Corvette

[Lloyd]

Boy, to be young and have enough money for one of these.


https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/17/chev...-unveiled.html

[mark5w]

Only in my dreams.

[dagst1]

Wonder what the mother in law would have thought about this. She started in 53 in St Louis on the Corvette line and retired with the last one produced. Little known fact that car was signed by everyone that worked the line. All hidden of course except for a couple big wheels.

[DavisK]

My 2014 Chevy Malibu started giving me electrical problems again in the fall. I was thinking about trading it in, and one of the vehicles I was seriously considering was a 2023 Corvette Z06. When I figured out that the electrical issues were due to the fact that I forgot to unplug the leads going to the car's main battery from a trickle charger while the charger was not plugged into house current, I nixed the new car idea for awhile.

[drcook]

I see lots of high performance Mustangs sitting at a shop near me with that characteristic U-shaped bend from an unintended meeting with a telephone pole. If you watch Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, you can find Corvettes that have done the same. The new cars can only be controlled with their nanny devices turned on for the most part (unless you are a very experienced driver).

Also the bad thing about the new Corvettes is once the warranty runs out and you are past the 7 years that GM keeps the parts, you are on your own. For a long time the C5's were subject to ABS unit failure and one failure was unfixable. You were at the mercy of one coming available at a junkyard (who of course knew the value as you and 20 something ish other yous were standing in line for that part).

Having had 2 (still have a '96 in the garage) the older ones are easier to work on and don't run into unobtanium parts. Even the '96 has a few parts that I had to scour Craigslist and such for days to finally find in Oregon.

My '96 is getting ready for a teardown, I have all but a couple parts to redo the engine, beef up the transmission and turn it into a close ration 4-speed automatic (4L60E with a Sonnax close ratio 1 & 2 planetary) and the heavy duty Dana 44 rear end like came in the stick shift cars and Vipers.

When I am done (new heads cam headers etc etc etc all sitting in boxes waiting on the day) I will have between 450 and 500 HP. You say a pittance, but anything over 450 (or so) will just kill you faster if you are not careful. 450 is a good fun target HP figure in a light car.

If any of you have been over 150 going down the road, things happen really quick. 40 years ago I passed a guy in the middle of the night like he was standing still. 150+ things happen really quick.

This is what I am building (the stripes are paint, not a decal, I picked out colors to match the interior)

[Lloyd]

I can't imagine anybody going 150 mph on a road! Let alone at night!

[drcook]

Originally Posted by Lloyd

I can't imagine anybody going 150 mph on a road! Let alone at night!

It was down the expressway. A real idiot classmate of mine got caught doing 180 down a residentual road. He was an idiot.

When I did it, there was only me and 1 other car.

These new cars are beyond the capability of 95% of the folks that have them. In the old days, you built your car (for the most part) had hands on experience.

Today, the only hands on is the pen to sign the paperwork.