97 test car

[Matt L.]

i was reading the pilot car question just now. i haven't seen that post before and it got my brain remembering when i worked at a used car lot when the 97s first came out. i remember a white coupe we had that looked like it was rode hard and put up wet with only a few thousand miles on it. then i understood why when i found a sticker inside the glove box door that read something to the effect of "this vehicle was used in gm's proving grounds". i wish i had money to buy it then because i was thinking it might be worth something one day being the all new body style.
were those cars often sold to the public or did this one slip through?

[Eric J.]

Re: 97 test car

i was reading the pilot car question just now. i haven't seen that post before and it got my brain remembering when i worked at a used car lot when the 97s first came out. i remember a white coupe we had that looked like it was rode hard and put up wet with only a few thousand miles on it. then i understood why when i found a sticker inside the glove box door that read something to the effect of "this vehicle was used in gm's proving grounds". i wish i had money to buy it then because i was thinking it might be worth something one day being the all new body style.
were those cars often sold to the public or did this one slip through?

Matt, They built "Alpha" and "Beta" Prototypes C5s in the development of the C5 an Alpha and a Beta sold at BJ 2009. Currently they are in a collectors hand here in AZ. Not sure if you saw a Beta, they were white, but the Betas had VIN tags ending in EX and were not certified for road use. Sounds like it may have been an early Pilot production line car. Those were "saleable" cars. the book "All Corvettes are Red" is an interesting read covering those days.

[Matt L.]

Re: 97 test car

this car was plainjain with silver painted wheels. i just remember the rotors and tires being shot. also the body had a couple scuffs on it.

[Tom H.]

Re: 97 test car

Mat ! Those cars were pilot cars that were pretty much production version cars tested over the road by GM. They were used for sales training, magazine and press people, engineering tests, etc. If memory serves me correctly there were about 395 of them out there. They were released to dealers and company auctions after their call of duty. I think the first VIN C5 released to the public was VIN 396. I had at least 15 or 20 of those cars back in the day. Can't remember any real issues with any of them !

Here's a mirror hanger from a 97 in the 300 VIN range.