I have a stock suspension on my 103,000 mile 96 z28 and i want to make it handle as best i can without making it ride like crap. I can handle some stiffness i just dont want it to feel like im constantly driving over a speed bump. I know i need to upgrade my stock wheels or at least the tires. Also, for handling is it better to use stock 16" wheels with real good tires or bigger wheels?

Major handling ????????

You say major but there are questions to ask...
How much do you have to spend??????
Drag strip or cross country????
Just new rubbers/shocks/springs or going with LCAs, SFCs, Panrod????

As for wheels, everyone has their opinions.... Might search in the Wheel/Tire section...

koni SA shocks, they worked wonders for my car. I put them on with similar miles and they make the car handle great, ride smoother and handle bumps much better. As for the 16's, yes bigger rims and tires will help out lots too. There are many advantages to some 17's on 275's over the stock rim/rubber.

Handling - Biggest bang for buck improvment: Swaybars
Hands down.

I agree.

Swaybars give you more handling without the cost of a new springs, or shocks. Just switching to a 32mm front was a noticeable improvement.

IMO

#1 - Tires - although they're a tradeoff... sticky means short life
#2 - Full Rod end suspension rebuild - Expensive but worth every penny
#3 - Springs/Shocks
#4 - Front Swaybar
#5 - Torque Arm - Something trick like the Unbalanced Engineering Decoupled piece... I have not done this one yet but suspect it will fall here
#6 - Subframes
#7 - Rear Swaybar - for tweaking, stay close to stock size
#8 - Shock Tower Brace - eye candy is about all it does

Shocks are always first, they are the biggest issue with the car. Next and acutally #1 in terms of the change for $$$ spent, the swaybars (assuming you use the right ones).

Those are always the two biggest, and frankly some great shocks and good bars (I'd use mine, but I'm biased) would be *all* I'd want or need on a fun toy kind of car, personally. Capable of handling well beyond the limits or any even partially sane street driving. Racing, or personal wants might dictate more parts later....

ok, everyone is saying shocks is the #1 Helper, any input on what shocks are worth their price?

i dont have a lot of money, I am actually trying to decide what the best move to make will be as i will probably install at least one of the upgrades in my fall suspension class at the college im at. So far from your advise I am debating hard between shocks and sway bars depending on what is the most affordable for me when fall rolls around, I know tires are currently a limiting factor as they are cheapo sumitomo all season kinda sporty tires that the previous owner threw on their to be able to sell it. he didnt even use 245's he used 235's which suck. I guess I dont know what the panhard bar does or the torque arm really and i have no idea why those would make handling different either so if someone could enlighten me about those that would be awesome. Thanks a lot for the help and keep it comin

I think Swaybar is cheaper than shocks. IMO the CHEAPEST shocks you should buy are Bilsteins... and they're what... $350 or so? Swaybar is under $200 for the front.

The shocks will do do much more than a front sway bar. Especially since the front sway bar is going to do nothing for the rear of the car. He's got a 103k on it, the new shocks would control the sloppy ride.

If it's going to be a good handling street car that has close to stock manners I would get revalved bilsteins, lowering springs, and some sway bars (front and rear) from strano. Some tires and wheels will round it out. Don't go bigger than 17s as it tends to hurt performance mostly in relation to the solid rear. The wider the better. Most people are happy to stop here.
If it's going to be a car you use for open road racing/road racing/hpde days and occaisonally on the street go to http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/ do a few searches (set the search time to "from the begining") and read for a couple days, then start asking more questions.

increasing wheel size will help for some things but the sidewall acts like a shock and absorbs bigger bumps...i'd stick with the stockers and get some firehawks if they're still around where you are. sears had 3 here in a 16" size for about 100 each.

i'd personally go with shocks first because they've got 103k miles on them...they're dead. but if i were in college and was doing this in the parking lot, i'd go with the bars because you can do this with no lift, not many tools...and it'll only take about 30 minutes if you know what you're doing. shocks are pretty complicated in a parking lot...and you have to pay for an alignment with it...something to think about too.

for the LCA/PHR setup...i'd at least go with one end being rods, the chassis ends being bushings. this will cut down on the noise and the chatter since it's a daily driver...there are plenty of threads on where and what to get, but if you need it email me and i'll put together pages/PN's needed for ya.

panhard rod centers the rear on the car...after using lowering springs the axle usually kicks out towards the driver's side, setting the rear off-center of the car. adjustable PHR off-sets the lowering springs realigning the rear.
torque arm sets pinion angle on the differential to zero. for serious racers adjusting this will net about .3 seconds in the quarter at best...and traction is increased. the stock unit flexes if you hit it hard and allows for "wheel hop" or chirping the tires. wheel hop is bad for launch. you wont need either of these until you get some power or lower your car.

You need an alignment after changing the shocks? Is this true? I'm questioning this, because I thought that you only needed an alignment if you were changing your ride height. Thanks in advance for the info.