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The first 200 production C5 Corvettes were painted Red, not the traditional color for the first production run.
The 1997 Corvette C5 is the first Corvette designed from the ground up to be a Corvette.. Not borrowing parts from other cars. One of the few "Off the Shelf" parts - the exterior door handles, same ones used on the Oldsmobile Aurora.
The first use of a transaxle in a production Corvette occurred in the '97. However, the first plans for one were in the Q-Corvette in 1958, planned for the 1960 model. Transaxles showed up in Corvette prototypes in the mid '60s in running models.
The first 4 speed in a Corvette was built by Borg Warner in 1957. The first transaxle in a production Corvette was also built by Borg Warner, forty years later in 1997. Both were introduced late in the model year.
Borg Warner has produced a transmission for each generation of Corvette: C1 - 1957 to 1962, C2 - 1963, C3 - 1980 to 1981, C4 - 1984 to 1988, and C5 - 1997 to 1998.
The 1997 Corvette is the first Corvette to have windshield wipers that sweep in the same direction instead of opposing directions.
November 4, 1997 - The 9752nd 1998 Corvette rolled down the assembly matching the total 1997 Model production run.
The last "Fairway Green" C5 a 1998 Model came down the assembly line November 10, 1997. The color was discontinued.
It takes 55 hours to build the new C5 Corvette, down from 70 hours for the previous C4 model.
I gotta remember this for the Cruise In VI Trivia contest!
I have the ever popular 1997 with 108k miles used as daily driver (including 600 mile weekend trips Knoxville to Columbus), drag racer and autocrosser!
The door handles on the corvette where borrowed from the Oldsmobile Aurora. I think they are on the Olds Intrigue as well. BUt I think that is a common thing in the auto industry to borrow parts from other cars to avoid higher costs of designing a new one.
Did you also know that one of the least most obvious body parts taken from the C5 and used on the C6 is the outside mirrors?
How sure are you on that? Look at the base it was changed. I asked Dave Hill about this during CI-V. He quicly corrected me and told me there's countless hours of research on the new mirrors. to reduce wind noise and buffeting inside the car.
From: The second childhood is the best one of all.
I've been told the C-5 has balsa wood sandwich floor. The cross section at the museum showed a foam sandwich floor. Did the original C-5 have the foam and what year was it changed?