pdx-vette

I believe the C4 generation was great, as evidenced by the following thread over two years ago:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...vancement.html

I asked C3 owners too & it created a wonderful discussion, so it's a genuine question.
I love the curves of the C3, but I want something that'll have better performance, which draws me to a pre-airbag (personal preference) stock C4.
So I ask you owners of stock C4 Vettes, why do you prefer your vehicle over a C3 or C5?

MavsAK

The clean styling, and the fact that it's not terribly hard to get it over 1G on a skid pad.
The TPI and LT5 are also the two sexiest engines GM, or probably anyone honestly have ever produced.

Of all sins, the C4 has the two easiest to correct, given it's powered by an SBC. Interior (and even that's not all that bad once it's CLEAN), and Horsepower.

It's handling and braking abilities, are still up there with modern performance cars. The C4, is a car well ahead of it's time. It also comes with a great deal of much more modern car features, like the automatic climate control, the mpg displays etc.

I was born in 1985. So for me, there's three generations of Corvette I connect the most with. The C3, the C4, and C5.

The C4 was the first Corvette I ever saw in person, it was also the first Corvette I got to mess with in videogames, and the first one I ever saw in magazines. I love the clean, small proportions of the car. The C4's only aesthetic flaws to me in the early years, is a lack of rear spoiler, (preferably a duck tail/gurney spoiler) and a lack of height in the cowl. I believe the cowl should have been 1.5 to 2" taller than it was from the factory, and a lack of a 3rd or fourth gill on the fender vents.

Performance wise, it's hard to argue with a car that will do 13s out of the box, and pull a full G in the corners with minor massaging. That's a hell of a baseline to start out with. Especially when it's a beautiful car to start with.

I love how raw and visceral the drive is compared to later cars like the C5. I love the rear styling of my 89, especially compared to the C5.

Gran Turismo also helped sell me on the C4. As the C4 was one of the flat out best handling cars in the game, period. It was *the* Corvette in the first game, aside from the 67 which handled like crap.

Honestly if it weren't for GT, I think the C4 and Corvettes in general would have drifted off the radar for me once I got into F bodies (gen 3 and 4).

So in short, the C4 was the Corvette that was current through most of my childhood. The C5 came in the tail end of it. I love the C5, it's a performance monster, and from every angle other than the back it's gorgeous.

The C3, was always the Second Vette to me. As I never saw one until much later in person (I was ten I think when I saw my first C3 in person), and never got to fiddle with one in any video game until later.

The C4 on the other hand..I had everything from magazines featuring the New Car, to hotwheels cars, to posters, to having it all the way back to the NES in videogames.

Greg MFn Z

Well I was about 15 when the C4 launched and have loved it since first sight. Everything about it makes me tingle. It's beautiful from every angle. The interior is my favorite. I love love the digital dash. I remember as a kid I had a dealer brochure that opened up like a centerfold , and was nothing but one big shot of the digital dash, I had every inch of the display memorized. Love looking at it still 30 yrs later in my 85. The beauty of the clamshell, the TPI motor( even tho I have a LS1 swap), the exposed front suspension, and O, let's not forget the rotating headlamp assemblies:-)
The cockpit feel of the interior, the G forces when pushed, the torque of the L98 that no other car could compare to.
Some people presume that us C4 owners only have a C4 because that's all we can afford, sad that is, because they are the ones that will never understand.

Remember these poster of the Gold 84?


Brochure dash shot


My 1985 Z51 LS1 6sp slammed on 19in CCW's

FASTAZU

Let me start by stating I love the C3 was my first Vette and I will always own one.

On to the C4 hated them when they first came out, Than I drove an 84, Completely different outlook after being behind the wheel. Owned a few 84's. Than in 02 I got my first ZR-1 ... Nothing like it before or after.

My 91


My 93


Group Photo

MavsAK

What I never understood about that attitude, is most of us whom don't own a total beater, could have honestly bought a C5, or a good portion of a C6, for what we paid on the C4, counting purchase price, and parts.

It's not hard to rack up 10k in parts on these cars, particularly if you're going with performance parts to replace things that are worn out.

Hell I'm at like 8k in the car, counting the purchase cost and I had a good foundation to build up from. I've got another 4k to go at least I think between the interior, and some more engine mods. (Going to get a dart 400 shortblock kit, maybe some AFR heads and an LT4 Hot Cam kit) And if I'm still not happy with the performance after that I'll just supercharge it and call it done.

And most of us, have other toys. My other car is a 86 Z-28 that's going to be getting a 489 or 496 stroker, gen 5 camaro IRS swapped in, a daytona Z fiberglass hood, tubular control arms etc etc etc.

Performance cars as a hobby isn't cheap.

I personally think the ones that look down on the C4 do it, to make them feel better about how much they overpaid on their ***** compensator.

Jon Hekking

My experiences;

The C3's get the most looks



The C5 is the most comfortable but just blends in



C4' the most fun to drive

pdx-vette

I've previously read similar observations:
While the C5 is more refined, it was at the cost of some of the fun factor. The very roughness of the C4, is what makes it a blast to drive.

murraybob

The C4 is just flat out fun to drive. It's hard to put my finger on why, but probably it's the go-kart feel, and the feeling that I can take a corner at any speed. Highway driving is smooth as silk. Throw in a decent amount of power when the weather conditions are conducive, and it's a blast. On some days the car becomes a true beast. Love it! C5s and later don't have the same feel, but they do have great power. C3s look great but they are not a great car, either in handling or power.

Gooseit

I had an 81 model before I bought (sweet-thing)the 95 model. I like the way you seat down in the C-4, more like a cockpit. I think the body is timeless. I never have liked the C-5 looks. I do like the c-6 and 7. I even considered getting a C-6 a few weeks ago but (sweet-thing) is almost like showroom new even with 95,000 miles. I just sat in the garage looking at her and decided I just can not sell her. I have done all the work on her my self, we have taken vacations in her very year, even one out west that put 2400 miles on her in nine days. My 8 year old granddaughter loves riding in her and tells everybody it is going to be hers when she grows up. She has become part of the family.

Goose

HAD2HAV2

I totally agree.
Owning a future rare C4 (don't laugh) 1988 35th Anniversary is a scream.

TractionControlOff

I answered that question for myself today. I had both of my toys out around the stunning back roads north of NYC. Both are mid-90s sports cars with ~ 300 HP and both can be enjoyed on roads without landing you in jail for ludicrous speeds. You can really have a lot of fun with sports cars from this era without having to push them.

The C4 is modern enough, yet it doesn't have too many modern electronics that (in my opinion) often take away from the pure driving experience found in many newer cars. For all of its flaws, it's a great, fun car.

pdx-vette

I think your "pure driving experience" description nails it. I feel that sometime in the '90s, a trend began in sports cars towards horsepower & track driving, leaving behind the real road driving adventure.

shootnstarz

To be completely honest I didn't know jack about Corvettes when I bought my 89. I had spent most of last summer looking for an IROC Z28. I made 4 road trips with cash in pocket to buy one but only found misrepresented junk, including a FAKE 1990 Trans Am GTA. Thank goodness I studied up on GTAs the night before.

A friend that's own a bunch of Corvettes kept trying to convince me that I really wanted one instead of the Camaro and when my 89 popped up on CL, just across the bay, I went over and bought it.

Now, I've only owned and driven Ford F-150s for the last 31 years, hadn't owned a car in all those years. Once I got the Corvette last September (for my 60th b'day), got it running right and replaced the 21 year old tires I can't stop driving it, it's just sooooooooo much fun. The thing truly is a "precision driving machine".

And a local car gatherings folks just give it a passing glance as they head over to drool all over the newer ones with their color matched engine covers and bigger, more modern engines but I still love and enjoy driving it more than anything I've ever had. As a matter of fact I'm going off in it here shortly. Where? Who knows, just out and about.

Rick

Tom400CFI

Never drove or owned a C3, so can't compare w/that, but as a guy who came FROM a C6 and moved TO a C4, here is what I love about the C4;
*Cockpit; tight intimate feel, shifter proximity to the steering wheel, everything is close, accessible...if feels like a sports car should
* Honest "feel"; instant throttle response (no "e-throttle" BS), instant/direct steering feel, good clutch, good trans, good rear suspension
*Visceral feel. The car just feels exciting...all the time. I love that.
*No e-nanny BS, e-auto features you can't shut off
*Stereo... though mine has been changed now
*Thoughtful content; interior lighting, turn/reverse side lighting, seat belt cinchers, multi hatch releases etc.


I'd heard all these things about the C4; it rattles, LT1 has no low end tq, it's flexy, cheap... The first time I drove one, I felt that all that stuff I'd heard was either untrue (my C4 has fewer rattles than my C6 did) or incredibly overstated. I love the car. It's a fun, honest, real experience.


.

L98Justin

Exactly!!!

Crossed Flags Fan

I still remember the first time I saw a C4 coming up in my rear view mirror. I said to my self...HOLY $HEET!!! As it went past, I sped up to get a better look and couldn't get over how low and plastered to the road it looked. I was hooked.
Many years later I was finally able to afford a used one (95 LT1) and the day I met the seller as he was pulling up I knew it was THE ONE.
Fast forward many years and despite my now owning a C7 I cannot part with the C4. It has the look of a classic, gets my blood pumping everytime I get behind the wheel and it gets thumbs up and admiring looks. My son likes the C4 so much he just bought a 96 Collectors Edition.
There is something about the C4 that I just can't put into words, but I still get excited by it....

Paul Workman

That pretty much says it quite well.

I've driven a 67 427 tri-power C2, and we do have a 69 C3 in the stable, and in comparison the C2 and C3 are "Rude, Crude, and Socially Unacceptable"...but a lot of fun to drive! AND, they DO turn heads more than the C4! C4s introduced the modern styling - less flamboyant I guess one could say, but a world apart in the handling department!

I never warmed to the C5s; lost so much personality with the interior changes. (C6s, to me seem better tho, in that regard) Too much "sitting ON a C5", whereas you sit "IN" a C4; that "cockpit" feel is intoxicating (and re-created in the C7s, doancha know!). Kinda hard to describe...till ya drive one.

It was not until 7 years after the last ZR-1 (1995) that the Corvette came with an engine option to match the (peak) 405 horsepower of the LT5, but the LS6 was an extensively well developed LS 350 engine to do that. (It is a well known fact that many key GM execs and GM Powertrain (especially) hated having their noses rubbed in the LT5s performance - so much so that it is conspicuously absent in their lobby which is adorned with an example of every engine they developed...except the LT5. The upside, as Dave McLellan put it was to inspire GM Powertrain to get off their hands to develop the LS motors.)

Thrill Factor? The path to over 500 hp out of the 350 cubic inch LT5 while maintaining the stock bottom and cams (and smooth idle) is well established now; a fact which so vividly demonstrates just how much "meat" was left on the table when the project was abandoned (the last LT5 was built in '93). When that "meat" in the overly-restrictive (stock) intake anatomy is removed and headers added to allow the engine to finally breathe, the car will put down over 430 hp at the wheels, which affords the C4 at least a place at the bar with the current C's. That is my "Thrill Factor".