The £7700 Corvette C6

The £7700 Corvette C6

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Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Thursday 30th June 2022
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Shnozz said:
Superb!

I have called off my search after such ridiculous prices are being asked. Just today is a great example - Category C repaired C6 on ebay has appeared with auto box and in silver - the latter two points being hardly desirable. 2005 example and he is asking £23k. Away with the fairies.
This one looks good: £20k, low miles, 2008 spec LS3, manual, Z51. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202206297...


Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Thursday 30th June 2022
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snotrag said:
Great video that, what a noise. Brill.
Thank you smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Wednesday 6th July 2022
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PerryMotorsport said:
Hi, I have brought that and collect tonight!, paid a lot less than advertised as it needs a couple of things sorting. I currently have a C5 manual.

Edited by PerryMotorsport on Monday 4th July 12:23
Excellent, tell us more. What needs doing to the C6? Hope you're pleased with it? smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Monday 1st August 2022
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F1natic said:
In regards to the north weald run I think you need to change your name to fishtail dave, nice hoof planting there.
I might use that one, Fishtail Dave biglaugh

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Monday 1st August 2022
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Nice double rainbow over the carport and garage. smile


First update isn't Corvette related, well, we (CSCC) had a C5 racing with us at Spa at the end of June.


Instead I had the opportunity to co-drive an FIA Sebring Sprite again, in the Spa 3 Hours race. All that sliding about I do in the Corvette is good practice for racing this little thing on Dunlop cross-plies.




Anyway, back to Corvette content, the next planned event was https://thesupercarevent.com/
Whilst my lowly base model isn't a 'super car' it's red, pointy and goes well enough, so it just about qualifies and paying passengers seem to enjoy it and it's for a great cause. I last attended in the first year I owned the car, soon finding the shortcomings of the brakes at Rockingham. Now at Goodwood, it's still a tough format for cars, with three hot laps and a ten minute changeover before going out again. The heat soak is considerable, but not a lot can be done.

In preparation, I replaced the worn Mintex 1155 rear pads with a new set.


I also fitted the stronger front spring, a Hyperco HPT 'race' that I picked up used some months back. It should be a good match for the Z06 rear leaf and reduce dive under hard braking. The photos compare the previous Z51 (526 lbs) spring with the thicker T1 (625 lbs).



An oil and filter change should have been straightforward, but the headers are in the way and stopped me using my usual strap type tools. I made a right pigs ear of it, making quite a mess, but I got the old filter off in the end. Correct cup type tool now ordered. redface



Next was the fitting of the Sparco QRT Evo L seat, I'd bought a couple of months back. Seats in this car are a PITA, getting the position, height and clearance for both 3 point belt and receiver and 4 point harness. For now I used the Planted Technology bases I'd bought years ago. They're not ideal, being high, heavy and not being offset away from the centre tunnel, but it's safe and will do for now. I shifted the QRT-R across to the passenger seat.






My son's child seat fits perfectly in the QRT-R.


Preparation for the Goodwood event now complete and the weather perfect, I got up early one Sunday and with the help of a friend I took the final photo of Stonehenge I needed for the second 'Clive The Corvette' childrens book.


Breakfast out to say thank you, nice to take the roof off.


The morning of the event was perfect weather and and enjoyable couple of hours drive on empty roads showed me the improvement in seat comfort for my wider shoulders. The front spring, whilst firmer was just fine on the roads. I was using up my old AD08R tyres for this event.









A successful day for the charity raising over £35,000. However, big queues resulted from noise restrictions at Goodwood limiting car numbers on track at once, meaning that passengers had to wait over an hour, plus not everyone got a ride before the end of the day, something the organisers will make up to them next year. cool

Hi to the TVR PHer who had alternator troubles. byebye

The heat and back to back sessions really took their toll on some cars, mine too. Checking the car over the day after showed a split rear CV boot.



The heat melted my previously repaired front steering balljoint.


The brake temps got as high as I've experienced.


The rear pads were down to the metal after just one day, clearly operating out of their preferred window. I have commissioned Questmead and Mintex to make me some F6R rear pads for the future.

All this was so worthwhile for the pleasure this brought my passengers, here's one such happy gent.



Let the repairs commence.....


Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Tuesday 2nd August 2022
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Honestly, I don't know, but I suspect it would have failed at a normal track day. The organisers on the day were using the 'noise bucket' type approach, where noise was cumulative and towards the end of a 1/2 hour session the numbers of cars occasionally appear to have been restricted, so as to keep under the circuit limit. With a number of race cars there mine wasn't the loudest, I wasn't ever spoken to. smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Tuesday 2nd August 2022
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Why thank you sir. smile

This is a good read: https://www.vorshlag.com/forums/forum/vorshlag-mot...
Same car as mine, but one year older (very little difference between an 06 and 07), with similar aims, to retain a happy daily driver/track specification, all on a budget too. I've exchange messages with Terry, a nice guy. smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Monday 8th August 2022
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  • Warning, boring post alert.
Discs and pads, front and back replaced. New steering arm boot fitted, fresh grease and then covered in silicone tape for extra heat protection and a UK sourced CV boot that is a good fit. CV joint grease is messy stuff.





A more interesting post will follow tomorrow. smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Tuesday 23rd August 2022
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Good to see you there smile

I'm always looking for affordable performance upgrades and after emailing Terry from Vorshlag he recommended a wider front tyre. Money no object I would buy wider wheels (probably 10.5") in the correct offset, but given limited funds I'm considering running stock rear wheels all round. The offsets are wrong (the inner is too close to the damper), but with spacers it could work, whilst also giving me space for a future big brake kit upgrade. I'll confess to turning my nose up at the thoughts of spacers on something that gets used on track, but for £100 delivered through Amazon I thought I'd try them.



20mm all round, with decent looking 10.9 studs and nuts, in the correct centre bore. The stock wheels have pockets for the standard wheel studs to fit, but the unthreaded tips needed to be removed. At least if I I decide not to use the spacers/adaptors in the future I haven't lost any threads.







Before:

Before:

Before:


After 20mm spacers:

After 20mm spacers:

After 20mm spacers:


The rears are probably about 5mm further out than I'd like, but if I can get a touch more negative camber it will be perfect. That will do for now, next event is the final round of Knockhill Super Lap Scotland on Sunday 4th September, with a quick drop in to the 'Corvette's at the Lakes' event en route. I don't have tyres to try a set of rear wheels all round, that experiment will have to wait. smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Tuesday 23rd August 2022
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Yes, I shall certainly report back after the next round, it's a shame to add rotating weight, but hope that in time wider rubber may deliver a gain. smile

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Wednesday 24th August 2022
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Thank you, Spa is such a brilliant place to race at. smile

Great tip, I'd thought of fabricating heat shields, but these look good as an off the shelf item. The ball joints are quite wide on the C6, so I might need to widen the hole on these ones. I might order one and see how I go. The dust boots only melted at the Goodwood event, usually on track they're fine, probably dues to a cool down lap or two.

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Wednesday 24th August 2022
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Hi Nigel,

Good to hear from you sir. I confess I'd forgotten the Coupes had these, were they standard or aftermarket?

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Sunday 28th August 2022
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nismo48 said:
Scooobydont said:
Yup, another who enjoys reading about your progress, was up again watching.
Fantastic thread and great write up..!!
From start to present time an absolute pleasure to follow..thumbup
Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words.

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Sunday 28th August 2022
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Nigel_O said:
Standard, but they almost always got left off when replacing bottom wishbones (which you’ll probably remember were almost a consumable item on Coupes…)

Also, it was very easy to get stones trapped, which made an awful noise, so quite a few owners removed them.

I did the same to my bottom ball joint on my Coupe as you did to yours on your C6 - heat paint on the disc showed I got to somewhere north of 750 degrees on a track day at Bedford. I replaced the shields after that….
Ah yes, I do remember that horrible screeching noise now you mention it. headache

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Wednesday 7th September 2022
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Clive was back in action on Sunday, at Knockhill, for the final round of Super Lap Scotland, running in reverse direction. SLS is basically like race qualifying, or Time Attack, with lots of cars on track at once, each trying to set their fastest lap. Much more track time than a sprint, less risk of damage compared to racing.
For the first time I was able to tow the Corvette, having borrowed a trailer and used the T5 camper to tow. The week before had not been good preparation, with a fever preventing a planned geometry set up, an early hours loading, followed by an all-day drive from Wiltshire to Knockhill, arriving at the circuit in the dark and rain.

Loading in the early hours.


I did have a slight detour, to the 'Corvettes at the Lakes' meet, a welcome break for an hour or two.


Next morning, I started with scrutineering and a chance to see what the car weighed. I'd guessed at the same weight as last season, 1544kg with driver and half a tank. It was a good guess, 1550kg on the circuit scales. Thanks to the power increase the headers gave me I was now close to the power to weight limit of class D. The first two sessions were very wet, so I left my road tyres on (newish Yokohama V105), they proved to be brilliant, topping the times in Group 1 (multiple classes), that's against 3 x 4wd cars too.



The forecast was for a drier afternoon, so I swapped onto last seasons Nankang AR-1s. These have done a lot of heat cycles now, but budget wouldn't run to new ones. In fact I still only have a set of three wheels, as I've not replaced the one I cracked a year ago. This is a pain as I keep having to ask (pay) tyre companies to swap a tyre between rims.


I was immediately happy with the set up in dry qualifying, less oversteer now I have the stiffer front spring, in fact I don't think I'll make any more changes to suspension. Once again, Clive was fastest in this session.

So, it was on to the final, where it's one car at a time, with an out lap to warm brakes and tyres, the timed 'Super Lap' and an inlap. It was one of my best final laps, with a little too much oversteer coming up from Duffas Dip, partly due to coldish tyres, but a 56.623 lap was right up there with the best I've achieved before. Looking at the results breakdown it was interesting to see that second place (Honda Civic) was regularly faster than me in the speed traps, showing the Corvette is good under brakes and cornering.
http://www.smart-timing.co.uk/Results%202022_files...

So, that was a win in class D and trophy for fastest road car too.
Here's the video, with a few slides in the wet to begin with:


I really enjoyed myself, the paddock atmosphere is great, drivers friendly. A couple of them who had bought Clive books came over with their children, for photos, or to sit in the Corvette. Happy and proud. smile

I broke the journey up on the way home, staying overnight in a quiet layby near Shap. The camper's high pressure fuel pump decided to leak, making the clutch slip, so I have that job to fix next, but it got me home.



ETA on the diff rebuild parts has now slipped a month, to early October, grrrrr.


Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Thursday 8th September 2022
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Mr Tidy]ishy Dave said:
Clive was back in action on Sunday, at Knockhill, for the final round of Super Lap Scotland, running in reverse direction. SLS is basically like race qualifying, or Time Attack, with lots of cars on track at once, each trying to set their fastest lap. Much more track time than a sprint, less risk of damage compared to racing.

So, that was a win in class D and trophy for fastest road car too.
Here's the video, with a few slides in the wet to begin with:
[quote]

Loved the video - plenty of arm-twirling. laugh

But Knockhill anti-clockwise was confusing!

Anyway congratulations on the Class win. thumbup
Yes, it's our only chance to drive anti-clockwise in the UK, now that Rockingham is a distant memory. Less twirling than usual, but still enough to be fun. Hoping to tempt you to try it next year for a round? smile


Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Thursday 8th September 2022
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Cambs_Stuart said:
Always good to see an update and congratulations on the trophy. How did the wheel spacers affect the handling?
Thank you. Honestly, I couldn't tell they were there, although I had to remove the rear spacers to fit the set of wheels fitted with dry weather tyres. The 'pockets' in the back side of the alloys weren't deep enough to accommodate the studs.

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Wednesday 5th October 2022
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A belated thanks Ritchie. smile

I've just seen this for sale: https://www.facebook.com/groups/115393255814480/pe...

£22,000 for an '08 LS3, manual, wide-body, with some choice mods is a great buy. the current exchange rate would mean paying at least an extra £10,000 for a car like this from the States.



I had a small mention in this month's Practical Classics, I can only assume they've seen this thread, as I've not been in touch with anyone?


Clive has barely moved since Knockhill a month ago. The noises and clunking from the diff suggest a breakage is imminent. I have ordered a 12 ton press, so have everything I need to repair the diff, other than the parts themselves. I have two sets on order, one from Summit, the other from Zip, it's a race to see which arrives first.

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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The master diff rebuild kit finally arrived from ZIP Corvette, sadly missing a few parts, but they were quick to apologise and send replacement parts at their cost.
So, out came the diff again, third time this year. I was in a bit of a rush, as I needed to identify what was causing the clunking noise, so that I could source a used, replacement diff in the States.


I quickly found two faults, firstly, every bolt holding the ring gear in place was loose. Not just a little bit, you could turn the bolts by hand, although none of them had backed out thankfully.


The second fault was the large 'nut, holding the pinion in place was dangerously loose, I could turn it by hand, with the only thing stopping the whole thing from falling to bits was the 'stake'.


This nut is supposed to be tightened to 370lbft, with a Kent Moore tool, this is a huge torque and it's clear from the grip marks on the nut that the specialist who rebuilt my diff a few years ago did not have the correct tool, hence it undoing. frown
Much time was spent checking every bearing and the teeth. Everything looked perfect, therefore, rather than changing bearings and therefore giving myself the considerable headache of learning how to set and check backlash and spacing in a weekend, I chucked everything back together. At least I now have every part I need if I need to go in there again in the future. Ideally, I'd have liked to have replaced the ring gear bolts, which are a fine pitch and have probably stretched. Time was against me, so they were threadlocked and put back in, with new bolts on order.

A mix of Redline lsd and non-lsd synthetic diff oil was put in and within metres it was instantly noticeable that the clonking noise had gone, yes! The reason for adding some non-lsd oil is to experiment with a little more locking effect (less friction modifier).

At short notice, I booked a business trip to the Classic Daytona 24 event, with track day at Sebring the day after. I gave myself a day off too to explore and pick up a few Vette bits.

I used my Hertz gold membership for an upgrade to this Dodge, just the 3.7 V6, but I covered 800 miles over four days and thought it was a nice place to be, although it's 245 rear tyres were easily overwhelmed without really trying. biggrin


My club president, Mike Jordan (with son Andrew) was competing in their 911, good to cheer them along.



Nice C3 parked on Daytona Beach


This was the very C7 I saw race at Le Mans back in 2019, very cool, I spent quite a bit of time looking at it up close in the garage.




After a number of meetings I had the opportunity of riding in the pace car for the start of one of the races, a nice experience, in the new Nissan Z car too.


Le Mans winning 956.






Next day I picked up a local set of oem C6 wheels for $250. At last, I'm back to 3 sets of wheels, to replace the part set I was left with when I cracked the wheel at Knockhill last season.






On to Sebring, in time for lunchtime parade laps in the Dodge. smile A well run Chin track day, the same company I used when I drove my Corvette at COTA those years ago.




I met some nice guys with a trio of track-prepped C6 Z06. I spent a happy 20 minutes being driven round at great pace in an unsilenced, Katech-engined Z06 on slicks, with aero. My neck got a bit of a work out, a brilliant experience.


Ecklers Corvette was en route after a drive up route A1A. The parts counter was pants, the three items I wanted were out of stock and no showroom to see, clearly a large warehouse though.


Back to the Daytona Chevrolet dealer to pick up some parts, diff shims, ring gear bolts, oil filters etc.


Longer ARP wheel studs and Borg rear offset bushings (a set each for me and Mr Noisy)were squirreled away in my suitcase and I headed for home.



Although it looked glamorous, I really did worked hard over those few days, with plenty of meetings. Sadly I came down with a pretty serious case of Flu the day after and it's taken some weeks to recover.



Edited by Fishy Dave on Tuesday 29th November 09:12

Fishy Dave

Original Poster:

1,031 posts

247 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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Oh yes, I had a nice couple of mentions in the Knockhill video here:



and



smile