[Chip]

If any of you have an opportunity to measure and get an actual ground clearance measurement for the base C-7 if would be greatly appreciated. I think I have a street / driveway / garage interface problem that will affect my future purchase plans. I asked a local Corvette Club member to bring his base stock C-6 over and it scrapped a bit getting in the driveway, but would not make the rise into my garage without more serious radiator mount scraping. I've read that the C-7 is lower yet? It does not look good...

 

[elegant]

Have not seen any GM information on how the C6 versus the C7 ground clearance is. Have seen folks creatively put a board at the curb/driveway edge and/or the edge to their garage entrance and eliminate their Corvette scrapping on their property. Good luck, and hopefully we will get some GM ground clearance info soon.

 

[elegant]

As a point of reference, when we get the GM C7 ground clearance amount, a regular C6 has 3.7" and a C6 Z06 has 3.2" (GM's figures).

All C6's, and resumably C7's, can easily be raised or lowered some by a simple adjustment at each corner.

 

[DieterO]

hope our new 2014 has push button at each corner to raise or lower; lol

 

[Chip]

I've been looking for a solution for my problem and found these. Pretty cheap too, as I think all I need are a couple of the 10" X 24"pieces. I am in hopes a couple of these and a little Rube Goldberg engineering will win the day! Envirotile 24 in. x 24 in. Flat Profile Grey Paver-MT5000745 at The Home Depot

 

[ddelfino]

hope our new 2014 has push button at each corner to raise or lower; lol

One of the video reviews and I cant remember which magazine did it but they had a blue vette up on a lift and went through the suspension in fine detail. There is an adjustments that allows you to raise and lower the car at each corner. Unfortunately there is no button on the dash for it.. Its a bolt adjustment on each corner. You could always go to air shocks

 

[ddelfino]

Actually here is a detailed article that shows you the adjustment points. I believe there is an accompanying video somewhere as well:
2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51 Suspension Walkaround on Edmunds.com

 

[Chip]

Thanks. I knew I could adjust the height, but I just wanted to see if I could avoid it.

 

[ddelfino]

For those of you who were wondering about ground clearance. I would suggest watching this video starting about 7 mins in where they go through the suspension in pretty good detail.

 

[Chip]

I just found this online on the subject of air dams.

"While at the NCM last week, there were several C7s to look at and a couple to set in. Harlan Charles and others were around to discuss the C7 also. While listening to Harlan talk about the C7 outside the museum, I noticed that the Z51 C7 he was near was missing the center section of the front air dam - the black plastic panels that stick down below and behind the front bumper to keep air from getting under the car. Anyway, I did a quick survey of the 4 or 5 C7s in the area and noticed that every Z51 car was missing the center section of the air dam and all the non-Z51 cars had it.

I asked Harlan about this and was told the the Z51 car got more down force on the nose if the air was allowed under the nose and then vented up and over the hood and out the side vents thus allowing them to put the bigger spoiler on the rear to balance it. The standard C7 gets a full air dam and the small spoiler. Harlan also mentioned that the C7 "breathes" through the nose and not under the nose like the C4, C5 and partially like the C6.

This just seems odd to me but Harlan ought to know. Anybody want to explain this better?"

This is pretty interesting, and somewhat counter intuitive for me. I guess you don't need to be a rocket scientist to manage aerodynamics, but it sure helps!

 

[Mark JD]

Chip....
You bring up a very interesting topic.
I think you should start a separate thread on this. You may get more feedback than only on this "Ground clearance" thread. I understand how it affects ground clearance, but down force and air flow is a whole new ballgame.
JMO,
Mark D.

 

[Mark JD]

As a point of reference, when we get the GM C7 ground clearance amount, a regular C6 has 3.7" and a C6 Z06 has 3.2" (GM's figures).

All C6's, and resumably C7's, can easily be raised or lowered some by a simple adjustment at each corner.

Will making these adjustments affect all of the features that come on the Driver Mode selector? How about handling or alignment? I would not want to play with these settings/ adjustments and screw up all of the driving features that were designed and built into the new C7 from the factory.

JMHO.... I would probably screw something up if I tried it.

 

[Chip]

Will making these adjustments affect all of the features that come on the Driver Mode selector? How about handling or alignment? I would not want to play with these settings/ adjustments and screw up all of the driving features that were designed and built into the new C7 from the factory.

JMHO.... I would probably screw something up if I tried it.

Mark; I think that if you do adjust the lowering bolts it will affect the front suspension geometry, depending on the amount of change. I could easily see that it might create odd tire wear issues, but I am not sure it would affect handling. It might though, so it would be good to check that out first before re-adjusting the ride height.

 

[mjw930]

Will making these adjustments affect all of the features that come on the Driver Mode selector? How about handling or alignment? I would not want to play with these settings/ adjustments and screw up all of the driving features that were designed and built into the new C7 from the factory.

JMHO.... I would probably screw something up if I tried it.

Yes, changing the height adjustment will require the alignment to be checked and probably adjusted. When we corner weight a car we set the corner weights with the driver and a 1/2 tank of fuel then move over to the alignment rack and reset everything to our desired spec. It's cool you can corner weight the C7 (and apparently the C6 too), I didn't know that.

 

[Georgio51]

I had the good fortune to crawl under the front end of C7 in a showroom today. I've been worried about clearance over speed bumps in my neighborhood. I am quite relieved at what I saw and felt. Keep in mind that I am not a purist and, to be frank, know very, very little about sport cars. Those of you who are concerned with clearance may have far more sophisticated requirements and preferences. The black "shileds" (not sure what they're called) are not what I expected. They are a soft and pretty flexible material in three independent sections (largest in middle, 2 smaller flanking.) From a novice perspective, they seem to be built for scraping. They are also located so far back from the front bumper that they won't be seen, even if they get beat-up (excuse the expression) a bit.

As I said... I know nutting. But, if you're real concerned, it might be prudent to check it out before making any expensive mods to your garages/driveways. Actually, maybe cybervette, with the goods in hand, would care to comment.

 

[Mark JD]

I had the good fortune to crawl under the front end of C7 in a showroom today. I've been worried about clearance over speed bumps in my neighborhood. I am quite relieved at what I saw and felt. Keep in mind that I am not a purist and, to be frank, know very, very little about sport cars. Those of you who are concerned with clearance may have far more sophisticated requirements and preferences. The black "shileds" (not sure what they're called) are not what I expected. They are a soft and pretty flexible material in three independent sections (largest in middle, 2 smaller flanking.) From a novice perspective, they seem to be built for scraping. They are also located so far back from the front bumper that they won't be seen, even if they get beat-up (excuse the expression) a bit.

As I said... I know nutting. But, if you're real concerned, it might be prudent to check it out before making any expensive mods to your garages/driveways. Actually, maybe cybervette, with the goods in hand, would care to comment.

Great observations Georgio! Very useful info. Will wait until the C7 is sitting in my driveway before making any drastic changes. I actually lowered the front end on my C5 (98 Pace Car) and had very few problems.

Thanks.

 

[elegant]

Taking the liberty of posting here YllwStgr's observation, made earlier today in another thread:

"OH, I almost forgot... the ground clearance is fine! I've gone over speed bumps, railroad tracks, etc., and it's just fine. I even have a slight ramp up my driveway... no problem!!!"

Thanks YllwStgr!

 

[YllwStgr]

Taking the liberty of posting here YllwStgr's observation, made earlier today in another thread:

"OH, I almost forgot... the ground clearance is fine! I've gone over speed bumps, railroad tracks, etc., and it's just fine. I even have a slight ramp up my driveway... no problem!!!"

Thanks YllwStgr!

Anytime

 

[Georgio51]

Taking the liberty of posting here YllwStgr's observation, made earlier today in another thread:

"OH, I almost forgot... the ground clearance is fine! I've gone over speed bumps, railroad tracks, etc., and it's just fine. I even have a slight ramp up my driveway... no problem!!!"

Thanks YllwStgr!

Thanks. Real good news.

 

[Chip]

Here is the poop...

I got on my hands and knees to check out just what the undersides of the C-7 looks like and to find out just how much ground clearance it has. Drum roll...3 inches from the base car 3 piece chin spoiler and the ground. The good thing is that these spoilers pretty soft and VERY pliable and bend VERY easily. As far as I could tell there is nothing else behind this 3 piece spoiler to worry about. Here is the picture that shows the clearance.

This one shows how the undersides are covered.