We often hear people say, “I regret not buying car X when they were affordable”. And we get it, you just never know what vehicles are going to become highly sought after in the future. While prices are already starting to climb for C4 Corvette ZR1s, they are going to just keep going up, so now might be the time to buy one if you want to avoid regretting it later. This 1991 example is in nice shape and in the rare Steel Blue Metallic with a steel blue interior. You can find it in Albuquerque, New Mexico with an asking price of $32,000 and the option to make the seller an offer.

The ZR1 is really an impressive piece of technology, with a Lotus-developed aluminum V8 making 375 horsepower and Lotus’s input on all the other required upgrades to keep this animal on the road. Internally, the prototype was known as the King of the Hill and the name fit well given how impressive the performance was for its time. Less than 7k C4 ZR1s were built and just 57 of those were painted in Steel Blue Metallic. This one presents nicely inside and out, with just 41k miles showing on the odometer, and is said to run and drive beautifully. While this is fairly low mileage, it’s still high enough that you could drive it and not be too concerned with adding miles to it.

This 5.7-liter aluminum V8 might share displacement with the base 5.7-liter found in non-ZR1 C4s, but that’s really the only thing the two engines have in common. Lotus developed a whole new engine for the ZR1 and loaded it with race car technology. It features dual overhead cams moving 32 valves, Nikasil-coated cylinder liners, a forged crank, and an 11:1 compression ratio. To make the car usable on the street and the track, a special intake was developed with variable-length runners to ensure the car has plenty of low-down power for the street without compromising the top end at the race track. This added up to an engine that pulled strong all the way to its 7200 rpm redline and was good for a 4.4 second 0 to 60 mph blast. Yes, there are modern cars that are quicker, but these cars were faster than any early ’90s car has a right to be. And even more incredibly, they have proven to be quite durable. A ZR1 even went on to set the high-speed endurance record averaging 175.88 miles per hour for 24 hours straight!

The interior looks like any other C4, with leather-wrapped seats and a very ’90s-looking dash. What you might not notice right away is the control switch for the FX3 suspension package. This system is essentially the same as the Bosche-developed adjustable dampening suspension found in the Porsche 959. You also might miss the special key switch in the dash to put the car in full power mode. Given that stability control systems were still in their infancy, it was decided to give the car two modes, normal and full power. Under normal mode, the car was easy to drive in traffic and neighborhoods, but switch to full power and you were ready for massive burnouts and laps around a race track.

From the outside, you might not even realize this Corvette is something special, although there are subtle differences that C4 fanatics might recognize. The subtitle look could go either way, just depending on how you look at it. If it were as radical to look at as it is to drive, they might have sold more and be worth considerably more today. On the other hand, there’s something very cool about a big manufacturer building what is essentially the ultimate sleeper. One thing is for sure though, this car has the potential to be a great buy. Clearly, it has been well cared for and is rare. The question is, do you like your high-performance Corvette to be subtle or flashy?

• Location:  Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Mileage: 41,012 Miles
• Engine: 5.7-liter V8
• Transmission: 6-Speed Manual
• VIN: 1G1YZ23J3M5801323
• Title Status: Clean