Considering a C5 ZO6...

[cashflyer]

I had a C4. Insurance was about $550 per year in SC for full coverage.
I loved the power and handling.
I hated the build quality.

But I hear the C5 and C6 are much, much better.

seems last of the cheap sports cars?

According to USTG, all US autos will have stability control mandated beginning with 2012 models.

[ODDJOB UNO]

ya know i just bought its kuzzin...................a 2011 Z71 TRUCK! it has a bad azz 5.3(yuck yuck), and more damn buttons than my lil brain can handle, and i freeking STOLE IT on both ends, the trade, and the bottom line beat their azz up price. list on the damn thang was $41,411. HOLY NED when i looked at the steecker. i got 4k on my 226,871 mi old Z71, 4k off due to incentive and the bottomline was 28K. thats ONLY $1000 more than i payed for my 1999 Z71.


they wanted to chew both my arms and legs off to make a sale. plus i have bought there before, and the G.M. is my neighbor and sold me another Z71 at another dealer back in 1994.


so...............how does this apply to yer vette. 1st a new super-duper charged carbon fibered what ever the hell model full race winged gawd damnit was $122K on the floor here in snobbsdale ,az. and i fit in it like a glove. they are sweet and for road tripping and making some ser-i-azz time, ya cant beat 'em.


i owned andre agazizz the tennis dude(sp-he was a pig and the car reeked)old vette, it was a 1994. and i seriously debated not buying it due to my 6'3" size. i bought it anyway and really bottomline after awhile of dinking around with it,decided to sell, and didnt loose a dime. nice car just didnt fit.


now the last time we took the super duper showroom stock cab from hell to inde motosports down in wilcox,az on their road course, guess what the instructors use. new vettes. they also snagged some pretty good instructors from bondurants firebird course. we had to follow the instructors on increasing speed laps to get the feel for the course and its multi rightys and leftys. i happened to be behind a new vette and numerous times while following instructor, while he was showing us "his" hot lines i felt i could have downshifted and cut down low and smoked his azz in the corners. i have played with a few vettes thru the twisties and eaten their lunch each and everytime on spirited highway jaunts,so i kind of know an apple/apple comparison in real life situations.



buttt......................on the straights..................well my lil POS 3.2 had its azz handed back by the big bad vette.



for 20K and all the zoomy ge-stuffen.........................i say GO FOR IT! each and every design has its p + and -'s. the ONLY BOTTOM LINE to think about is HOW MUCH FUN PER BUCK equation.



the new ones i fit in. the old ones i felt like the last sardine stuffed into the tin.

[sketchers356]

I think you really want one of these:

[ted]

Originally Posted by sketchers356

I think you really want one of these:

I had a 5 oh for several years, fun car.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by ZOOMiata

C5 Z06 and C5 brakes are identicial, except that the C5 caliper is red. I've never heard of C5 brakes being problematic -- other than cracking of cheap replacement rotors after extended hot laps. Pads and rotors are inexpensive. Most track guys simply bring extra rotors (the cheapies from NAPA are less than $30, IIRC). Moving the car forward a few feet while in the paddock once or twice alleviates the hot spots and tendency for the rotor to crack (there's a lot of pad surface to trap heat).

C4 brakes aren't as robust -- I updgraded to C5 brakes on the front of my C4 because of fade at the track.

We buy our rotors at O'Reiley's, life time replacement, so have haven't bought rotors in a while when they crack, we take em back and get news.. They are directional, so make sure you put them on the correct side (don't trust the box, we ended up with 2 lefts, but in L&R boxes)

Of course, I have driven Vettes in the past, the C5 is by far my favorite driver.

We run 10X18s with 315/30/18Rs on all 4 corners, so you might say thai it sticks, and if you can get that car for $20K, I say go for it!!

[ted]

Very helpful, and interesting comments.
Those rotors are cheap compared to my turbo brake rotors.
But I've never needed a turbo rotor at the track either.
Found a Pelican style Vette bbs for more owner feedback.
C5 General - Corvette Forum
I'll have the results of the ppi next week, thank you.


Hope the Vette is as fun in the corners as my 911.

from ted drake on Vimeo.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by ted

Very helpful, and interesting comments.
Those rotors are cheap compared to my turbo brake rotors.
But I've never needed a turbo rotor at the track either.
Found a Pelican style Vette bbs for more owner feedback.
C5 General - Corvette Forum
I'll have the results of the ppi next week, thank you.


Hope the Vette is as fun in the corners as my 911.

from ted drake on Vimeo.

Good luck, hope it turns out for you and remember, you can upgrade the brakes and the Vett is a heavier & more powerfull car than a stock 911 Turbo..

[Mike C]

Its a totally different ride but I bet you will love it. Sure miss mine!

[RANDY P]

parts are cheep, the technology is older than most of us on this forum. If you destroy it, no big deal. Anyone can work on it. that's the beauty of domestics- in my neighborhood I can do anything short drop a wrecking ball on my chevy and between myself and the neighbors (and their kids) we can fix it.

Try that with a German car.

Do it. have fun.

rjp

[RANDY P]

C4 sucks. Supposedly a C5 will fit and bolt up under a c6 body.

I can't wait for the c6 to come down in price.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I'd always heard that pound for pound, insurance on Corvettes is really high - does this still ring true?

That changed with the C5 body. Rates came down, one reason being (I've been told) that the C5 has separate fenders and hood, unlike earlier cars which had them integrated into one expensive piece.

I had a '99 6 spd hardtop (the intended "entry level" model that was the basis for the 2000 ZO6 model). I think I paid about $1250/yr for ins.

I put 78K fun miles on it.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by legion

...The 2000 Z06 had a relatively anemic 350 hp.

The 2000 ZO6 had 385 hp., the plain C5 had 350 hp (some spec.s say 345), same as '99.

On my '99 6spd hdtop (basis for the folowing year's ZO6), I put on a cold air filter and a Flowmaster exahaust, reprogrammed the chip and probably/mebbe made, 360, 365 hp?

They're all rockets and a hoot to drive. Wouldn't touch earlier than a C5, though.

[cashflyer]

the plain C5 had 350 hp

Which is still ~150 more than an SC.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

Which is still ~150 more than an SC.

Damn you! ..........

Over the years I progressively attempted to slake my manly thirst for hp, beginning with a bugeyed Sprite, then an AH 100 6, MGB GT, 280 Z, 240 Z w/carburetted & turbo'd 280Z motor, RX 7 TT and C5.

When I sold the C5 I wanted to return to a smaller, lighter sports car that would be more fun to drive around town than the Vette, which has to be given a lot of room to stretch its legs.

I pondered this for awhile and realized that the most fun car I'd ever had, the car I'd driven with atrocious abandonment of my 17 year old self preservation instinct and nearly killed myself in numerous times on country twisties in N.E. Ohio, was my bright red, 48 hp, '59 bugeye Sprite.

That old saw then suddenly rang true to me; It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow. Thus, not wanting to spend the money on an Elise (which wasn't designed for a 6'2" body), I bought the SC - which fulfills the fun-around-town desire perfectly.

However...IM(not so humble)O, nothing is more addictive than the intoxicating feeling of being mercilessly pushed into the seat-back while listening to the the thunder of a 'Merican V8 torque monster when ya put the hammer down,

Damn you!

Now I'm wanting another one.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I've been keeping an eye on them, that much performance for $20k or less is nuts.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I've been keeping an eye on them, that much performance for $20k or less is nuts.

Oh yeah, most bang-for-the-buck, with not even one close competitor.

[cashflyer]

I hear ya, D.... I love my SC. I love the nimble handling, and I love the sound.
But (coincidental to this thread) my wife and I were just discussing recently that we both miss that big V8 in the vette.

It's like having a pistol and a shotgun.
They both go bang, but differently.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

...But (coincidental to this thread)...

This:

Re general build quality; in my opinion, excellent. Earlier Vettes, purty an' pow'full as they may be,, are junk in comparison. - the car has a cheap interior (I hear that's been improved on, though). I spent $1200 having the seats reupholstered; the orig. leather was terrible, after only 15 k miles tearing from wear and pressure from the interior hard frame at places and generally crap. But hell, I never really paid much attention to how it looked inside. I was always totally preoccupied looking out the windshield, trying to control my damned right foot and staying alive.

Re mechanical reliability; I drove the car like I stole it, from the day I bought it to the day I sold it. I drove it hard, but never abusively; got over 60 k miles out of the original brakes and it had the original clutch until just before I sold it - and, no exaggeration, 99% of the time I downshifted through all the gears, such was the irresistable aural delight listening to that small block beast winding down through those Flowmasters.

But alas, that did not come without a cost - a BIG cost! Just before I ended up selling it I noticed a slight "snick" when downshifting from 4th to 3rd (If I recall correctly) and just could not live with that. I HATE the sound of grinding gears! I NEVER grind gears when I shift!

So my mech. sent me to his recommended tranny shop and they tore the trans apart. Then the tranny guy called me and said he wanted me to come by his shop. Why, whassamatta? I asked. You really need to come by the shop, he repeated.

So I did. He led me to my trans, completely disassembled and laid out on a table, and proceeded to pick up gears and other parts and point out that they wuz all wored out an' he sez, It's hard to believe this trans only has 74 K miles on it - looks more like 150 k miles worth of wear. Well, due to my downshifting addiction...it was.

So, biting a very expensive bullet because I really loved the car, I sez, fix it and go back to work.

Hour or so later he calls again, same request, same question from me, same answer from him. Oh, jeeze, what now?, I lament to myself and drive back to his shop where he led me to a pan of brownish fluid that had a metallic sheen look to it - kinda like some metallic paint had been mixed into it. We drained the diff and this is what came out, he sez and I sez, Looks kinda like some metallic paint been mixed into it. Close, but no; that's little flecks of metal whut was once part of the differential an' that ain't good, he sez and I bite another bullet and I sez, fix it and go back to work.

He sent the diff to a shop in LA that specialized in that and I decided I might as well go ahead and have the rubber, "velocity joints"? (I always knew them as universal joints) at the ends of the driveshaft replaced, thinking maybe a couple hundred bucks in parts, only to be told that I had to buy a whole new driveshaft because they couldn't be r & r'd. The bullets kept on comin' an' my tooths wuz gettin' real sore, this one being something like $1200 (or more?) for a new driveshaft.

But in the end, the car drove like new (new clutch too, of course) and I was happy - but over 8 grand poorer. Gonna keep this car forever (or at least another 74 k miles), I sez to myself.

Then about a month or two later the dash began to intermittently go dark and my mech. says, Only a matter of time and the parts to fix it will cost ya 'bout $1200. So I drove off, lamenting again (I thought I was all finished lamenting ) and sold the car before it blacked out again - to an irritating, irrascible b!tch who shortly thereafter called me and leaned on me to fix the brakes properly (I'd had them done, gratis, as a condition of the sale - after she'd unmercifully ground me down from my asking price).

So I told her to take it back to my mech. and he'd make it right, which she did (she wanted me to, but I politely told her to go fk herself), and my mech. found nothing wrong.

So she calls me again and sez, I'm gonna sue you. Take the car back an' gimme back my money or I'm gonna sue you. I know the law, she sez. No you don't. Sue me (I politely () told her).

Never heard from her again...for about a month. Then she calls me again and sez, Now all the lights in the dashboard don't come on and I'm REALLY gonna sue you now! Fine, I sez. Have your lawyer contact me and don't call me again. It's been years, so I guess she gave up.

I actually felt a little guilty selling the car without mentioning the impending dash problem, knowing that, while the dash hadn't gone dark for over a month, it eventually would...permanently. But my buddies (who are even more unscrupulous than I am) said, Hey, it's a used car. Sell it as is. So I did.

Funny thing is, though, that the irritating, irascible b!tch bought the car on the recommendation of the Porsche mech. who first worked on my newly acquired SC (and screwed me to the tune of $650). She was his itinerant bookkeeper and I'm sure she filled his ears with her rants.

Then, to top it all off, I later learn from a third party that one day shortly thereafter, when she was there doing the sleazebag's books, he backed his pickup into her car and damaged it...to the tune of $1400.

What goes 'round, comes 'round, eh?

Life is fun. Sometimes expensive, but fun.

Gonna browse used Vettes now.

Incidentally, I drive my SC just like I drove the C5 - like I stole it. The trans was rebuilt at 63 k miles when the PO owned it, by his, and now my, mechanic. Just about to turn 200 k miles on that rebuild. Old Porsches am sure made of good stuff.

[RANDY P]

My 90 Z51 used to shut off all the time when I hit big bumps- turned out to be a power distribution block behind the battery.

Frankly, it was the worst car I've owned. Bought it with 19K on the odo and sold it with 86K on the odo. Constant electrical problems and it was generally a pig to drive. 6 speed car on original clutch but it was getting tired.

I'm lookin at a c6 z06 when the price gets around $30 for a good one

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by DARISC

...the car has a cheap interior.

This was our biggest complaint against the C4.
Constant squeeks and rattles from the dash and the targa top.
Luckily, I never had the electronic dash fail like so many did.

Mine was a 1994, so I had the 300hp LT-1 and the ZF 6-speed.