are sitting in the corner of the garage........and I too recently took some feedback here that the bigger bars would make the car oversteer.
I am going to try the bigger bars and rely on the fact that the ZO6 has much bigger, much higher performance tires that would tend to break away traction-wise much faster than my tires. Snap oversteer is as much a function of the tire's tendency to break away quickly rather than gradually as much as it is the roll stiffness..........like I told those in previous posts........we'll see..........
Zo6 and Z51 front bars are the same if you don't have the bigger rear tire's don't put a Z06 bar on the rear!!! call gene culley at gmpartshouse.com and he will fix you up with the Z51 sway bar kit[front/rear/bushings] and YOU WILL BE AMAZED!!!!! if you are only going to do one mod to a base model THIS IS THE ONE!!!!! I think there $192.00 + shipping phadt poly bushings are recommended too! IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW MORE THAN THE PEOPLE THAT BUILT THE CAR YOU SOULD GO TO WORK FOR THEM!!!! don't try to out think your bad self
YUP, Talked to Gene after reading several posts here. Since we are staying with stock tires we decided on the Z51 bars for the 05 convertible. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! The straight line ride is unaffected but cornering is FLAT!
WHAT did he say? the Z06's tire's are wider and sticky'er so they will break lose easier than the base model? HUH? some one should tell GM to put narrower tire's on the Z06
WHAT did he say? the Z06's tire's are wider and sticky'er so they will break lose easier than the base model? HUH? some one should tell GM to put narrower tire's on the Z06
Snap oversteer is as much a function of the tire's tendency to break away quickly rather than gradually as much as it is the roll stiffness....
Perhaps what I originally wrote above was not as clear as I intended. The very high performance tires on the ZO6 are certainly going to be traveling at a higher speed, with higher side G loads when they break away ---- suddenly, with almost no time to counter steer and catch the slide, according to reviewers.......What I expressed is my hope that the standard tires, even though traveling at a slower speed, with lower side load --- might break away more gradually and give the buttometer time to tell the hands to catch the slide.
Almost every car maker prefers to design in significant understeer into their cars, as they consider that a safer form of loss of control than oversteer. For me, and I am not claiming to be the best driver in the world here ---- I prefer that the rear end break away first (gradually and controllably!!!) over the front tires going straight when you are asking them to TURN!!
It will be interesting to put the ZO6 bars on the base car and go play....as I've said all along --- we'll see...........
Snap oversteer is as much a function of the tire's tendency to break away quickly rather than gradually as much as it is the roll stiffness....
Perhaps what I originally wrote above was not as clear as I intended. The very high performance tires on the ZO6 are certainly going to be traveling at a higher speed, with higher side G loads when they break away ---- suddenly, with almost no time to counter steer and catch the slide, according to reviewers.......What I expressed is my hope that the standard tires, even though traveling at a slower speed, with lower side load --- might break away more gradually and give the buttometer time to tell the hands to catch the slide.
Almost every car maker prefers to design in significant understeer into their cars, as they consider that a safer form of loss of control than oversteer. For me, and I am not claiming to be the best driver in the world here ---- I prefer that the rear end break away first (gradually and controllably!!!) over the front tires going straight when you are asking them to TURN!!
It will be interesting to put the ZO6 bars on the base car and go play....as I've said all along --- we'll see...........
I wasn't referring to the tire adhesion so much as the tension from the Z06 rear bar. Engineers designed that bar (more or less) FOR a car with 325 tires on the back. A narrower 285 F1 (supercar or not) isn't going to grip as well. Theoretically I would imagine that much rear bar with the small tire would make the car a little more likely to swap ends in a hard corner.
Yes, many customers have reported oversteer with the Z06 bars and the Z51 bars are the best to go with if you don't have the larger tires.
Thanks for the referrals and I'd be happy to hook you up with a set.
||--Z51 Sway Bar Kit--||
10323434 – Front stabilizer bar
10339124 – Rear stabilizer bar
10387838 (2) – Front stabilizer insulators
15241135 (2) – Rear stabilizer insulators
Complete kit front and rear is 192.05
For the Z51 bars on our website, use part number c6z51bars on our website under Chevrolet make.
I got mine from gene as well, i got in last week and put on. Pretty simple job,,,,the difference in the front wasnt too noticable but was larger and the rear one was twice as big. Very affordable mod and easy to do, you will notice a difference and the next change i would make would be tires before you do anythign else. good luck, paul
im a little late to the discussion but any reccomendations would be much appreciated . I have a 2010 ls3 base non z51 that i did a wide body conversion to and am currently running 285-20zr19 on the front and 335-25zr20 on the rear and am thinking about zo6 front and rear sway bars to improve handeling would that do the trick or is the aftermarket sway bars a better option ? if so which do you recommend .secoundly my car is in need to replace shocks . I want to have better handeling but at the same time be confterable over bumps any recommendations would be much appreciated . Thanks .
I have no clue what the best sway bars for your particular modifications are... but I can tell you without doubt the best performance gain per dollar spent on a base is the Z51 swaybars. They should have been standard as it improves handling all the way around with making the ride harsh. The GM swaybars are also cheap in the grand scheme of things. Last time I looked they were around $300.
I'm running Bilstein DRM and like them, not sure how they compare to others.
11-19-2008, 08:49 AM
z06 swaybars compared to base C6 swaybars???
