My brother had a new Corvette in the late 80s. It was such a POS with headgasket problems and electrical gremlins that he is now a FORD GUY and won't touch a GM product. He is so over GM recently I asked him for the year of his corvette and he said, "I don't recall ever owning a POS Chevrolet" (I was stationed in Panama when he owned it so it has to be an 85-88. What's sad is he traded in a GTA that he loved for it.

As for the cook them to chew up those square tail lights; you would have to dump the intake and find a way to overcome your low compression short block and mediocre flowing heads to pull even with a stock LT1 however, the ZR1s have square tail lights too.

The opti is more reliable than its given credit for and the vented opti is a solid reliable piece of equipment.


IMO buy the car you like and can afford. Personnally I hate starwars dash and locomotive front of the first body style (84-90) I like the (91-96 styling cues better) Many people must agree with me since there are kits to convert from early style front and rear to late and not the other way around.

As for corvette engines/drivetrain, since 1982 every engine change has been for the better IE crossfire<L98<LTX<LS<

The main problem with the LT cars is gearing, GM saddled most of the A4s with 2.59 rears and the 6 speeds with 3.45s both versions are really improved with Gear swaps.
So if your short on cash buy an LT1 A4 pop in some 3.XX gears and you will have a performance car.

With full bolt ons and D44 swap I was crushing cars that have killer reputations. Since then the performance bug bit me and I've been pulling the pieces together to build a killer C4. In hindsight a C5 would have been a better choice for me. What I like best about C4 ownership is every mustang owner believes the C4s are easy picking due to the low powered tractor engine that was used for most of the production run.


Mike

 

1984 with Z-51
1986 Pace Car convertible
Any ZR-1
Any B2K Callaway
Challenge Series
1988 Anniversary Edition
1993 Anniversary Edition
1996 LT4 Convertible
1996 Grand Sport
What did I miss?

The above examples are what I would think are the most desireable examples sought after in the C4 line-up and were limited availability originally. Some represent milestones of achievement for one reason or another and some are just paint and badges but all are very desireable Corvettes to own. All will cost above average to obtain and usually much above for above average condition and low miles. The cars have such different personalities from one another that it is impossible to choose one over another. It really comes down to what you like and what you can afford. If condition is important but you have a budget then a 94-96 LT1 automatic coupe might be a better choice than a high miles convertible that needs work.

 

Spot on what i thought youd say Mike. And 110%. My 87 was dead bloody reliable and never let me down, but my 94 is now also dead reliable since ive fixed all the isses caused from **** poor maintenance of previous owners, and it will absolutely sh*t all over the 87 as far as power goes. No question about it, its a better car.

 

Most of us would take one of each, if we could.

I love my 1988.

I would buy a ZR1 if I had it to do over again. They are cheap for how much corvette they are. I think I will always ponder the fact that I have almost as much money in my early C4 as I could have had a ZR1.

I wish I had an LT1 or LT4 car too.

 

They are the most Corvette you can get in one car as far as C4s go, and in my opinion one of the most exotic Corvettes ever to be made.

 

1996 with the G92 Auto. 3.07 axle

 

Automatics have torque converters which is why the 6-speed cars come with lower rear screw ratio. Factor in about 2X for that.

 

[QUOTE=Casethecorvetteman;.......leave the 88s alone,.......[/QUOTE]

Why?

 

You miss-quoted me there, it said I'D leave 88s alone, its a personal thing... There is a few reasons that an 87 or 89 is a far better buy. An 87 still has the earlier design front suspension, the 88 is like an 87 but with different front suspension to every other C4 (only very slightly, but different is different) An 89 has newer seat design, and the same front suspension as the rest of the C4s up to 96.

 

So whats so bad about the 88 front end?

So its slightly different, so......what?

It was an improvement over the pre 88.

Parts are no harder to get.

I like the seats in my 88 just fine.

Mine drives great........................

Seems like you have a "hard on" for 88s for some reason.

 

If it is just a matter of being practical, the advice about a low miles, clean, 96 LT4 is spot on IMO. The ZR1's are higher performance, but will be more trouble to maintain.

Not being so pragmatic, and determined solely by personal aesthetics, the 91 has the best combination of interior/exterior appearance of any of them. It has the nicest exterior to my eyes (I prefer the oval gills to the earlier and later versions, and has the late style front & rear). It has the most interesting stock wheels to my eyes (silver gray sawblades, same as that era ZR-1). But most of all, it and the 90 had the gray metalic, most fully wrap around dash of any of the models. I just adore the full cockpit on these, the best of any year or generation of Corvette, to my eyes.

 

If I were buying a C4 today, I'd buy the newest and lowest mile 405HP ('93 or newer) ZR-1 I could afford. I've seen some good prices on '93s and a couple of '94s lately with decent miles. I don't think they'll get much cheaper.
Having said that, you can see what I bought a few months ago.
I've owned '88, '92, and '96 C4s. Later models were vastly improved.

 

No mate, not quite, nothing to get hard about there im afraid. Its different, and last time i checked KONI didnt make the yellow adjustables to fit them (so normal parts may be easy to find). Im led to believe the front suspension on an 87 or earlier was better for auto crossing. As i allready said, the seats are the same as the 87, i didnt state any issues with that.

The question asked was as quoted below:
And at the risk of stating the obvious, what i have given was a personal opinion in relation to which i would or wouldnt buy, which appears to be what was asked for. I simply stated i personally wouldnt buy an 88. I wouldnt buy an 85, 86, 91, 92 or 93 for simular reasons, but that is my personal opinion. If you go back and read my post with your eyes open and read every word, youll see i wasnt having a dig at 88s or at anyone with an 88, i was merely stating i wouldnt buy one.

 

I approach this a little differently.I personally like C1 and C2 and early C3 Corvettes.However since I cant afford one of these I bought the closest I could get to one which I feel is a early C4.I dont want a air baged steering wheel,switches that control my suspension,etc. My main concern is not having a 13 or 14 second Corvette but one that will hang in a turn with the best of them. Thats why I feel a early C4 with Z51 suspension is the best choice for me. If your looking for a everyday driver Corvette with more modern luxuries the newer C4 is the way to go. If your want to live in the 1960s and 70s but cant afford to the early C4 is the way to go IMO.You still get some of the mordern touches of newer Corvettes and have the memory of what previous Corvettes were like.

 

I guess we have our preferences but I agree that the newest model that has been well maintained would be a good choice regardles of mileage.
I bought a highmileage '91 about 6 years ago and still enjoy it . '91 being the last year and possibly most refined for the L98 and first year of the Late C4 Body Style .

A '95 ZR1 would be my hands down choice for a stable mate .

 

My intention in my post above was to get another opinion and maybe some technical details as to why an experienced 'vette owner didn't think the '88 was a particularly good year to buy. It would have been clearer if I had included the "I'd".

My interest is that I'd rather have an '89 but think some '88s would do. I have noticed some differences in the '88 front suspension and do not at this time know the whole story about that. I have read that the '87 with the "scrub" steering is better for autocrossing use than the later "zero-scrub" but don't factually know why. Based on the hardware, the '87 & '88 Zxx cars and the '89-up years (and all 'verts) have the additional front frame bracing which is the best "cure" the engineers could come up with to fix the most fundamental flaw in the entire C4 (coupe) generation--the lack of a roof bar (deleted by a "manager" not an Engineer). I think that's an "improvement" that's worth significant consideration when deciding on what year to buy.

As to the commonally held opinion that "newer is better" I'd have to say, it depends. The '89 had the "new improved" Multech injectors which proved to be prone to sticking and leaking and are generally replaced by about 80K miles. I haven't seen any such general problems with the older injectors or the replacments for the Multechs. Also, I don't believe the "new improved" seats in the '89 are an improvement except for the extra seam in the seat cover. The larger bolsters typically get beat up very quickly. I'd much rather have the older seats, cloth with a little luck. "New improved" can mean better if it's an incremental change to an existing proven design. Huge changes, like the LT-1 deserve to be watched carefully and given some time for the engineers to "get the bugs out", a la the early Opti fiasco whereas the LT-4 is just hotrodding based on decades of experience.

The airbag starting in '90 is of little use if you're wearing the seat belt and if you're not intelligent enough to wear a seat belt you shouldn't be driving any vehicle, let alone a 'vette. I don't want the additional complexity for virtually no siginificant benefit. A lot of the other preferences talked about are stylistic in nature and can't be argued on a factual basis. To each his own!

 

 

I would buy another Ruby Red 40th Coupe. I miss my old one.



Or I would by a 95 Indy Pace car to go with my 78 Indy Pace Car.

 

89 challange car
95 zr-1
86 B2K
90 Areo B2K
ZR-1 areo
and a certain callaway areo ZR-1 with a LPE 415

 

dude, wow, how wrong can one person be in one post