Black cars are usually associated with the bad guy. For this 1990 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, the car is both beautiful and sinister. Under the hood is a 4 cam 32 valve V8 engine that at the time was the King of the Hill. The ZR1 is listed for sale here on Craigslist for $32,900. The car is located in Scottsdale, Arizona. My wife was just visiting there. I should have had her buy this and drive it back to Texas for me! The odometer shows 13,220 miles. We appreciate T.J. bringing this ZR1 to our attention.
Chevrolet built 3,049 ZR1 Corvettes in 1990 which was the first year for the ZR1 engine which was developed by Lotus. It was produced until 1995 and was reported to have a top speed of 175 mph. Chevrolet’s goal was to produce the world’s fastest production car. They used the C4 Corvette and developed the LT5 aluminum block 32 valve overhead cam engine. It was factory rated at 375 horsepower and was commonly referred to as the “King of the Hill” during its development. The seller states that the car runs and drives well.
This ZR1 has had a few owners but apparently has only traveled only 13,220 miles. The black interior looks nice and there is some creasing in the leather which is to be expected. Like most C4 Corvettes, this one is loaded with amenities and electronics. This car appears to have the optional clear acrylic removable roof panels. While today’s car produce this level of horsepower or much more, this car was still an amazing engineering feat. It was more than putting a more powerful engine in a sports car. Lotus engineers helped Chevrolet focus on improving the handling and braking. The ZR1 had a number of light weight components but it still weighted 200 lbs more than a standard C4.
The ZR1 designation was used on the 1969 – 1971 C3 generation, the 1990 – 1995 C4 generation, the 2009 – 2013 C6 generation, and the 2019 – present C7 generation Corvette. This will probably be a collectable in the near future, if it is not already.
Fantastic. Black paint to boot.
A buddy had one of these, 1st model yr. The tall gear gave it long legs, very fast top end on the hwy. I remember going out on a drive and it seemed to accelerate forever. I was shocked.
I had a 1991 ZR1 red on red. I bought it in 1994 and had it for 4 years sold it for what I paid. I too back then thought these would be collectible but they really never became that. It was a fun car to drive and not much else on the road back then could stay with it or corner with it. I almost send it to Lingenfelter for a supernatural upgrade but in the end I was nervous about blowing the motor and the cost to replace it so I sold it. Good memories in that car!
That will be sold very soon I bet.
The C4 doesn’t get much love, but I sure do love this one. Does the finish on the valve covers and intake look corroded? Or is that bad photography?
Scottsdale AZ. Probably must a layer of dust. Not much corrosion to be had out there other than surface rust (if you leave your vehicle out in the sun for extended periods of time & the paint gets baked off, then sporadic rain) now, rubber items are a completely different story.
Valve covers and intake are prone to staining if the wrong cleaning product is used on them. Many ZR-1 owners found out the hard way. No effect on anything, purely cosmetic.
Some of these have oxidation, depending on how they were stored, & or cared for
Gentlemen, they’re not valve covers, try cam covers. 😏
Owned a ‘91 for a couple years, really well engineered mechanically but the chintzy plastic interior and getting in and out were enough for me to part with it. Cruise all day at 150 if you could only find the right roads!
Roof panel is one piece, most ZR-1’s have both tops…
The fit and finish on the passenger side of the dash and near the shifter confirms this. Just horrendous plastic interior fittings for a car of this caliber.
This vintage of ZR1 was a sleeper for a long time and you could pick up a low mileage example for $20K. Not anymore, as Hemmings and other online publications identified these as being undervalued. If this one is a very clean car the current price is a bargain. Prices are on the move towards $40K for excellent low mileage examples, especially the final 2 year models.
Anybody wondering about prices on low-mile ZR-1’s should take a peek at a site that encourages folks to Bring a Method of Transporting your purchase. $60,000-$85,000 for ultra-low mileage examples. $30,000- $50,000 for low-mileage (Under 25K miles) Prices have gone crazy in the past few months. If this one is legit, it might be a good purchase. Don’t spend too much time at the other site. 10 minutes should be plenty to get a feel for prices. We have more fun here.
That’s the same site where someone just paid $42,000 for a 1991 Volkswagen Golf GTI that had a good amount of miles on it and a lot of past issues. I would not use that as my price guide for anything@
Apples to oranges comparison on steroids Bick. My comment is applicable to low-mileage ZR-1 Corvettes only.
If you are interested there is a 13,000 mile 1990 ZR-1 on BaT with 5 hours to go currently at $29,000. Remember- Don’t spend too much time there.
BaT 13K mile 1990 sold @ $33,250 Purchased for $18,500 in 2018. And I’ll bet a lot more fun than owning stocks.
Purchased November 2019 for $18,500
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the engines were developed by Lotus. If I remember correctly, these were marine engines by Mercury Marine or Mercruiser. I recall an ad, in a boating magazine, that showed a ZR-1 speeding down a highway with the tagline Now Think of the Same Thing on Water.
These ZR-1 engines were indeed engineered by Lotus through GM sponsorship. GM owned the R&D part of Lotus engineering. The assembly of these engines was farmed out to Mercury Marine due to their marine engine assembly processes. They were time consumers and GM didn’t want to bog down their plants. I owned one of the early models that were given to GM quality control engineers to drive for a period of time analyze and correct problems. Was a game changer car for sure.
Great car! ZR-1 was built by Mercury Marine. Low mileage examples are hard to find and prices have risen a lot!
LT-5 engine was designed by GM/Lotus and built by Mercury Marine in Stillwater, Oklahoma. ZR-1 was the option code allowing one to purchase an LT-5 engine (and some extras) for your C4 Corvette starting in 1990 for an extra $25,000. These little details are important to the “purists”