Courtesy Lites on a 1963 Z06

[Dick W.]

Re: Not suitable for street driving, HA!

I restored a Z-06 for a customer and had a ball getting the car ready for the PV. The only pre disc brake car that would stop. Ran like hell and would handle, even with the bias ply tires. Absolutely a blast to drive. More fun that the L/88 that I owned at the same time. The Z-06 was very predictable as to what it would do. The L/88 was fun in a straight line, but more finesse than I possessed to get it thru a corner pointed in the right direction.

[Michael H.]

Re: Not suitable for street driving, HA!

Duke,

I have to agree with you on the Z06 brakes. They were nearly hopeless and should have been in a museum several years before their appearance on the 1963 Corvette. However, I totally disagree with your view on the F40 suspension, at least for any form of competition. If you've ever come into corner 12 at Road America, trail braking, with anything less than F40, you would never attempt it a second time! There's a lot more to it than just left/right body pitch. The HD sway bars will handle that problem but during hard braking while turning, the nose of a car with softer front springs would load the front tires and totally upset the front/rear balance. It's a great way to get a close up view of all the shrubbery around the outside of the track.

For street fun, I agree that stock non HD suspension with good TODAY shocks is more than sufficient.

Michael

[Duke W.]

Re: Not suitable for street driving, HA!

"but during hard braking while turning, the nose of a car with softer front springs would load the front tires and totally upset the front/rear balance".

Springs have nothing to do with weight tranfer under braking. It's purely a function of deceleration rate, wheelbase, and center of gravity. Front/rear brake bias is also critical to successful trail braking, and damping is critical to keep the body out of pitch oscillation when you initially apply heavy braking.

Stiffer springs will reduce the dive pitch angle under braking, but wheel loading is essentially the same regardless of spring rates.

I've never run at Road America, but the base suspension with Michelin X radials had no problem coping with Kent back in the sixties, and the J-65s worked quite well, too - not as consistent and linear as disks, in fact, it took some real learned skills to modulate them when hot because they became so sensitive, but they never failed to provide the necessary deceleration, and I learned to cope successfully with their idiosyncracies.

Duke

Duke