40th Anniversary Ride Control Option

[WLS Ruby 93]

I have owned my 93 Ruby for about three months and it has the Ride Contol Option. My question is; what change in ride dynamics should I be feeling when the RC is engaged from Tour to Sport to Performance? I have tried to detect a ride difference among the three settings but have not been able to feel any difference.
I assume the system is opertional since the RC light illuminates upon start-up and then goes out. If there was a problem the light would be on all the time.
BTW this car is rapidly make me a staunch Corvette fan, I should have bought one years ago, but hey, it's never to late to have fun.

Keep 'em rollin':W
Bill

 

[kenmack]

FIRST TIME

I have 93 Ruby with RC as well,and I don't think you will notice any pronounced difference until you for instance push the car hard into a tight corner with perf and then with touring.The only other time may be on some rough bumpy pavement with perf then touring,I'll bet you don't notice the bumps so much with touring.
This ride control I believe is electronically adjusted shock absorbing.
Anybody else know any more.????

 

[9340Ruby]

It is actually a mechanically controlled system that cranks the shock tighter when sport and performance is selected or loosens it when you select a softer setting such as the touring. I believe the electronically controlled did not come in to production until the C5. I can tell the difference on my Ruby when I am on bumpy roads and switch selections. You just have to play with it.....isn't that what we have these for anyway?

 

[Hib Halverson]

First....if Selective Ride Control (SRC) is working properly, you can easily feel the difference in the modes if you drive on a concrete expressway, freeway or highway which has slab joints. Get going anywhere from 50-70 mph and as you drive along and the "choppyness" of the slab joints moves the suspension, change the settings with the SRC control switch. As you move from tour to sport to performance and back, you feel a change in the harshness of the ride.

Second...it is NOT a "mechanically controlled" system. It is electronically-controlled. The SRC computer sets the valving of the electrically-operated shocks according to vehicle speed.

 

[pkincy]

It is a computer chip. But the stiffening action is also speed dependent so you will see much less difference at low speeds than you will at high speeds.

You can buy chips that lessen the dependence on the absolute speed as a prerequisite for full stiffness.

You can find the electronics behind the drivers seat in one of the access panels in the package tray.

I use Rippe's chip that sets the front to full stiff in both tour and sport and the rear to 80% in tour and 100% in sport. Or is it the reverse? Whatever.

My shocks are also revalved as stiff as possible by Bilstein. Bilstein is unable to revalve the shocks to give as much stiffness as a non adjustable shock but can get close. I had the non adjustable Bilstein's with the Atlanta valving in my 94 Z07 with the FX3 disconnected and wanted to get as close as possible to that same result in my FX3 equipped 93.

One caveat, I am running coilovers (about 330 lb/inches in the rear and quite a bit stiffer than that in the front) so don't be playing too much with shock valving unless it is also matched to the spring rate or funny things can happen.

If you do some googling you probably can find the table (I think Hib put it together) that lists all the monoleaf spring rates of the C4 by year and suspension option. Although I loved my 94 Z07 spring rates (very stiff for a monoleaf) the coil overs make this a different car.

Perry

 

[Hib Halverson]

If a car with SRC has an OE controller, you cannot change the "chip" because it's soldered onto the circuit board.

If you want to be able to use different chips (they all come from Bilstein. Doug Rippie gets them from Bilstein), you must replace the production SRC controller with the Bilstein "Motorsports Controller" which uses "plug-in" EPROMS.

Unless you are a hardcore autocrosser or a road racer, ignore what "pkincy" says about how to valve the shocks and spring rates.

For street us or occasional track use, have the shocks overhauled by Bilstein and revalved with "Moracca" valving. Us the stock controller with the shocks having that valving. Shocks valved that way will work quite well with production spring rates.

 

[Jack Cooper 350]

FX-3

As stated above, the changes are speed related - a good place to see a technical summary of the system is Richard Newton's book '101 Projects for your Corvette 1984-96' (Project 58/Page 145-147).
My 1992 LT1 has the 'soft-ride' option plus FX-3, and I use it extensively, and can feel a difference: mooning around the back roads (which are usually anything but smooth) I leave it in 'touring'. When I hit the 'motorways' (similar to your interstates but much more crowded) I find 'sport' is Ok, altho' you can never achieve much more than 80mph in safety. The ride feels slightly more firm, the car more 'planted'.
In Europe - where you get wide-open Autoroutes, often with very little traffic - I find the 'performance' setting really firms the car up: the 'float' disappears completely and the Corvette feels much more like a sports car.
The changes are subtle, rather than dramatic, but - yes - there is certainly a difference. I would imagine that for track use, FX-3 isn't much good, even in 'perf' setting - you would need uprated springs and proper (read: expensive) race-spec shox.

J.C.

 

[vett boy]

. My question is; what change in ride dynamics should I be feeling when the RC is engaged from Tour to Sport to Performance? I have tried to detect a ride difference among the three settings but have not been able to feel any difference.


Keep 'em rollin':W
Bill

I have an 08 with Magnetic ride and like yourself I don't feel a thing.You hint in your post that your a little older ,that might be the problem we both have.It's my though that we both need to take up road racing.
Good luck,Steve

 

[WLS Ruby 93]

I have an 08 with Magnetic ride and like yourself I don't feel a thing.You hint in your post that your a little older ,that might be the problem we both have.It's my though that we both need to take up road racing.
Good luck,Steve

Steve,

About 6 weeks ago I traded my 93 for a 98 with the ride dynamics being much more to my taste in the 98 and it doesn't have the magnetic ride control. I guess to feel the difference in the 93 ride option you have to be doing speeds not advisible on the highways. The 98 is a whole different vehicle and better formulated to my taste, although it did make me a little sad to give up "Ruby" but it was a matter of economics.

Keep 'em rollin':W
Bill

 

[vett boy]

Maybe we can hook up next Fall on the dragon .Thats not that far for ya and it's on my way to Florida .Usually happens late Oct.

 

[Tuna]

I have an 08 with Magnetic ride and like yourself I don't feel a thing.You hint in your post that your a little older ,that might be the problem we both have.It's my though that we both need to take up road racing.
Good luck,Steve

Magnetic ride in the C6 will appear to be less different in normal driving on decent roads. You will feel the difference on concrete slab freeways like Hib pointed out earlier on the C4 question. You will also notice the different in a hurry on the autocross course or on a track time run at a road course. Both my C6's are MagRide and that's the way I see it.

The first MagRide car was the 2003 AE and a few others that year. In 2003, the difference between Tour and Sport were much more dramatic with the Tour mode being much softer and floaty (?).

A little trivia here, the C4 first Selective Ride Control was the FX3 system discussed here which has electronically activated control of the valving in the shocks. The settings were Tour Sport and Performance and generally were speed sensitive where the shock stiffness went up as speed went up with Tour starting at a softer setting and getting medium stiff by 90 MPH or so. Performance started at a much stiffer setting than Tour and reached maximum stiffness at 90 MPH. Sport setting is somewhere in the middle. FX3 was optional with the standard 'soft' suspension (my ex '92 was that way). If you ordered ZO7, you got FX3 and the bigger springs and bars. The ZR1 came with FX3.

In 1996, FX3 was replaced by F45 which had shock setting but F45 was more geared to ride improvement for the daily driver and not for performance. The "hot" suspension for handling in 1996 was Z51 with stiff springs, bars and shocks - non-adjustable. F45 continued into the C5 up to 2002. In 2003, Magnetic Selective Ride Control (F55) was introduced. Since then MagRide has been the only adjustable shock system but it is not available with Z51 or ZO6, so you might not consider it a performance shock system until you look at the ZR1 which comes with MagRide. Ditto the CTS-V.

I've had a 1992 with FX3 that I modified with the Bilstien controller that used interchangable chips for drag racing and autocross and stock. I had a set of shocks rebuilt to "Moracca" valving - great for road racing and autocross but a real ***** on the street. My next adjustable shock car was a 2003 AE. Remarkable to say the least. Both my C6's are MagRide, I prefer them that way.

Now for the original question - the 93 in question probably passes all the start-up self tests in that the shock pass the time out requirements for moving between max soft and max stiff in the time required and they adjust according to schedule but the shocks are like worn out internally if they have never been serviced or replaced. If that is the case, it's time to replace them or have them rebuilt. Unless you plan to race the car, the stock valving should work nicely.

 

[Topless_Ruby]

Now for the original question - the 93 in question probably passes all the start-up self tests in that the shock pass the time out requirements for moving between max soft and max stiff in the time required and they adjust according to schedule but the shocks are like worn out internally if they have never been serviced or replaced. If that is the case, it's time to replace them or have them rebuilt. Unless you plan to race the car, the stock valving should work nicely.

How often do the shocks heed to be rebuilt? My 93 has 60M and the ride "seems" fine. But the only thing I have to compare it to is my truck, which is really no comparison, and leaves my judgement a little clouded. :W

 

[Tuna]

How often do the shocks heed to be rebuilt? My 93 has 60M and the ride "seems" fine. But the only thing I have to compare it to is my truck, which is really no comparison, and leaves my judgement a little clouded. :W

I'm not sure age is that much of a factor but miles sure is. I replaced my first set of FX3 shocks when they had just under 100K miles and it made a difference. New shocks really improved the ride. As shocks degrade over time and mileage, it's very hard to notice the difference because it happens so slowly.

A leaking shock would be obvious but internal wear is so hard to feel unless you have access to a shock testing bench and know what the original specs are.

I sent the old shocks to Bilstien for Moracca valving and a rebuild. Let me tell you, the Moracca valving really made them stiff. More than I wanted for a car that I drove every day.