In our last episode of the Dead to Shred Series, the Dead to Shred Corvette proved it's back from the dead, but it also isn't thriving just yet either! In this episode we're taking the car from limping along with a lot of known issues to being sorted enough for it's first track day! As with the rest of the series, we're running into pretty every problem you as a reader are likely to encounter if you own or are looking to own a C5 Corvette. We also added in some low buck high reward upgrades we think any C5 "have fun" enthusiasts are likely to want, so this has something for every C5 owner!
For this article we're going to break things into two sections:
We'll first cover some of the common problem areas we tackled with the car to get it ready for this next phase along cover what some of the common things that come up with the platform are along with common upgrades folks make to these cars.
Second, we'll talk about how the car did at the track with feedback from 5 different drivers sharing what was great about the platform, where the struggles were, and what direction we should focus ourselves on for the next phase of the project.
First up: Sorting Out Some Common Pain Points on the C5
So the C5 Corvettes are great, but they are on average 25 years old or older now. There are going to be some problems with them, ESPECIALLY if you buy a nearly dead clunker like we did. Check out what issues we tackled as part of this round with the Dead to Shred Corvette.
Minor but Common Point of Order: Align the Windows.
Whether your car was in a crash like the Dead to Shred Car, or the door has just been slammed 60,000 times over 20+ years of life... the windows can stop lining up when closed. This means the car is no longer waterproof or air tight, and that can cause a litany of issues... especially in the rainy PNW where this car is located.
Popping the door card off of your C5 Corvette is easy and well documented, we won't rehash that process. What we will say is if you do this just put aside time to make slow incremental changes to both sides of the window over and over and over again. With each adjustment, close the door to test the changes made every time and until the window seats onto the rubber seal. You'll make major adjustments with the large bolt, and then the small adjuster you will make fine tuning adjustments with.
There is also another adjustment on the bottom of the door for window bow. This will help you get the window angled right and pressing in against the rubber seals. You want just enough pressure that a piece of paper drags with resistance between the window and the rubber seals. If the paper moves freely, it's too loose. If there's struggle, the seals are too pressed in and may compress unevenly in places and allow water and air through.
If you look back up at the first picture you'll also notice a little clip. This clips purpose is to keep the windows from flexing outwards above 80mph. Be sure your glass is seated below this, otherwise the clip will not be effective!
And there you have it, a C5 with aligned windows is a sharp sight to behold AND you can now leave it out in passing sprinkle without worry about your floor getting soaked or your interior getting moldy!
Headlights And Seeing Where You Are Going Is Smart!
With the goal of this car being a streetable car that can hang at events, we need to be able to drive legally on the street. This means working headlights and tail lights. Our car came with a particularly shoddy "sleepy eye" mod done to the car. As we began investigating putting the factor lights back in we discovered more and more didn't work on the car. We found a popped fused, which when replaced popped as soon as the headlights went on again. Reviewing the situation some more, some damaged wiring was grounding out, taking out the rear tail lights, dash light, and headlight motors with it. The headlights did still work whoever, you just had to manually move the motors.
Once we started looking for the short we found the very obvious issue where a previous and negligent owner had simply hacked out a bunch of wiring. An exposed wire there was shorting and blowing the fuse, and so with some modest DIY work we had working headlights, tails lights, and dash lights. We're now street legal no matter the time of day!
Speaking of Smart Features, Strong Brakes are NEVER a Bad Idea Either!
So the C5 corvette didn't ship with inadequate brakes, but for track duty and/or larger tires stickier modern compound tires, the OEM brakes are leaving potential on the table. So, thanks to some awesome insight from one of our favorite authors Shred Jesse, we were able to do his well docuemnted Cadillac Brembo Upgrade along with the C6 J55 brake upgrade on the Dead to Shred Corvette.
The Cadillac Brembo upgrade is pretty well established at this point, but essentially if you take 4 piston Cadillac Brembos, modify them slightly and space them out with a washer... you can run them with C6 Z06 Corvette 14" front rotors, MASSIVELY improving your stopping potential.
Now what's a front brake upgrade without a rear brake upgrade? The cheapest solution out there with exceptional bang for the buck return is to simply purchase C6 J55 rear brake brackets. These OEM brackets as you can see pictured above just space the caliper slightly further out and allow for 13.4" C6 J55 brake package rear rotors. While not the most common rotor, this setup keeps the car pretty darn balanced.
Stopping and Seeing is Great, But You need Grip To Get there!
Grip is good, especially when it comes to the track! We threw on the pretty "standard" high performance tire size of 315/30R18 Continential Extreme Contact Force's on some 18x11 wheels on all 4 corners of the car and these puppies GRIP! That said, this isn't a mod for everyone. Super wide tires like this on the street tend to "railroad" and follow just about any imperfections on the road, which is a rather meh experience when driving. This setup also means you can't run traction control as the math operating in the the traction control unit expects a staggered (smaller front than rear) tire situation... but honestly for the track even on a decently modified C5 Corvette, traction control just isn't essential.
If Your Neglected Drivetrain Blows Up, You're Stuck, So Let's Prevent that!
Odds are that if you bought a used Corvette, the fluids in the transmission haven't been changed enough, and the differential may never have been done. Most folks think "Eh it's a manual it'll last forever!" and while these are pretty damn tough... some fresh fluids never hurt!
We've got a pretty good article about changing the differential fluid along with an indepth article on the C5 Corvette Transmissions. Suffice it to say we recommend the following things for your C5 Corvette and changing both of these no matter whether you are streeting or tracking your C5.
Now Let's Make Sure The Wheels Don't Fall Off
A well established weak point of the C5 Corvettes are the wheel hubs/bearings. The wheel hubs and bearings are generally trouble free for stock use and with stock sized tires and brakes... but when you put monster grip on these and larger brakes and modern sticky compounds... the wheel hubs and bearings become the weak point on the car. As you can see above from a situation our author Shred Jesse ran into, when they crack they fail around the hub face and your wheel can fall off... and that's not good for anybody!
Now there's a lot of wheel hub and bearing offerings out there, but only two options are currently focused on track usage. We went with the MPI V3 wheel hubs, both as we wanted to give the new version and chance and we also love the price savings over the other high end offerings out there.
In the picture above you've got the OEM hub on the left, and the MPI hub on the right. It's immediately apparent just how much burlier the MPI offering is. We look forward to running these all season and confirming that they do indeed surpass OEM durability.
Are You Or The Car Sliding? Time for Seats and a Harness Setup!
A lot of people talk about feel when driving a car. It feels loose, stiff, responsive... the list goes on... but if you're flopping around in the car like a wavy inflatable used car advertisement... you aren't feeling what the car is actually doing!
First off, we started with a OMP TRS E XL Bucket Seat we had laying around the shop from a 24 Hours of Lemons build. We had other far nicer seats, but we know this will fit all of our drivers and is a solid example of just how large of a seat you can get into a C5 Corvette. While the seat does technically fit in the car, especially when installed with AMT Super Low C5 Corvette Mounts, it's such a snug fit you lose the factory seatbelts on the drivers side, so be aware of that compromise.
Now if you're going to run a bucket seat.... You're going to want a Harness and a Harness Bar to attach it to. We went with the a Static Speedworks produced C5 Corvette Harness Bar as it's a very robust offering at a very fair price and with quality installation instructions.They also make the harness bar available in custom colors, which is a pretty rad option for folks who want that trick look in their C5 Corvette. The owner of the company that produces the harness bar is also a Corvette enthusiast themselves, and we like to support people who support what we're all about!
For a Harness itself, we went with a Schroth Profi II ASM 4 point harness. Now some folks may be raising their eyebrows already at this. 4 point harnesses are generally NOT safe and are a bit of a clueless drift bro upgrade... but Schroth has their patented ASM (Anti Submarine) feature built int the harnesses that makes it so the 4 point harness is safe to be utilized in high intensity environments.
For the passenger side of the car, we kept the OEM seat, but installed C6 Corvette Seat Belts. The C6 seat belts are a single retractor unit, so much simpler in design which frees up space for the harness bar and anything else you may want to do. They also double as a "poor mans harness" as you can pull them all the way out to the end of their length and then they will only retract, letting a person quite very snug with their belt.
How The D2S C5 Actually Did At The Track & Driver Feedback
At this point, we know the Dead to Shred Corvette has potential to go based on the previous autocross shakedown, and we've put in some upgrades most folks are going to do their own C5 Corvette. It was time to take the Dead to Shred Corvette out to the track and see just what it was made of!
The plan was simple: We had 5 drivers and an open track day. Folks could jump in and out of the Dead to Shred C5 Corvette as they pleased. Drivers coulda lso jump in Shred Jesse's class and track record holding time attack C5 for a comparison to a refined race car version the same car.
The first driver feedback comes from Shane Reetz (@trackcrx). Shane drivers a Honda CRX along with an ND Miata, and instructs with a variety of different organizations. Shanes feedback was mostly positive, specifically noting he dug the broad torque the D2S C5 Corvette made, making it easy to drive in and through a lot of different sections. Shane though pulled no punches, identifying that not only was the lack of ABS challenging, but the feedback on the way to lockup was also vague. Shane's used to cars without ABS, so if he's struggling on this car, it's safe to say you'll struggle. Shane also noted some high speed stability improvements could be made to the car, and noted he can see why folks who drive these modify the cars with a focus on making the car more planted through hood vents and a rear wing. Shane also of course noted the inconsistent clutch needs to be addressed but that's a known issue we'll be tackling in the not so distant future!
Our next driver feedback comes from Connor Rieschl. Conner has an ND Miata he tracks and is a bit newer to track days. Conner found that the brakes had great stopping potential, but lacking ABS made it challenging for him to drive. Conner also found the broad power was great, allowing him to spend most of his lap just in 3rd without feeling down on power. Conner noted that tear could be more planted and would benefit from some more predictability there. Overall, Conner noted he was surprised how agile the C5 corvette was as he expected it to be a more notable step down in handling from his Miata... but still pointed out the C5 was no miata!
Another Driver who hopped out in the D2S was Will Fontaine. Will comes from rallycross background, though he has a Ford Fiesta ST he tracks. Will found the C5 Corvette to be his favorite car of the weekend, to the point when folks joked he should get one he said he was seriously open to the idea. The broad torque curve and friendly nature of the car immediately jived with him and let him just go out and have fun. While he noted he was cautious in several areas due to the lack of ABS, he felt it never held him back.
Our Team's Fabricator also jumped into the mix in the C5 Corvette. He head a lot of fun with the car, but also commented on the tail happy nature of the car combined with it getting light at speed and the lack of ABS causing issues from time to time. Dave wound up going a bit off line once and wrapped a cone around the drivers side front wheel... and at ORP if you mangle a cone you have to buy it so above you can see Dave posing with his newly purchased road cone!
Our Last Driver out was Shred Jesse. Shred Jesse is no stranger to the C5 Corvette platform given the journey he's taken building up, competing in, and sometimes winning in his Time Attack C5 Corvette. While it's no surprise that Jesse enjoyed the Dead to Shred C5 Corvette, what was surprising was he highlighted some of his slower laps as the most fun, as he would just settle behind a slower car and chase cornering G-forces. Jesse did note that the lack of ABS was an issue, especially when he inadvertently introduce a massive slide over the elevation change just before entering turn 4.
The tallied feedback was pretty much as expected for a mildly modified C5 Corvette, with the areas to Improve by noi means surprising either. The C5 Corvette platofmr as a whole is known for the ABS/EBCM failure, and without ABS not only can the platform be challenging in demanding conditions, but you can quickly flat spot your very expensive sets of tires... ask us how we know! The stability issues are also a known thing on the C5 Corvette, though they are generally easily cured with a spoiler or wing along with hood vents to help keep the front from getting light at speed.
In Summary: the Dead to Shred Corvette put smiles on peoples faces all day long and shows significant potential out on track. However, it is a platform still being refined with issues to still be dialed out.
Next Steps for the Dead to Shred Corvette
So with a lot of the details sorted and the Dead to Shred Corvette showing plenty of promise, it's time to address the problem every driver noted: the lack of ABS.
It's well documented that the EBCM/ABS units on the C5 Corvette are prone to failure, The odds are not exactly long that you'll need to service yours if you get or own a C5 Corvette, especially if you drive aggressively. So, stay tuned as in our next article we'll cover just what's involved in troubleshooting the EBCM/ABS unit on the C5 Corvette along with share our interview with the folks over at ABSFixer about what goes into making these units more reliable!
