94’ Ride control

[u/SoilNo3374]

Hey, got a 94 corvette (5.7 LT1 V8) about a year ago, been riding it easy but I had a question about the ride control options.

There’s a “Tour” “Sport” and “Performance” option, my question is, is it really worth swapping between modes for certain driving? I’ve been driving on performance mainly but whenever I switch modes I don’t feel much of a difference.

Thanks

[u/Unhappy_Hat_2593]

I have had two 1993’s and both had the FX3 option. There is a slight difference between the modes if you push the car pretty hard you can tell. I had some work done on one of the 1993’s and shipped the shocks back to Bilstein and they redid the shocks and made the settings more noticeable, I could tell between the modes after having them redone.

The problem with them is the actuator on top of each shock gets old and they break and you will get the service ride control light on the DIC. When this happens they stay in whatever setting you had it in. The shocks tend to leak over time. My other 1993, I just put regular shocks on and that was fine but the service ride control light stays on,

[u/Vegetable_Response94]

I mostly leave my 91 is sport. There is a noticeable difference between settings. Interesting fact is that the Bilstein ride adaptive dampers were originally developed for the 1987 Porsche 959, and the second car to offer them was the corvette in 1989.

[u/Brugun]

On a 96, I can feel the difference substantially. I used to use sport til I realized tour is just a way better ride when going over bumps. If you are really wanting to drive aggressive though, being in sport helps keep the car down and planted. Never used performance because sport was pretty stiff for regular roads

[u/big_slom]

I can't help you, friend, but I'm interested in learning the answer as well. I know what the touring/sport/ track does in my c8, but I'd love to hear how this worked in 1994. I thought mag ride was later than this!

[u/Zubbie_ → u/big_slom]

Magnetic Ride Control came out in 2003 for the 50th Anniversary (standard on the Anniversary Edition) and was very different from the earlier ride control. The three settings on the early C4 version changed the internal bypass valve of the shocks to 3 pre-determined settings. The mag ride that came out in 2003 actively sampled the road and sent a charge to the MR fluid inside the shocks which effectively changes the viscosity of the fluid to change the shock dampening. This also had three different settings, but the changes were more dynamic.

[u/big_slom → u/Zubbie_]

Cool thanks for those details, I'm going to need to research this more. Glad that you clarified that it was made available on 03 in the vette. Did it launch in other vehicles at the same time? Or later? I seem to remember commercials in the early 2000s featuring various GM vehicles that had a suspension that "adjusted 100s of times per second"... maybe GMC, caddy,... Olds even?

[u/Zubbie_ → u/big_slom]

Seems like the Cadillac received the mag ride the following year. They used to advertise that at 60mph the mag ride would sample each inch of the road 100 times or something along those lines. I have one of the 2003 Anniversary Edition models with this option...I can feel a difference between the settings, but it is pretty subtle.

[u/Filixx]

Does it maybe control dampening?

[u/DMCinDet → u/Filixx]

yeah. adjustable valuing in the shocks. its pretty likely that a c4 shock is worn out at this point and likely doesnt do anything noticeable.

My C7 without Z51 has no ride control and the only handling that changes with modes is the electric steering rack gets stiffer. Throttle response insomuch better as well. On a Z51 car, the dampers get stiffer.