Just put a down payment on a 95 C4, still on lay-a-way. (ya, I found a law-a-way deal, who knew?) Am new to corvette world. How does one tell the various years of C4 apart? I know the difference between 1955/6 chevies, taillights and turn signals give them away. But to be honest all C4 look the same to me.

I there a page somewhere showing each year pointing out the differences? any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Something like this??

http://www.corvettefever.com/techart...corvettes.html

 

To the naked eye

91-92: muffler tips. 91 quad tips, 92-96 rectangular

92-93: 93 have narrower front wheels

94: The seats are different

95: The fender gills

95-96: The blackout around the fog lights on the 91-95. The 96s don't have the black paint around the fog lights.

Mechanically, and the interiors changed every year.

 

the big one has to be the 80's style has a completely different back end and the fog lights are not rounded on the side. dead give away

inside, 80s dash or 90s dash look totally different
94+ have white instead of orange colored controls and dials

z's have the 5th brake light on top of the hatch when the 92+ regular do not, so that light is either 80s style or z style

 

Thanks. What I was thinking of is if I see a C4 drive by is it possible to determine the year by looking? What to look for?

For example 1957 corvettes have single headlights while 1958 have dual. You can tell at a glance. On the other hand I don't have a clue how to tell a 1958 from a 1959. LOL

 

1958's have a louvered washboard hood and chrome trim spears on the trunk lid.
Telling a 59 from a 60 is a little more difficult.

 

84 -90 different front and rear bumper covers from 91-96, wheels changed a few times. .
91-96 wheels changed a few times, 96 no black out around driving lights.

fat *** ZR-1
GS, paint and black 5 spokes.

 

84-90

84: Cross Fire Injection Fender molding-muffler tips bent, black on wheels' center

85: Tuned Port Injection fender moulding-muffler tips straight, no third brake light, black on wheels' center

86: Third brake light, no black on the wheels

87: Gray on wheels' center

88: 88 base wheels, white 17" wheels for the 35th anniversary

89: 89 17" wheels with flat center caps

90: 90 17" wheels "salad shooters" without center cap.

I let the ZR-1 gurus explain about the naked eye differences for 90-95 ZR-1s

 

I made this thread a while ago to show the differences between the early, (84-90), vs late,(91-96).

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-g...omparison.html

I also made one showing the factory wheels for each year. It should give you some useful info.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-g...nce-guide.html

 

Body wise the Zs are very close to the standard Corvettes of the same year, except (usually) for some subtle differences. Some more obvious ZR-1 clues:

The 1990 ZR-1 introduced the rectangle taillights and the convex rear bumper, BUT was the only Z to retained the old style front bumper/fascia.

The 90 also was the only Z to have the black door guard around the car. Later models had the more subtle, smooth painted strip.

All and only ZR-1s have the semi-rectangular tail lights and convex rear bumper AND the high middle brake light.

Only ZR-1s have the wider (by 3") rear end and the black spacers between the license plate and the backup lights. Also the transformation to the wide rear end begins at the external rear view mirror. A horizontal ledge at the top of the door starts approx there and clearly expands wider past the hatch, whereas the standard has no such expanding ledge.



The ZR-1 rear wheels have the deeper center section to accommodate the wide 315x35x17 tires, which also appeared on the 96 GS. (My "A molds" are aftermarket and are slightly less predominant - except for the lug nuts being very deep set.

Only the ZR-1s came with the DOHC, 32V LT5, evident to most* when the hood is up. (*Had to try to convince a parts counter dude that the L98 plenum gasket he was trying to sell me would not fit on my LT5! But, the difference is obvious to most people at least!)



All ZR-1s will have the 8k rpm tach together with a NORMAL - FULL POWER select switch below the dash climate control bezel.

The air dam on the Z's are a full 4" wide, wider than the standard 3"(?) width.

The rocker panels on the Z are curve down to form a ground-effect lip at the bottom edge (whereas the standard rockers roll under smoothly)

Factory ZR-1 came with a reflective metallic tinted windshield which has a window in the tinting at the bottom center of the glass so as "not to block garage door" signal (yeah...right!)

The Zs came equipped with the FX3 suspension which featured 3 different ride stiffness settings via a selector switch on the console.

All Zs came with the sport seats as standard equipment (as does the GS as well)

As for wheel design, with the exception of deeper hubs on the rear wheel, the basic wheel pattern mimicked the standard Vettes, with the exception of the very popular "A-mold" (5-spoke) option in '94-95



The sound... The DOHC LT5 has a sound all its own at idle, but most noticeable as the standard LT5 rpms zoom way past the shift point of the standard GM Corvette V8s (even to this day).

All ZR-1s have a ZR-1 badge on the right rear side of the bumper. However, there are many posers with ZR-1 badges too, so the other clues I mentioned help sort out the real Zs vs. posers.

Poser: Two easy clues, and one a bit more subtle (I didn't mention it before due to its subtlety that I believe only a Z owner would see i.e., the subtle shape difference of the fender where it meets the rear fascia: the standard fender tilts more inward from the belt line up, whereas the Z...not so much (compare poser to my avatar).)



All of the factory production Zs had the ZF 6-speed transmission, and were coupes. Any Zs with automatics or convertibles, were altered from original.

 

Its easy to tell the 89's apart from the rest the drivers have bigger smiles

 

too true!!

 

So that's the problem! That smile is contagious!!

 

So I bought the red 1995 today. Parked next to one just like me at the doctors office. turned out to be a 94. Then parked next to another one just like mine, turned out to be an 84. maybe I will firgure out in time...LOL.