Question for suspension experts re: 2015 Z/28

[Rod P]

the 5th gens are fun cars and even the z needs some help it was tamed down for street use, I was lucky enough to build and maintain several 5th gens, we raced then all over the US in the Optima series .....I think the basic DSE Speed ! kit would help you the most, it adds springs and better sway bars and you keep the z dampeners

here is the some of those cars

this one has the full DSE speed kit 3



this one we kept the stock z dampners and use the DSE speedd kit 1



this one we used Phadt and it sucked so it was changed to ridetech

[ArisESQ]

Awesome! Thanks Rod - I may go ahead and pick that kit up.

I notice on the DSE website it states that the DSE springs are 41% stiffer. As I understand, the Z/28 is already stiffer than a standard SS or 1LE - do you happen to know how stiff the DSE springs actually are?



Also, did you have an opportunity to drive the speed 1 and 3 equipped cars and a standard Z? Would be interested in hearing your impressions.

[JSRidetech]

Ridetech for the WIN!!! I had the ridetech coilovers on my 5th gen (before I ended up an employee of the company) and it was magic!!! I would defiantly put them up against DSE! If you also drive your car on the street I would pick Ridetech for sure, the ride quality is on point.

Here is a link to our current 5th Gen lineup...

http://www.ridetech.com/store/muscle...ures_hash=V359

[ArisESQ]

Originally Posted by JSRidetech

Ridetech for the WIN!!! I had the ridetech coilovers on my 5th gen (before I ended up an employee of the company) and it was magic!!! I would defiantly put them up against DSE! If you also drive your car on the street I would pick Ridetech for sure, the ride quality is on point.

Here is a link to our current 5th Gen lineup...

http://www.ridetech.com/store/muscle...ures_hash=V359

I do like the Ridetech stuff a lot, but after a lot of consideration I've decided that I want to stick with the OEM DSSV dampers that come with the Z/28, and am primarily interested in running different springs with matching sway bars.

[Rod P]

Originally Posted by ArisESQ

Also, did you have an opportunity to drive the speed 1 and 3 equipped cars and a standard Z? Would be interested in hearing your impressions.

yes the white z we had was fully stock springs. dampeners and bars, we spent a test weekend at Thunderhill race track in California and JRI/Ultimate performance and Ridetech/Fox both had engineers and tuners there and we equipped the white tester from stock to ridetech and gained a second+ in lap times from stock and white/ridetech vs Black/JRI car was only a 100ths of a sec between them, later we went back to factory dampeners on the white car and the speed 1 kit, and won the GT class at Optima that year in the white car(we damaged the engine in the black car and was unable to repair it before the finals and that's the reason we ran the white car)

[ArisESQ]

Originally Posted by Rod P

yes the white z we had was fully stock springs. dampeners and bars, we spent a test weekend at Thunderhill race track in California and JRI/Ultimate performance and Ridetech/Fox both had engineers and tuners there and we equipped the white tester from stock to ridetech and gained a second+ in lap times from stock and white/ridetech vs Black/JRI car was only a 100ths of a sec between them, later we went back to factory dampeners on the white car and the speed 1 kit, and won the GT class at Optima that year in the white car(we damaged the engine in the black car and was unable to repair it before the finals and that's the reason we ran the white car)

Thanks Rod!

Are you saying that you GAINED a second in lap times from stock??

[Rod P]

Originally Posted by ArisESQ

Thanks Rod!

Are you saying that you GAINED a second in lap times from stock??

yes...per lap...and if you want a few other tips that don't cost a ton one is the DSE Castor kit increasing the front castor on the 5th gens 50 bucks and its that little thing that pushes the top cars ahead of the average cars at events