[Flying24]

I'm switching from the Corvette Z06 world for the last 10 years
Just got a 2021 ZL1 1LE and I'm looking it over while I'm breaking it in. Has anyone had any problems with any of the suspension components. I know it's built for the track already, but looking at the rear trailing arms they look like they're flimsy.
Also is everyone setting up there alignments per the Camaro High performance manual for the track?
OEM brake pads, are they track worthy.
New guy appreciates any guidance

[BMR Tech]

Originally Posted by Flying24

I'm switching from the Corvette Z06 world for the last 10 years
Just got a 2021 ZL1 1LE and I'm looking it over while I'm breaking it in. Has anyone had any problems with any of the suspension components. I know it's built for the track already, but looking at the rear trailing arms they look like they're flimsy.
Also is everyone setting up there alignments per the Camaro High performance manual for the track?
OEM brake pads, are they track worthy.
New guy appreciates any guidance

The upper trailing arms, upper control arms and the lower trailing arms are all stamped steel. The tow rods are stronger, but we have seen cars damage the cam bolt locating tabs for the toe setting.

[rotis]

I don't know of anyone who has broken rear trailing arms. Certainly not something that's going to happen with a stock car. OEM pads are OK depending on the track. The stock brake fluid is not, and should be replaced with a high temp dot 4.

Pretty much do what it says in the track prep guide, and the car will be fine.

[20Bluezl1]

If you want to replace any suspension components look into SPL they make amazing products. Couple of guys including myself have switched over to SPL.

[Bumbleboy92]

Originally Posted by BMR Tech

The upper trailing arms, upper control arms and the lower trailing arms are all stamped steel. The tow rods are stronger, but we have seen cars damage the cam bolt locating tabs for the toe setting.

I’m one of those guys lol, car smacked front left then rear left wheel hit concrete median. Had to get new bolts and toe arm for the side since the bolt was stuck in the arm. Also had to get a shop to weld new tabs

Originally Posted by 20Bluezl1

If you want to replace any suspension components look into SPL they make amazing products. Couple of guys including myself have switched over to SPL.

SPL looks very nice but that price kills me lol. I got a BMR lower arm and Meganracing toe arm, for my case of daily driving I feel like the metal/metal would get to me

[Msquared]

The stock parts are plenty strong enough. They only have to react loads in tension and compression. Their stiffness in bending doesn't matter at all, and you want them to be flimsy in torsion since they use axial bearings but need degrees of freedom in other axes as well. If they were uber-stiff in torsion they would add undesirable bind.

There are good reasons for some people to switch to aftermarket suspension links, but strength isn't one of them. I mean, nobody really thinks GM would release a car with suspension links that are too weak to hold up to severe use, right? Mainly you'd do it to remove the impreciseness of the factory rubber axial bushings and replace them with spherical bearings, and to get a stronger type of adjustment than the factory eccentrics and a wider range of adjustment.

[Evansa22]

Originally Posted by Msquared

The stock parts are plenty strong enough. They only have to react loads in tension and compression. Their stiffness in bending doesn't matter at all, and you want them to be flimsy in torsion since they use axial bearings but need degrees of freedom in other axes as well. If they were uber-stiff in torsion they would add undesirable bind.

There are good reasons for some people to switch to aftermarket suspension links, but strength isn't one of them. I mean, nobody really thinks GM would release a car with suspension links that are too weak to hold up to severe use, right? Mainly you'd do it to remove the impreciseness of the factory rubber axial bushings and replace them with spherical bearings, and to get a stronger type of adjustment than the factory eccentrics and a wider range of adjustment.

Very much agree with your last statement, main reason to add would be add adjustability as well as change the way the rear toe rods are adjusted. Personally added the toe rods because one of my cam washer tabs was bent and alignment would slip relatively easy. Removing the bushings and adding spherical heims helps remove deflection and keeps the car consistent through the turns or is my understanding.

Also front castor was 6.4 on the left and 7.4 on the right stock. Added the front tension rods specifically to address this. Other than those two things, stock suspension does very well

[Yippee38]

Originally Posted by Msquared

The stock parts are plenty strong enough.

I obviously disagree.

I drove to work on Tuesday, drove home on Thursday and the car was fine. I drove the car to work yesterday and I was getting a violent right-left-right shift in the rear end under hard acceleration and going over bumps. I got it up on jackstands today, and found this on the right rear. That's the lower trailing link. BTW, this is a 2018 2SS 1LE. Never tracked. Never drag raced. Only driven on the road....hard.

[Alpha1BC]

Originally Posted by Yippee38

I obviously disagree.

I drove to work on Tuesday, drove home on Thursday and the car was fine. I drove the car to work yesterday and I was getting a violent right-left-right shift in the rear end under hard acceleration and going over bumps. I got it up on jackstands today, and found this on the right rear. That's the lower trailing link. BTW, this is a 2018 2SS 1LE. Never tracked. Never drag raced. Only driven on the road....hard.

What happened? Seems like you hit something in a way it shouldn't have been hit? I've seen these cars take an absolute thrashing on the track and street (potholes included) and the only time I've ever seen a failure like this is when the links get loaded in the wrong direction by something like hitting a curb sideways or poor trailer strapping or some other unnatural/unintended way.

As for OPs question, there's nothing special that needs to be done to run these cars reliably on the track. Suspension parts and brakes are plenty fine and the recommended track alignment is a pretty solid starting point that you can tweak after driving a bit if needed. All you need to do is flush brakes to a good DOT4 fluid, proper engine oil, and trans/diff fluid changes per the owners manual and high performance supplement. There's also a track setup guide that you can google that will tell you all the different adjustments you can make to fine-tune the handling on the track.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by Yippee38

I obviously disagree.

I drove to work on Tuesday, drove home on Thursday and the car was fine. I drove the car to work yesterday and I was getting a violent right-left-right shift in the rear end under hard acceleration and going over bumps. I got it up on jackstands today, and found this on the right rear. That's the lower trailing link. BTW, this is a 2018 2SS 1LE. Never tracked. Never drag raced. Only driven on the road....hard.

Someone cut at least one side of that. Look how straight and smooth the rusted side is. And the rust indicates it's been like that for a while. It looks to me like it was cut on that side a while ago and then finally fatigued its way through the other side.

[Yippee38]

Originally Posted by Msquared

Someone cut at least one side of that. Look how straight and smooth the rusted side is. And the rust indicates it's been like that for a while. It looks to me like it was cut on that side a while ago and then finally fatigued its way through the other side.

I sure as hell hope that's not the case. Who the hell did I piss off enough to do that? Besides, if somebody wanted to mess with my car, there are more drastic ways to do that.

That was my first through too though. It looks like it was cut. The fact that part of it is rusted, but part is not, indicates to me that it's been tearing for a while now. It took one good bump, or hard acceleration to tear it the rest of the way.

[Yippee38]

Originally Posted by Alpha1BC

What happened? Seems like you hit something in a way it shouldn't have been hit? I've seen these cars take an absolute thrashing on the track and street (potholes included) and the only time I've ever seen a failure like this is when the links get loaded in the wrong direction by something like hitting a curb sideways or poor trailer strapping or some other unnatural/unintended way.

Not a damn thing. I'm the only person who drives this car (aside from a couple of free of charge services at the dealer, which happened a while ago). My wheel is in perfect shape. No damage. I have no idea how this could have happened. I don't do crazy things with the car. Hell, I still have my original Supercar 3's on it with around 45K miles (granted, it's had two winters with winter wheels/tires on it). I get on it once it a while, but not enough to roast the tires.