Congrats on the ride

Rob

 

just hit 200k yesterday. went to ocean city, maryland for the Delmarva Bike Week. 1800 miles there and back and she drove beautifully. 2002 coupe, black w oak interior.


you car is beautiful and welcome to the forum!

 

I think you made a great decision on getting a vette, mainly a C5. They are a great American sports car. The 911 is a fine vehicle, but the vette has a a better sounding engine, more room, cooler, and American made and eaiser to maintain. You have to drop the 911 motor to change the oil, and speaking about oil, since it is air cooled, you have (I think) 21 qts of oil cooling that flat 6 pumped up VW....C5, you picked a winner. Opps we are on a Corvette forum, so I might be a little bias... Good luck, enjoy the ride.... I always do...

 

First - Congrats, best of luck with the Vette and welcome to this wonderful brotherhood...

Not a rare situation...vette vs P-car, seems all my friends have gone through it at some time. I went through it last year...for the 2nd or 3rd or 4th time. I had a 2005 white GT3 with 30K miles for a whole day...loved it, super responsive and did everything I wanted it to do very well - except it was in a prior front end hit. Not a big one, really just cosmetic, but it gave me pause. I found out what things cost on this car when things do go wrong...tranny...engine...each one's cost to replace would be the cost of a C5Z. So I let that one go...

But having had a C5Z before, an '02 Maggie'd EB/MR, and here's the real kicker.... once a vette owner, always a vette owner. NOw you may go some years without a vette, but you'll always feel like a 'vette guy'...you'll always want another one. The more I uncover this world of vettes, the less I can find guys who've just owned one...they always come back.

So the pull of the C5Z was still there...and at the trackdays that I attend, I instruct for NASA/PDA, the "go to" cars for the 'bang for the buck' is the C5Z. Relatively light, great power, wide tires...and room for my 6'4" frame.
I also have an affliction for the FRC body...nothing with wheels is as sexy to me as that FRC/C5Z body.

So I did the only thing I could to break myself from the sleepless nights of constant internal debate, I bought a yellow 2001 Z06 with modest miles and some healthy engine mods. I did a little bit more, some Bilsteins/headers and some track-mods...just to make her 'mine'. We went to Monticello last Friday for a trackday, and I fell in love all over again...again.

Hi, I'm Tom and I'm a Vette-guy...

 

Immediately after the car was delivered from Boston, I threw the
incredibly filthy k&n filter out and replaced it with a new one. The
intake cover was modified with large areas cut out. Without a hood
seal, the filter picked up a LOT of crap.
I think the stock intake is a bit of a joke.

Hood seal on order.

I've changed the clutch fluid, brake and coolant are next.

I used seafoam in the gas, intake and oil, burned up a half tank of 93 octane
<read fun!> and replaced the oil and filter, oil came out pretty damn black.

I cleaned the MAF which no longer has a screen and also the TB.

I ordered some screens for the front of the car and a corsa touring for the back...
I think the stock exhaust sounds ok when stepped on but, well, you know... I want to add a little life.

The passenger tire pressure sensor sometimes take a few minutes to work...
The left directional indicator is out.
The car is BLACK - I have to address some of the hairline scratches...
The driver's window is a little clunky sometimes.
The passengers door panel isn't seated correctly.
The drivers seat doesn't slide (from wear) but rocks because I think there is a bolt out.
This is all l have have found to have issue with so far...

There are Toyo Proxies (z1r) on the car with very little wear.
My impression is that they are pretty sticky and do really well on wet pavement.

I don't care for Bose so much but I have to admit the stereo sounds ok and I do like having the 12 CD changer.
I got everything from Chopin to Dreamtheatre loaded up but I spend more time listening closely to the car.

The suspension is, well... firm? I love the handling on the highway,
very tight and responsive, I feel really connected with the car,
but the experience of driving on the secondary roads up here is sometimes painful.
I have actually altered some of my routes in response to this esp access
to some parking lots where the dip in the road is too much, have to go the long way...

Now some may find this a tad silly, but even with the car being stock,
I find the acceleration rather impressive. This car is simply a blast to drive.
It WANTS to go quick and it WANTS to go fast.
Now I think I understand the addiction that goes along with this > MODS.
Intake, cam, heads, headers, TB, Intake Manifold, FI? - If you take this route, where does it end?
When will we really be satisified???

I should have gotten a Z06???

Cheers, Ed

 

Hey Tom, great post!

 

Actually, the car (it really was a beauty) I was interested in was water cooled
and I understand that when Porsche first introduced it a lot of the die hard
Porsche folks were a tad freaked out...

 

The original owner of mine NEVER took it in the rain. I have had it on the rack and it is as clean under as is on top! a 1998 with 17k Sunny miles.

Now that it lives in Oregon, I may be tempted to drive it more and we tend to have some long winters.. I know, some say (myself included) Corvettes are NOT driven in the rain... I may change my point of view this year.. I guess time will tell!
Welcome to the world of CORVETTES! I'm now on my 4th!