Are C3 Corvettes fun to drive?

HardDrive · 02-12-2014, 06:20 AM

I'm a child of the 70s, and loved Corvettes when I was a kid (until I discovered Car and Driver magazine, and learned about krautwagons....). There are oceans of clean C3 Vettes floating around, especially the later 70s. I know the cars got slower and slower because of emissions baloney as the 70s went on, but power output aside, are they enjoyable to drive? It would seem like a pretty easy job to drop in a hotter crate motor.

Rot 911 · 02-12-2014, 06:23 AM

No. Not only were they underpowered, but they were poorly built. Rattles everywhere. And the seats were painful to sit in for very long.

ckissick · 02-12-2014, 06:30 AM

How could Luke Skywalker sink to such lows?

hardflex · 02-12-2014, 06:42 AM

I owned a 77 for awhile with a 350 and 4 speed. I'm not certain but I think it may have been a close ratio trans. The lasting impressions I have of it are

1) Take off the T tops and store them behind the seats and you have basically no room for anything.

2) You can talk about lack of power but they had plenty of torque. 1st and 3rd gear seemed almost unnecessary and driving around town it felt expedient to start in 2nd and skip third and go straight to 4th as a normal shift progression. Of course, that meant you were spinning around 3500 at highway speeds which was not a comfortable cruising speed. I found myself dropping back to around 3000 rpms but that meant the mom's in minivans were passing me constantly.

3) People who didn't know any better thought the car was cool

I sold mine about after about a year and I know I didn't put more than a thousand miles on it. It just wasn't that fun to drive. Maybe with an Auto Trans it would be better.

fastfredracing · 02-12-2014, 06:53 AM

No, it was the most disapointing car purchase I have ever made, and is exactly how I ended up in the porsche world. I remember thinking that if this is " Americas sports car" , then I need to be looking somewhere else. I had two of them, and worked on quite a few as well.
They are best to just be looked at.

foxpaws · foxpaws's Garage

No - I owned a 1972 ZR1 - War Bonnet Yellow with **** Brown Vinyl interior - a hideous car. I had sold a '74 2002 tii to get the car, but, when I sold the 'vette I bought my first 914 2.0. The 'vette was terribly underpowered (and that was with an LT1 engine), and the handling was a joke. It rattled, your lower back ached after about 30 minutes sitting in the car, the clutch needed an 800 lb gorilla to engage. The things one did for boyfriends - whew. Luckily the Corvette and the guy were in my life for less than a year.

HardDrive · 02-12-2014, 07:03 AM

Good to know all, thanks.

@hardflex, that exactly the car that prompted this post. A local guy has 77 with a 4 speed on craigslist. He only wants $5500.

74-911 · 02-12-2014, 07:10 AM

IIRC Corvettes of that era were often referred to as "iron dogs". A good friend had one and one ride in it would explain why.

hardflex · 02-12-2014, 07:53 AM

I paid 6k for mine, did some tuneup and brake work. Had to pass inspection for the buyer, sold it for 7500. this was 5 years ago. I never wish I had it back like I do other cars I've sold.

I think there are both motivated buyers and motivated sellers for those cars. Makes for short ownership periods.

gacook · gacook's Garage

I can't speak for the C3, but I own a C4. C4's seem to be the LEAST sought after model Chevy made, but I love mine. It has NONE of the problems previously mentioned, except for a little bit of rattling. The seats are more comfortable than any car I've ever owned, including the P-car. I love this car, as do all my kids. My son is dead set on it being his when he can start driving...in 10 years, lol.

sammyg2 · 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rot 911

No. Not only were they underpowered, but they were poorly built. Rattles everywhere. And the seats were painful to sit in for very long.

The 1968 cars were especially well-built.
Then there was the strike 69-70 ........

foxpaws · foxpaws's Garage

Hey - I am the girl (guy) who owned the '72 ZR1 - one of 20 I might add, and I have seen it come across at auction once - for a heck of a lot more than I sold it for ($90,000 at auction maybe 10 years ago). I got it because the guy I was dating worked for a chevy dealership - it came across as a trade-in for a new '78 Pace Car L82, and he talked me into it because he wanted it, but couldn't afford it himself. I sold it to him after I dumped him... Don't regret either decision.

Edit - the last '70 - '72 ZR1 I saw at auction was at Mecum for $115,000 2 years ago - but it looked like it had a bad restore at some point in its life.... Mine was a daily driver in Colorado for the 10ish months I owned it, I couldn't afford 2 cars.... it was awful.

HardDrive · 02-12-2014, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gacook

I can't speak for the C3, but I own a C4. C4's seem to be the LEAST sought after model Chevy made, but I love mine. It has NONE of the problems previously mentioned, except for a little bit of rattling. The seats are more comfortable than any car I've ever owned, including the P-car. I love this car, as do all my kids. My son is dead set on it being his when he can start driving...in 10 years, lol.

I was thinking about that too. A guy has a decent C4 here locally for $5000.

foxpaws · foxpaws's Garage

If there is any way you can come up with the $15k that will get you into a C5-I would go that route - they are much, much better cars than even a C4 - night and day different.

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

the ride is not so bad if you avoid the sink holes

David · David's Garage

No. Did a 360 in one on the freeway in the dry. Rather diabolical handling.

sammyg2 · 02-12-2014, 06:47 PM

In all fairness, all American cars from that era basically sucked comparatively.
I had a 78 mustang II mach 1 with a 302, 123 hp? Something like that. Anemic. Could not power-brake a burnout on dry pavement.
My brother has a 78 Z28, 140 hp.
If you tried to rev it over 5000 it ate the cam. We got good at changing cams in that POS.
The 911s from the 70's weren't all that fast either and they had their issues.

It was the dark ages of automobiles. Now let's never speak of it again

HardDrive · 02-12-2014, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyg2

The 911s from the 70's weren't all that fast either and they had their issues.

I had an SC, and loved it, so I was about to jump in and disagree. But then again, I forget that I bought (at the time) a 20 year old car with all the updates done. Chain tensioners, pop off valves, tie rods.....I forget the poor SOBs who bought those cars new and discovered all of its 'quirks'.

VaSteve · 02-12-2014, 07:00 PM

I can't get past the look. Too much wheels/tires for the size of the car.

speeder · speeder's Garage

My uncle had a new Corvette in 1978 that he let me borrow while he was out of town once, all I had to do was drive him to the airport and keep the car.

It was a nice looking car but holy balls was it slow. 5.7 automatic and it must have had well under 200hp. Just nothing remotely sporty about it.

I realize that emissions regs dictated performance in those days but it's still hard to believe that people shelled out their hard-earned dough for those slugs just a few short years after pavement blistering beasts were for sale. I also remember riding in a friend's brand new K5 Blazer that would not get out of its own way in '78. And it wasn't cheap, at the time.