FE1(base) vs F55(Mag) Suspension

[gobmcdeeusa]

I know everyone is just plain sick of this comparison, and quite frankly, so am I. I am still agonizing over which suspension would be right for me, and the normal test drives that I've been on don't provide enough feedback to make an informed decision. They all seem the same just tootling around town. I am thinking of buying an '07 C6. I do not ever plan to track the car. It will do normal commute/travel time and city driving. I have a Honda Prelude now that I can easily do 65 mph on 270 degree curve like you would find at a cloverleaf or On/Off ramp on the Interstate. The speed limits on these are ususally posted at 45 mph. My expectation is that even the base suspension of the Corvette would be able to do at least 75-80 mph under these same conditions. I already know there would be some advantges to the F55 suspension in this situation, but would the standard suspension be able to handle it or would the Sport setting of F55 be required? Thanks to all for bearing to go through this ONE MORE TIME.

 

[Tuna]

I've got just over 1000 miles on my F55 '06 now and it's okay with me. I don't plan on racing the car much either - an open road run once a year and a couple of autocrosses.

I suspect that the average driver will not be able to tell much difference on a freeway offramp between a base car and an F55 car in Sport. If you have a lot experience at high performance driving and want to hit 99% of your and the car's ability in these cases, you ought to buy a Z51 or Z06 car. Otherwise, you might want to save the money and stick with a base car.

The programming between Tour and Sport on the '06 is not as dramatic as it is on our '03 AE with F55 - I sorta wish there was more of a difference but there is a difference.

The biggest benefit of F55, to me, is that it allows you to 'tune' the ride to fit the road and your desires while you're driving. Some of the 'washboard' roads I drive on feel a lot better in Tour than they do in Sport while Sport is better on other roads. My wife generally uses Tour mode while I generally use Sport more (with the auto also).

 

[OrangeFlash]

It depends on the road surfaces you have to drive on and also your pocketbook. If you do not have to deal with many rough or uneven roads, base should be fine. If you have rough or uneven roads to deal with, you should be very happy with F55.

What F55 does is twofold: it irons our rough, wavey road surfaces and does a better job of keeping the body going straight and level which makes for a nicer ride and secondly it achieves this by keeping the tires in better contact with the road in all conditions which is what handling and lateral G capability is all about. A good example of where it is noticable is a curving Interstate offramp on which each concrete pad is on a different plane than the adjacent one. It really smooths that kind of situation. Same with uneven frost heave waves etc in asphalt. It adjusts the shock damping rate 100 times per second. The computer algorithms are looking at the sensor feedback, steering angle, G reading etc and then calculates every 1/100 second, what damping is needed. It can vary it as needed from totally limp to incredibly stiff depending on what is needed. It allows all four suspensions to deal best with what each one is on at that particular instant. I have read posts, but have not seen the article myself, that one of the auto magazines put the sticky Z51 tires on an F55 car and it ended up generating more lateral Gs than the Z51 suspension. For some reason, the magazines all chose Z51 for their road tests and to the best of my knowledge none of them have ever done a complete comparision of a Z51 car against an F55 car equipped with the sticky Z51 tires. It would be very interesting to know how overall lap times on a complicated road course would compare. My guess is that they would be very close if the F55 is set in sport. I leave my F55 in Tour for most driving since it makes such a nice ride but I always put it in sport when horsing around in curves. It does a good job of minimizing body roll as well as keeping the tires in contact with the road. I think it is a very nice option to have. This Corvette Action Center post explains it all in detail:

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/kb/question.php?qstId=503

Right now it may not download since the servers are being worked on, but when they have the servers working read the article. It will help you decide.

 

[Duntov7]

I like the Magnetic Ride very much, but the subject is somewhat subjective, much like color preference.

However, IMHO, the F55 ride does make rough thruways a lot smoother, and on our 4,600 mile road tour to Salt Lake City, and up mountains and Pike's Peak, the ride was overall quite pleasant. And, on those winding "backroads", the 'sport' setting made the supension stick like my Z06. Good engineering, but maybe, like most things, not for everyone.