i miss my 1996 LT-1
Its a diff animal than the c3's. you ride between the frame rails down low and the seat of the pants feeling is awesome.

I will have another. They are the best bang for the buck in the sports car world imho.

 

The PO put the GS style wheels on, I put the GS red hash stripes. I haven't decided on the white stripe yet, but yes, a Grand Sport tribute.

 

Eddie 96 was my user name when I first came to CF. I had an auto 96 for a few years. It was a nice car but it did have a few issues every now and then. Sometimes the temp controller for the AC would only go up and not down. This became a problem shown to me by my wife when she took it to pick up our son from football practice one day. That was the only problem mine had. And it would happen at random times. Worked perfect most of the time. I got mine a few years after the C5 came out. I missed it quite a bit for a few years. I eventually replaced it with an 02 Electron Blue Z06. I still miss that one.

 

I can't imagine you won't enjoy this car. The C4 gets no love and it's a shame. In it's day it was a major break through and really the 1st modern Corvette. Everybody forgets the C4 was undefeated in SCCA racing and the other manufacturers whined to the extent that they were banned and the Corvette Challenge Series was formed. The C4 evolved well and by '96 was refined (but there's something about those early Z51 cars) into a very capable all around sports car. The driver position gives a cockpit feel and makes the car a lot of fun to drive. All at a very reasonable buy in.
Good luck with it and enjoy the ride.

 

Welcome the world of electronic fuel injection B Jay. Since buying my LT1 camaro i have found its another black hole of time and information and of course money to. Fuel injectors, electric fuel pumps and PCM tuning are not cheap. But theres a lot of good prices on the C4's i have to do my best to controll myself before i find myself owning a corvette farm of C3's and C4's (well LT1 camaros and firebirds too).

I really like the clam shell hood on the C4 and it would be fun to work on a car like that - at least on the engine. The C4 i would go for is the ones with the hard top convertible. I worked with a guy that owned one and man that little hard top looked killer but he was into flipping cars and wanted to much when he got ready to sell it. But with the EFI those C4 cars make great daily drivers. Alot of owners race the LT1 but u will find they are a bit more expensive (not a real lot more as the internals are the same) to build and building to over 400 c.i. will not be easy as a GEN I block.

So let me blab a little 'bout intakes for the LT1 here. The stock intake is fine for most performance as its short runners are so short that u really dont get any pulse wave contribution until past the 7,000rpm limit of the Opti-spark distributor. The light/diode controlled Opti spark loses resolution over 7,000rpm - at least thats what ive been told though i havent proved this with my car. Well then below 7,000rpm the LT1 intake provides a flat power curve - not peaky at all. Its fairly low restriction helps the motor breath without modification. But the runners are so short i can imagine there is some reversion inside. Anyways there is a lot of GEN I intake conversions for the GEN II LT1 intake and i think thats the best route to go for an intake improvement. Single plane Victor Jr is very popular. It takes adding fuel injector bosses for the fuel injectors, changing the bolt holes and an air horn to feed the plenum. And it looks kinda bad azz with the air horn necking forward and makes old school single plane power. Another popular conversion is a Holley Stealth RAm. Those look pretty bad azz to and C4 owners say they make great power right where u want it below 7,00rpm.

Ok congrats and keep us updated. BTW the C4 forum has a great bunch of poeple with a lot of experience and good straight talk help.

 

I auto crossed the C4 yesterday. This base suspension, all weather tired car didn't do too bad, but there are two major problems.
1. The brakes suck. My C3 has Hydro Boost and Wilwood calipers. So I gues I'm spoiled. The C4 ABS is nice, but not as much whoa as my C3.
2. We got five runs in the morning and five in the evening. By run four the engine was getting really hot. Not in the red overheating zone, but pretty hot. The engine goes way down in power when hot. It's liike the rev limiter is kicking in, earlier and earlier. Everyone there says Opti-spark and ignition woes. The car cooled down over lunch, ran strong for a couple of runs, and lost power again. I'm thinking weak valve springs, getting hot, but no one agrees with me. After cooling off, the car idles fine, and gets 20mpg on the way home. Any ideas on why the engine loses power with rpm and heat. I guess I better start spending time in the C4 forum. Changing springs is easy, replacing Opti-spark parts are a PITA.
Bee Jay

 

My first autocross with my C4 was disappointing. The first time I nailed the brakes it was obvious to me that Chevrolet dropped the ball on that aspect of the car. I ended up putting the 13" rotors and dual piston calipers up front, and also higher c/f pads in back. Big improvement!
My engine used to get hot every run until I wired an override to the fan relay so I could keep the fan running while waiting in line, and I could also turn them on again right after the run to cool things down.

 

Plenum/intake heat soak would be my main guess, EFI is more temp sensitive. Might try a cheap experiment and bring a cooler of ice and stack it on between rounds. Also this is why some move the IAT sensor to the airbox. People will cry bloody murder that it doesn't make any more power, but it's about being more consistent and keeping the sensor from heat soaking in the intake.