By Somehow, somewhere, the stars aligned in the development of the 5th generation Camaro and it was blessed with a modern independent rear suspension system. Following hot on the tail of the Corvette and beating out the Mustang by about half a decade, the resurrected Chevy Camaro easily found its way into the hearts and minds of road racers and drag queens alike. It’s not like there wasn’t competition. Ford brought back the Boss 302 nameplate in 2012 as a handling-focused version of the Mustang GT, but it still had a live rear axle, and was prone to oversteer and wheel hop.
Not to be outshone, Chevrolet responded to the Boss 302 with the 1LE package for the Camaro SS as well as the long-awaited return of the Z/28 nameplate. The 1LE is an SS with a strut tower brace, solid front and rear sway bars, wide tires, and a bunch of track-focused styling and quality-of-life upgrades. The Z/28 takes that further, shoehorning a naturally aspirated 7.0L V8 into the engine bay and outfitting it with massive front and rear brakes, and a square 305mm tire setup that gave the Z/28 the largest front tires of any production vehicle. All that is well and good, but what if you have a base model, and want to go faster around corners? Good news! Whether you’ve got an ex-rental car RS or want to make your 2SS a backroad beast, we’ve got some Camaro suspension upgrade ideas for you.
What’s a “suspension” do, anyway?
Your suspension system has a few major jobs. Firstly, it needs to maximize the amount of contact that your wheel makes with the ground. Your tires can’t do their thing if they’re cambered at some ridiculous angle. This is also important offroad: if you don’t have enough travel, you might end up hanging on three wheels, or bottoming out on some rocks! Secondly, suspension needs to provide stability. If you’re cruising on the freeway at 65 miles an hour and hit a bump, you want to feel the bump, but not get bumped off the road out of control! Last, it needs to ensure your comfort. Because if we didn’t want to ride in style, we would still be going everywhere in covered wagons.
Springs
Springs absorb the energy created when your vehicle hits a bump. When you’re driving along the highway or crawling over rocks, the springs in your suspension compress to let the wheels move up into the body without creating body roll or upsetting the balance of the car. Upgraded springs use different tensile strength loads and length to change the way your vehicle rides. Shorter springs let your vehicle sit lower, which increases stability while cornering. Longer springs lift your vehicle up, allowing for more suspension travel and ground clearance. Higher loaded springs will stiffen the ride quality and make your vehicle more responsive, while looser springs will soften bumps better and make things more comfortable at the cost of some body roll.
The factory progressive spring rates are functional and comfortable on the road, but predictability and response can be improved with a good set of lowering springs. Chevrolet recommends parts from Pfadt race engineering, now a division of aFe. The PFADT performance springs are designed to optimize your Camaro’s stock shock damping, and lower the car by a little over an inch. This gives your car an edge in both style and functionality. If you want to go lower, German manufacturers like Vogtland, Bilstein, and H&R make lowering spring kits for the 5th Gen Camaro as well. These can go a little bit lower, and would work better with an aftermarket strut. The Vogtlands are softer, the Bilsteins are stiffer, and the H&R pro kit springs sit right in the middle.
Shock Absorbers
Springs are great at absorbing energy, but bad at dispersing it. Shock absorbers, also called dampers, absorb energy from bumps and convert it to heat. When a shock absorber is compressed, a piston moves down into a tube full of hydraulic fluid, softening the blow from compression and then responding with like rebound (thanks to the magic of vacuums). Shocks determine the amount of travel as well as how the suspension responds to both compression and rebound. Tighter valved shocks will be slower to compress, leading to a firmer ride and flatter cornering. Loose valved shocks will compress faster, making things smoother but a little more wallowy. Upgraded suspension usually offers more travel and different valving, which changes the way your vehicle handles over bumps and uneven surfaces. High end shock absorbers sometimes have remote reservoirs for hydraulic fluid, or trade fluid-filled shocks for gas ones. Both of these systems can end up saving you unsprung weight.
Your Camaro’s stock struts are pretty well built, but for track or high-performance use you’ll still want an upgrade. The rear shocks on non-1LE models are twin-tube as well, so any upgrade to monotube rear struts will increase stiffness and make the rear of the car more predictable. Bilstein makes their B6 series plug-and-play replacement monotube shocks for all four corners of the 5th-gen Camaro. The B6s will tighten up your ride a bit, but if you want adjustability, a full coilover suspension package is a good idea. Coilover sets include a tuneable shock absorber and a matched coil spring, making sure that your suspension setup isn’t fighting itself besides cornering forces. Chevrolet recommends Pfadt’s coilovers, also known as the aFe Featherlights. The Featherlights feature adjustable compression and rebound damping that can be changed with a rotary knob at the bottom of the strut, with 24 different settings at the front and the rear.
Sway Bars and End Links
Sway bars (aka anti-sway bars, anti-roll bars) work as a lateral brace between the left and right side of a car. The front and rear sway bars attach with links to the wheel hubs, and use torsional stiffness to keep the vehicle as close to level over its axles as possible. This allows the outside wheels to force the body and the inside wheels back down towards the ground. Aftermarket sway bars are usually both thicker and lighter than the OEM parts. End links connect your sway bars to the wheel hubs, and are often included with aftermarket sway bars. They can be mounted at different lengths and different points on the end of the sway bar, changing the torsional stiffness of the bar. This allows you to tune yet another aspect of your car’s ride.
The stock sway bars on your Camaro are solid. That’s solid in the physical sense as well as solid in the “they work okay” sense. At a max of 23mm without opting for a performance package, they’re comfortable more than predictable. If you’re looking to go full on track car, aFe and PDAFT have come to the rescue once again. aFe’s Control series sway bar kit includes polyurethane bushings, brackets, and of course 32mm front and rear sway bars. These sway bars are adjustable with 3 different mounting points for the stock end links, giving you effective ride stiffness anywhere from mild to wild.
Man, this is good stuff. Where can I find it?
If you’re looking for suspension upgrades for your Camaro, check out the Motoroso Marketplace! There are tons of high-quality springs, dampers, and chassis reinforcement parts for 5th Gens, as well as any other vehicles you need to set up for the road, track, or dirt. If you’re looking for some help putting things together or need some inspiration, take a look at the Motoroso YouTube channel. There, we’re upgrading tons of install guides, must-have-mod lists, and build showcases to help you figure out exactly what you want to do with your vehicle.
