i have been a mustanger for awhile now, but tomorrow i will be picking up my first corvette. what i would like to know is, how stout is the rear end? will it be fine with streets and snap if i put DRs on? what are the weak points on the C4, and how effective are the basic bolt ons like UDPs, TB, intake, etc? is the frame strong enough to handle a bit more power and racing, or would subframe connectors be needed?

thanks in advance.

 

What model vette?

The stock C5 and C6 rear end can take just about anything the stock engine can disk out. With drag slicks (not drag radials) you might have some concern if you do really aggressive launches even stock.

Modifications beyond about 500 ft lbs (rear wheels) of torque begin to overstress the rear end, particularly if you do hard launches with it. But realize this is about 150+ HP beyond stock so even "heads and cam" cars moded quite a bit should be okay. It seems to handle non-abusive drivers who mod the power and use drag radials on cars that do down into the low 10s (Mine can do 10 flat and has only the upgraded output shafts - no problems in a year of driving, but I'm gentle on the car)

There are upgraded output and gear shaft kits and even upgraded units you can buy (Ecklers has a HD unit in various ratios in its standard catelog).

The only real "flaw" is 6th gear in the M6. in heavily modified cars, high speed runs in 6th gear will "pop" the gears. This sometimes happens if you mod them to 550+ RWHP and do top speed runs. Stock vettes reach top speed (about 175 at the red line) in 5th and can pull only about 140 in 6th (not even 4000 RPM) because of the overdrive ratio in 6th. To wring out a heavily modded car to 200+ you have to go into 6th (if you couldreach the red line in a C5 M6 in 6th it would be about 235-245 up to that RPM - many SC'd cars can reach 200-205 in 6th), but the torque going into 6th to drive it that fast is nearly twice what the gears were designed to handle and they often go in only a few runs.

 

lot of great info there, thanks. i have a 93, light mods on it. just wanted to see what i could expect for the future if i decide to push her. i dont plan or have any desire to see redline in 5th at this point.

 

I understand. My car theoretically has the horsepower to run past 200. I would dearly love to do it and have an over-the shoulder camarea take a picture. But no way. Anything goes wrong, and even if I had a rollcage, I'd be toast.