Corvette leaf springs

[henk4]

I had not seen this thread before, and admittedly I now just glanced through, looking for one thing that I think is also worth mentioning, namely that the Corvette factory racing cars are fitted with coils springs, the reason being that these seem to be must easier to adjust. Is this correct?

Edit: Herewith a picture of the front suspension of the Z06 which was used by Markland Racing last year as a GT2 car in LMES.

[culver]

I speculate the reason the Corvette racing car uses the coils is due to ready parts availability. A racing coil spring is not vehicle specific. You specify diameter, rate, etc and you get a spring. Additionally, spring winding equipment is very flexible. So if say Hyperco doesn't have the exact spring you want they can make it relatively inexpensively and quickly.

However, the fiberglass leaf spring is application specific. As such it would be a custom fab job to make just a few springs for the car. This isn't a big deal for the production Corvette. What's 200 prototype springs when GM will make well over 100,000 of the production springs. In racing we might be talking about wanting say 10 sets of 10 different rates. Given that most racing dampers short of those used in F1 are designed for coil over applications, why not use what is readily available? In this case I really think it's a case of what works easily for the application vs what works in volume.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by culver

I speculate the reason the Corvette racing car uses the coils is due to ready parts availability. A racing coil spring is not vehicle specific. You specify diameter, rate, etc and you get a spring. Additionally, spring winding equipment is very flexible. So if say Hyperco doesn't have the exact spring you want they can make it relatively inexpensively and quickly.

However, the fiberglass leaf spring is application specific. As such it would be a custom fab job to make just a few springs for the car. This isn't a big deal for the production Corvette. What's 200 prototype springs when GM will make well over 100,000 of the production springs. In racing we might be talking about wanting say 10 sets of 10 different rates. Given that most racing dampers short of those used in F1 are designed for coil over applications, why not use what is readily available? In this case I really think it's a case of what works easily for the application vs what works in volume.

very plausible, is there any official statement from Pratt&Miller or Corvette Racing?

[culver]

Not that I've heard of in my nonexistent research.

I did have a talk with an aftermarket tuner who wasn't fond of the leaf spring. However, in talking to him I really took away that he had issues with the specific implementation rather than the fundamentals of the concept. He did say it was easier and more cost effective for him as a tuner to do his job using coil springs. While he didn't like some of what GM did with the leaf spring, I get the feeling he wouldn't have been any happier with the work had it been done with coils. He did state that he things GM's work is good for the majority of owners and a number of his changes had nothing to do with the springs. While he wasn’t able to improve my insight into the nuances of the leaf spring, he did at least back my view that the move from the leaf to coils has more to do with familiarity and parts availability than any fundamental flaw in using a leaf on a production car.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by culver

Not that I've heard of in my nonexistent research.

I did have a talk with an aftermarket tuner who wasn't fond of the leaf spring. However, in talking to him I really took away that he had issues with the specific implementation rather than the fundamentals of the concept. He did say it was easier and more cost effective for him as a tuner to do his job using coil springs. While he didn't like some of what GM did with the leaf spring, I get the feeling he wouldn't have been any happier with the work had it been done with coils. He did state that he things GM's work is good for the majority of owners and a number of his changes had nothing to do with the springs. While he wasn’t able to improve my insight into the nuances of the leaf spring, he did at least back my view that the move from the leaf to coils has more to do with familiarity and parts availability than any fundamental flaw in using a leaf on a production car.

what it apparently sort of boils down to is that in 95% (or more) of the cases the advantages of the leaf spring will offset the versability and flexibility of the coils...if you really want to go for serious racing/tuning you may need the coils.

[culver]

Originally Posted by henk4

what it apparently sort of boils down to is that in 95% (or more) of the cases the advantages of the leaf spring will offset the versability and flexibility of the coils...if you really want to go for serious racing/tuning you may need the coils.

I would also add the availability of coil springs.

[NSXType-R]

Yeah, I glanced over this thread too.

Does the C6 also use leaf springs?

I'll read the rest later though. Interesting stuff.

Too bad most of the original links are gone.

[Kitdy]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

Does the C6 also use leaf springs?

Yes it does.

[culver]

But but but...

did anyone look over the new edits to the wiki entry. I put some time in this weekend on changing/updating the illustrations in the entry. I'm hoping to get suggestions from the members on any changes which might make the illustrations clearer or easier to understand.

Corvette leaf spring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[baddabang]

Originally Posted by Kitdy

Yes it does.

Fail. It only has one. Therefore it uses a leaf spring.

[culver]

Actually it has two. One in front and one in back. Any feed back on the illustrations?

[Matra et Alpine]

The problem with using the transverse leaf in a race car is that it is then very expensive ( near impossible ) to have different springing rates on each corner. This you do often for different tracks to get optimal speed through the most important corners.
For road, the new compsite ones certainly have some merit

[culver]

Matra,

If you dig through some of the recent edits you will see that one editor copied a section of one of your posts from this tread and used it as an entry (with out a cited no less!). I think the author in question was ticked that I pulled out a reference to a Motor Trend article.

[RacingManiac]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

BTW if they were to use leaf on the C5-R/C6-R it'd be more difficult to swap spring....While at the same token this technology of transverse leaf might not be beneficial in a NASCAR type of world of asymmetrical car setup as a single transverse leaf spring for 2 sides guarantees symmetrical rates....

quoting my own post form 2005 to answer Henk's question...

[henk4]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

quoting my own post form 2005 to answer Henk's question...

I must have overlooked it....