Parting out perfectly good cars

[Patrick H.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

Whatever floats your boat.

A warranty.

[Frank M.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

You would think someone woul buy it.

[Stewart A.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

What is it about C4s that causes these types of reactions? I never hear people with such reactions to either the C1, C2, or C3 generations. It's almost as thought if you have those opinions you keep quiet and respectful with the those owners. But C4s - go ahead and let loose - because they're just a bunch of bland no personality cars anyway, right? Except:

- Unlike the prior two generations of Corvettes, the C4 was actually a consistently successful racing platform. In fact the whole Challenge Car program was because the mid 80s Corvettes were too quick for any of the other marques and were banned from competing.
- The 90 ZR-1 set a world record for 24 hours and 5000 miles with an average speed of about 175 miles per hour with a COMPLETELY STOCK ENGINE. I would be hard pressed to believe that even the new ZR1 could match those speeds over 24 hours without blowing up. The new ZR1 in internal testing has performed at WOT for 24 hours too, but the LT5 has been tested at WOT for a straight 7 days!
- There is no better looking Corvette engine than the LT5 - bar none. Even my 67 435 L71 doesn't have the same awe factor when the hood opens up. For that matter, there is no smoother Corvette engine at any RPM (thanks to the DOHC design).
- The C4 generation , unlike the prior generation, is a story of consistently increasing performance. From the '84 with the 205HP L83 to the '95 405HP (actually higher with the Dunn heads), there was unceasing engine performance improvement over the generation. The last of the Gen I small blocks, the LT4 was a better (straight line) performer and had higher horsepower than the vaunted '71 LS6, the last solid lifter big block. And had the decision to go with the LS series of engines NOT been made, Lotus had a 475HP LT5 ready for production in 1995. How many years did it then take to achieve that kind of power (in a significantly larger displacement engine no less)?
- The ZR-1 was the first magazine tested road Corvette to reach under 13 seconds in the quarter since the 66/67 Corvettes. Even the tested L88s as delivered were never that fast (Yes I know it's because of the severely restricted exhausts).
- The C4 Corvettes were the first generation to have reputation for world class handling - since improved with every generation.
- And as a throw out comment (because this is where many seem to like to criticize the C4), the general consensus at GM styling about the most and least successfully styled Corvettes does NOT have the C4 at the bottom of the list.

So why is the C4 so generally and publicly maligned?

C4's unfortunately are sitting in the time frame of not a classic and not new. There is nothing wrong with a C4 and a good clean C4 will have the public turning there head as fast as a C1 - C3. The car is miles ahead in road performance and your grandmother can drive a C4 fast at any track day. The shape is better than it's predecessor as well. It's just the wrong time for a C4 give it 15 more years and watch how treasured that model will become. The only grip I have with the C4 was it lacks the raw feel of the older stuff. GM refined the car so well it lost part of it's personality. But you get a much better car for your dollar. Just give it a few more years ! Stewy

[Wayne B.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

For the most part the later C4's seemed fine, they must have been referring to the 1984

I had an 84 and put over 250,000 miles on it and it felt like, well, like I drove two million miles in a buckboard wagon. That thing would jar your teeth driving over shadows. Low power and sorry ride but later year c4's I was in seemed a world apart from the 84.

It's hard to compare one generation to the next, they are each their own flavor. It's like trying to compare cities to each other, or ice cream flavors...just enjoy what each has to offer....uh, except for an 84

[Stewart A.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

A popular handling package was a Z51 option that really was meant for track use only. Most people saw it as a performance option and bought a car that felt like a chariot. Your car must of had this option the 84's I have driven were firm but not that harsh. I had the opportunity to drive the Z51 package and it was just plain silly on the road. Yes my teeth were chattering !!!! Stewy

[Wayne B.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

My 84 was harsh for sure. That was the first time I bought the first year of a model...not my best move. That was a major change year and I guess it takes awhile to get the bugs and engineering goofs out that only a lot of owner driven "test" miles provides GM. You could see a lot of improvements after that year. One thing I kept hearing was how bad the crossfire fuel injection was but mine never failed and worked fine but just the same it disappeared the next year and the ride got a lot better each year after.

I drove it every day as my primary car and, being in sales, it saw a lot of very easy highway miles, easy on the car, my back was another story. I bought it with 70k on it for a fire sale price and sold it withh 322k on it. I did rebuild the engine (at 195k, timing chain went on the freeway), the transmission (at 165k, my fault, didn't check the fluid before a trip), the rear end (at 225k, gross overkill but if you fix one thing in there fix it all), then of course the ubiquitous electronic gauge cluster replacement (that was really built poorly), so I got my money's worth...I think

[William C.]

Re: Parting out perfectly good cars

Amen! The C-4 is a very worthy part of the Corvette Heritage. I much prefer a C-4 to a C-3 from 73-up, better handling, more power (other than '84) and I fit in the cars better, much more comfortable to drive a long distance than a C-3, but I'm predjudiced, owned couple of 68's, a '72, '74, and drove a company car '81 before I went on a pre-release drive of six early build c-4's in '83, spent a week running on the back roads of northern michigan and the cars were such an improvement over the '81 that I came back and immediately ordered a new '84 and never looked back! I had some magazines covering the release of the '84 and even in Europe they were immediately recognized as a world-class automobile.