C4 Corvettes continue to weigh heavily on my subconscious in terms of owning one as a potential project. But as anyone who follows Corvettes know, the C4 doesn’t have the greatest reputation in terms of its out-of-the-box performance capabilities. That being said, one of the best ways to find a C4 is with the very capable Z51 suspension installed, and even better if you can find a manual transmission example. Both of these features are hard to find, but this 1990 Chevrolet Corvette here on craigslist not only combines both of these options but also sports one of the more unusual color schemes that you could spec a ‘Vette of this era in. The seller is located in New Hampshire and is asking $24,900.
Now, I would own a ZR-1 all day long and twice on Sunday if I could get into it for less than $20K. I realize that ship has sailed, and it’s unlikely I’m going to find one in that price bracket. The next best thing, of course, is a standard C4, but craigslist and eBay are littered with standard-issue examples equipped with the stock suspension and automatic transmissions. If you do go hunting for one, you’ll be amazed at how few of them have three pedals, and how little the Z51 suspension is mentioned in the listing description. While the seller’s asking price is high, I can’t blame him at all for seeking a big number given this C4 may be the one of the very few with both great options and a very rare color, known as 42U Turquoise Metallic in this instance.
I always wondered why so few C4s came with three pedals. Obviously, owners are driving these preferences, so it’s not like GM just decided to not sell the ‘Vette with three pedals. Buyers just clearly preferred the automatic, and it makes sense if the car had more of a grand touring feel than a backroad sports car. However, you pair the Z51 suspension with a manual gearbox and you have a car that can dance on the drag strip or tackle a twisting country road, and given this Corvette has just 30,000 miles on the clock, it’s got plenty of good driving years left. The interior photos aren’t great, but details like the console trim and the leather-wrapped shift knob indicate the cockpit has been looked after. And it’s always nice to see the OEM radio still in place, too.
Turquoise over black is a great color combo, and while I appreciate not everyone digs turquoise, it is a very period-correct color, especially for a GM product made in the early 90s. It looks identical to the color Chevy used on the pace car edition Chevy Berettas, and exterior photos reveal the paint still has deep luster. Despite living in New Hampshire, the seller notes it was originally a California car and that the body is in excellent shape. The Corvette also comes with the desirable hardtop and glass roof panel, rounding out a long list of desirable equipment. For the money, there’s not much else that will deliver this kind of driving pleasure right out of the box.
So far, it has been posted for 24 days so I guess the seller is standing firm on the price. It’s an interesting car, I wish it was closer….and cheaper.
The asking price matches Hagerty’s #1 Concours estimate. If you read their description a #1 car is basically perfect.
Price is very optimistic but it is a very nice car. I guess if he’s trying to get somebody to overpay, now is the time!
Still it’s 10 grand cheaper than the IROC Camaro from earlier today. It’s got three pedals and it will run away from the IROC without breaking a sweat.
Agree Primo. Great color also. This green looked good on the Beretta too. The 4+3 doug nash trans was gone by 89 i think.
Stan- This will have the ZF-6 speed which I believe went right into the 375 HP powertrain for the ZR-1.
Still for sale. Are any of you guys gonna pull the trigger?
Now, here is a car for the Dragon’s Tail in North Carolina! Come on spring, I need me some twisty roads! Might just venture down to the Smokies for one of my favorites. Gotta do that at least a few more times, not getting any younger. If anyone here has not experience the Dragon, please try it. You will not be disappointed. Plus, scenery around there is superb, food is to die for, and the locals are friendly.
Fred we’re leaving Florida for a road trip up north.
How much is it out of the way to get on the tail of the dragon from 95N?
Nice options, good colors, good mileage. C4 prices are going up, as every car price is, but I don’t know if they have gone up that much on 1990’s with the 250 HP L-98. The 1992 LT-1 started the 300 HP years. Tough call on this one.
The later 350 L-98s were 245 HP/6 speed (1989-up) ZF and had a lot of new options like ABS/Airbag/adj FX 3 sport suspension/shocks and were a def step up from early C4s. This one is basically perfect and tests the waters for #1 Concours cars.
Love the color! Offered our daughter who was born in 1989
one in this color when she turned 16. She said, “Nope, I’d rather have a 4Runner.” Of course the one I had picked out was an auto, standard issue. Still, ….
It looks good but not sure if it’s worth $24K. I like the L98 over the LT1, more dependable IMO and doesn’t have the problematic Optispark so to me that’s a plus. If it has factory 6 speed then it should have the DM flywheel, which as long as it works it’s good. If not, I don’t know of anyone that can surface them any more so you have only SM flywheel options and that can be noisy and chattery if the right replacement isn’t selected.
Overall I like the car but not sure it’s worth that much at this time, but I could be wrong.
I always get a kick out of general statements such as yours regarding the L98 being more “dependable” than the LT1.
Located in Walpole, NM
It sure don’t run like the new Vette’s but at least it looks like a Corvette and not a Eurotrash sports car.
I have had no personal experience with this car, yet every one I have ever been offered started out by saying “I’ve replaced the Opti-Spark” or “we’ve just repaired” the ignition. That said, what is the inherent problem with the system?
Opti-Spark on the LT-1moved the ignition from back of the engine to the front. As stated on every C4 forum, thay was not a great idea.The enclosure was mounted under the water pump. The enclosure was not vented properly and allowed the components to get wet and corrode. If the water pump failed things got wet in a hurry. The Opti-Spark could also get wet as a result of driving through standing water resulting in a no-start condition and a lot of labor to replace. The enclosure was redesigned to prevent the problem in the 95-96. Better late than never as far as GM was concerned.
I have a 1996 with an lt4, 330 hp 100k miles, changed the water pump and the opti spark distributor just for maintanence purpose, the distributor is there on the end of the cam to keep in time if there was torsional twist, there’s a small chain on top to run the water pump, which goes into the aluminium heads and not the block (reverse flow cools the heads first then down to the block that’s how come these lt’s could run 10.5 compression) great engine, zf 6 speed 5 &6 are overdrives (highway 27mpg!)
Smart move. If you have to replace either componet, replace them both. It is like getting two out of four wisdom teeth pulled. You will really regret not having it all done in one shot.
Fred, I discovered “The Dragon” quite by accident in the summer of 1977. I was in southeastern Tennessee seeing family. My then to be wife were in my 1976 Scirocco towing my little pop-up camper and staying at Silver Dollar City. (Now Dollywood) We had some time to kill before going horseback riding, so we headed to Asheville NC. HOLY COW was I impressed! Needless to say we never made it horseback riding. Luckily we did not have the trailer in tow AND my Scirocco was all set up for autocross. (lowered, wide wheels and tires, upper strut brace and lower control arm brace and Bilstein shocks) Also luckily, it was in the middle of the week and had no traffic to slow us down. The Scirocco got pushed as had as I could push it and stay on the pavement. I really don’t know how many times we ran it from one end to the other, but we used up a whole tank of fuel and my arms were tired. I went to sleep that night with a very large grin on my face. I still smile just reminiscing about the fun!
Glad you liked it my friend. I also prefer a weekday for less crowds. On the weekends you get a mix of people pulling campers and guys on hot bikes trying to do their thing. After I took my wife through those 318 turns, she demanded that she drive and promptly turned our Miata around and headed back onto the road. SHE did that twice. We love the area, even have a favorite hotel we stay at in Gatlinburg. SMNP is not only free but fantastic. Some of the best BBQ anywhere too. We hit it at least every several years. Now I love to drive the East coast from Maine to Florida. New England in the fall is amazing, but don’t discount TN and NC. Driving a great car is perhaps one of my greatest joys. People keep buying up cars and sitting on them to invest. They are truly missing out. Good cars need the open road with a smiling driver behind the wheel. My wife has her own garage for that Miata (her favorite of our 8 cars) and on the walls she keeps two plaques. One says she drove the Mt Washington Road in NH (damn scary place if you ask me), the other brags about driving the Dragons Tail. That one sits on top, she likes it best.
I had considerable experience autocrossing an 86 C4 convertible, and did both suspension an engine work. 84-87 C4s located the rear suspension links on the differential so the lower lateral links were at an angle, which meant in engineering terms, a high rear roll center, which caused the car rear of the car to jack (rise up) in a corner, which meant the outside tire would be in positive camber. In ’88 and later models, different brackets that lowered the attachment point corrected this problem. There remained, however, a problem that surfaced with high-grip tires where the rubber bushings in the lateral struts would compress on the outside in a turn, further aggregating the positive camber problem. The result was snap oversteer. Several companies made aftermarket kits to replace the lower struts with tubes and rod ends, and you can back-fit the 88+ bracket to the eariler cars, although you have to drill out the holes on the differential housing because the holes in the bracket are bigger. Understeer will increase slightly, which you can fix with a bigger rear anti-roll bar. The result is a car that with good tires can corner with C5s and C6s, and with nice predictable breakaway.