made a major transformation in my Corvette. The 1996 was saddled with the softest springs in the C4 line-up, does give it a "nice" ride but I do miss the high strung roughness of my previous C4 models. I just changed the stock 60 N/mm front spring with a 1989 FE1 93.1 N/mm spring and the rear 26 N/mm with a 1993 Z07 57.2 N/mm spring and what a change, the chassis feels more connected. In the front I removed the 1 factory shim and cut off 1 section of the spring end plate shims and the ride height remained the same 27" from the garage floor to the bottom of the front wheel lip as my soft stock spring. In the rear I already had the longer spring bolts so I could adjust the ride height... set it slightly more than the front at 27 3/8" with the much stiffer rear spring. I had a worn rack and pinion on the 96 but did have an old quick ratio 2 turns core from an 89 so had that rebuilt at ATSCO and installed that as well....the whole package turned out great. After reading all the stories about the problems changing out the C4's front spring I wasn't sure what I was getting in to...but it turned out to be an easy process just taking it a step at a time.

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I went in the other direction as I am a cruiser, not a competitor. And my wife refused to ride with me in my 1984 coupe since it was so jouncy, as she put it.

I purchased the "EZ Ride" rear transverse leaf spring from Ecklers. I had a local shop put it in along with new Monroe gas shocks all around. What a difference. It's actually civilized, and ,yes, my wife did ride with me and said it's "acceptable" which for her is a big admission!

My first Corvette was a 1984...to say it had a stiff ride would be an understatement...but I loved the razor sharp reflexes it had. I would find screws on the floor that had vibrated out of the trim panels and dash driving on rough roads. I up-sized the sway bars on that car and I don't know how many G's it would pull in a corner but it would make you queasy. My succession of other C4 cars couldn't replace the racecar feeling of that 84 on a twisty road.

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When I had found a splintered front spring in my '87 a couple years ago I did a lot of research to find just what I needed for a replacement. What I found was there was many adjustments the engineers were making to address complaints from owners of the early C4's. Confusing? You bet but in the end I was able to tailor the ride a bit closer to my liking. For example, my Z52 package was good but I wanted just a little more spring rate. By installing a set from an '86 Z51 the ride is not as harsh as the '84s but somewhere between that and an '87 Z52. Seat-of-the-pants tests have been great.

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A friend of mine donated some old "Vette Vues" to me and there was an article about John Greenwood suspension development on C4's. Aside more disappointing news about frame flex on C4's (which is really evident when the roof is out), there were a few lines about the showroom stock racing where they actually softened the suspension to get compliance and reduce the frame flex to improve track time.

|UPDATED|2/3/2014 6:45:19 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|


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