The ones with the Mercury Marine engines are the collector cars of the bunch.
The best for driving are the original "train-spring" '84s that had ride rates appropriate for a wing'n'venturi car on a street circuit.
The ones with the Mercury Marine engines are the collector cars of the bunch.
The best for driving are the original "train-spring" '84s that had ride rates appropriate for a wing'n'venturi car on a street circuit.
How are the ergonomics on a C4?
scardeal wrote: How are the ergonomics on a C4?
i love mine except sometimes it hurts to climb out.
the 90-96 interior is much nicer
What's one of these worth?
My buddy has a 92 for sale with aluminum heads, headers, megasquirt (opti gone) 6 spd, C5 Z06 brakes and wheels, in good shape.
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I've been thinking about it.
scardeal wrote: How are the ergonomics on a C4?
HOT. There's no foot space for large feet, same as no room for a dead pedal. Wheel and shifter are placed well and hte tilt/telescoping helps find the sweet spot. Pedals, other than being cramped are placed will for heel/toe. Sitting so far back(your butt is up against the rear tire) lets you "hang the tail" out quite easily. You feel the intial slip and can really hold wild and crazy slip angles.
Ingress/Egress is a science. once you figure it out, it's not so bad. Until you do... it sucks. YOu have to climb over to fall in basically. The large door makes small parking spots hard to get out of.
Radio/HVAC in the 84-90 are really.... umm.... 80's Atari-tastic. small buttons, dim lighting and really oddly laid out.
Once in the car, the driving experience is fun. Getting into and out of is antoher story and spending long days in it would not be fun.
How are the ergonomics on a C4?
Vaguely terrible imo.
I resealed the top end of a ~94 lt1/auto a few weeks ago. I was surprised that the seats were not horrible, but that was the only real plus.
I was really disappointed when driving the thing. It had nowhere near the power i was expecting. Felt like a low 15 second car, honestly. I drove a Nissan Armada the other day that would probably stomp it. Drove an lt1/6spd camaro recently that was definitely faster but also not as fast as expected.
I want to like the idea of cheap C4s but the only way im interested is an off-beat motor swap.
Zomby Woof wrote: What's one of these worth? My buddy has a 92 for sale with aluminum heads, headers, megasquirt (opti gone) 6 spd, C5 Z06 brakes and wheels, in good shape.
every Corvette built since 87 has had aluminum heads- but the dirty little secret about the LT1 engines is that the cast iron B body (Caprice, etc) heads flow better and make more power than the Corvette/Camaro aluminum heads but weigh a little more, so having the "aluminum" heads is kind of a liability unless they are the LT4 heads, which are the best heads ever factory installed on a small block..
regarding the desirability question of the OP- i'd say either the later ZR1 or the most stripped down race ready 96 GS you can find..
me, i'd like an 88ish model that had the better rear suspension but still had the 4+1 manual trans just because.. i'd gut it of all electronics and put real gauges in it instead of the blinking and failure prone disco lights, with a 6.0 swapped in place of the craptastic L98. or maybe just a 5.3- either one is a few steps above and beyond the stock engine... the interior would be gutted and anything that doesn't make it faster (AC, radio, things like that) eliminated. but i think an early C4 (84-87) with the "bad" suspension would be an upgrade over anything i've ever owned before and i've seen them as cheap as $1000 in running and driving condition and once almost bought a complete 86 with a blowed up engine for $600. had i owned a car trailer at the time, i would have gotten that one...
The 86 I test drove before I got my 75 flexed worse than my 88 Alfa Spider. Probably just that car (high miles), but the chassis is a bunch of subframes knocked together. The C5 fixed all that with the hydro formed rails.
I still have my Road & Track's Guide to the All New Corvette.
So did the OP mention specifically why a C4? Suppose I should reread the original post!
Just checked the first post again. Is this simply an exercise in collectability, interest in a daily driver, or a request for pure conjecture?
In reply to novaderrik:
It did have cast iron heads, but it did have motor problems with a previous owner, too, so there was probably some swapping going on.
Any idea what a car like this is worth? I shouldn't be thinking about it but I am.
It's important to note that the 6-speeds in these cars is significantly different than the T56, and is more difficult to mount to an LS1. When I was investigating, it was "very difficult" but I think there are now off-the-shelf solutions from quicktime (bellhousing). I had one of these for about a year (freakishly similar to the one Zomby Woof hotlinked). It was an LT1 6-speed car, RA1's and Z06 brakes. It handled and braked incredibly well, but I don't think it had all the power it was built with. I chased ignition problems, and probably should've megasquirted it... I just didn't love it enough to go through the trouble. Fun to drive on smooth roads, but the rattles drove me crazy on the real roads around here. Fantastically fuel efficient on the highway though...
I just saw Zomby Woofs last thread - I think that IS my old car. I bought it from "Zoo" here on the boards. It had an iron head LT1 when I sold it, after going through 2 "pro-rebuilt" motors in about 1000 miles. It didn't have MS when I sold it, and I'd put a new Optispark and wires on it.
scardeal wrote: How are the ergonomics on a C4?
On my '86, it was overall a very comfortable car, even on long trips. There were a few gripes:
njansenv wrote: It's important to note that the 6-speeds in these cars is significantly different than the T56, and is more difficult to mount to an LS1. When I was investigating, it was "very difficult" but I think there are now off-the-shelf solutions from quicktime (bellhousing). I had one of these for about a year (freakishly similar to the one Zomby Woof hotlinked). It was an LT1 6-speed car, RA1's and Z06 brakes. It handled and braked incredibly well, but I don't think it had all the power it was built with. I chased ignition problems, and probably should've megasquirted it... I just didn't love it enough to go through the trouble. Fun to drive on smooth roads, but the rattles drove me crazy on the real roads around here. Fantastically fuel efficient on the highway though... I just saw Zomby Woofs last thread - I think that IS my old car. I bought it from "Zoo" here on the boards. It had an iron head LT1 when I sold it, after going through 2 "pro-rebuilt" motors in about 1000 miles. It didn't have MS when I sold it, and I'd put a new Optispark and wires on it.
That is too funny. The car was from Hamilton (I'm from the hammer, and just SW of you now), so probably yours. A really good friend of mine in Markham bought it. He's had his way with it, and is now building a prerunner truck. Like I said, its the last thing I need, but I'm still thinking about it.
He got 24 MPG on the way to the cottage last week.
An 83 is by far the most collectible.
Well....ZR1 for $27.9k
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rds/cto/3017224750.html
Go get your collectors item?
BoostedBrandon wrote: An 83 is by far the most collectible.
Yeah... Damn hard finding an '83...
Zomby Woof wrote: That is too funny. The car was from Hamilton (I'm from the hammer, and just SW of you now), so probably yours. A really good friend of mine in Markham bought it. He's had his way with it, and is now building a prerunner truck. Like I said, its the last thing I need, but I'm still thinking about it. He got 24 MPG on the way to the cottage last week.
Small world: I hope it was good for him!
Collectibility? Don't forget about the Challenge cars. Lots of really cool stickers that make the car go faster
. Not to mention they came with Dymag wheels.
Someone has already mentioned them, but don't discount the Callaway cars. Many of these cars are "stock" as the RPO B2K shipped the car directly from Bowling Green, KY to Old Lyme, CT. These were pretty serious bruisers back in the day and are nothing to sneeze at today with stock torque ratings from 465 ft. lb. to 562 ft. lbs in later years (1988-1991). The peaky "craptastic" L98 was the reason for these huge torque numbers with its long runners, but my goodness what a ball to drive! Think of the Callaway as today's ZR1 with less processing power than the most basic cell phone.
The 1990-1995 ZR1 has been covered ad nauseum so far, so no need to continue there. Great car and great power. Expensive to fix much like the Callaway.
Most collecible one out there is a Challenge car.
I almost bought a local ZR1 that had 70k miles on it for $14k. The engines are stout and pretty reliable. I wouldn't worry about any unusual failures if I had one.
I had a 1988 4+3 convertible for several years. It was very reliable and autocrossed well. I had cloth seats from a slighty newer Vette, and they were perfect! Felt like a friendly hug every time I got in the car. The trick to getting in and out was to sit on the sill and then swing your feet in/out as needed. That car loafed along at 120mph during the Silverstate Classic as easily as going to the store for bread and milk.
one of my uncles has a 92(?) ZR1 and he thought it was the most badass thing on 4 wheels until he took it to BIR for a class day/track day and had bone stock 5 year old Z06 Vettes killing him on every part of the track.. so he gave it to a local nationally known tuner to bump up the performance a bit- after almost $10k he was still getting beat by those pesky Z06's.. so last fall he sent it to Haibeck in Chicago and got it back this spring with a dyno certified 535hp at the wheels, and wishing he would have just sold it and gotten a Z06. he now wants a ZL1 Camaro, but he'd never be able to sell the Vette for anywhere near what he's got into it to get the money to put towards the Camaro...
regarding parts costs on the LT5 engine- he spent almost $1000 for some vacuum hose conglomeration that operates the butterflies to open up the secondaries at WFO- and that was just for the part.. he had to then find a special extended torx socket to get the intake manifold apart and install it himself..
The ZR1 won't hang with modern iron (fiberglass?). Trying to make it so is an effort in futility. That doesn't make it any less cool. The ZR1 was the first sign in a couple of decades that Chevy wasn't just going to roll over and die. It showed that they still could do cool E36 M3 if they put their mind to it. That is the value of the ZR1. With no ZR1, there would have been no Z06, and possibly no C5 at all.
i told him that before he started modding it, but it's his first fast car (mid life crisis mobile.. bought it just after his divorce was finalaized), so it's got that sentimental value with him.. but he finally realized after dumping $20K+ into a car that's barely worth that much in stock form that he'd be better off with something more modern with a warranty..
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