Category: Wheels

The Bananavette

Growing up I was a religious reader of car magazines — first Motor Trend, then Hot Rod, then Car and Craft. The former rarely had anything bad to say about cars it reviewed (and was rumored to have based its Car of the Year picks on advertising money spent); the other two were about modified cars.

One of those modified cars that caught my eye was this …

… explained by Corvette Blogger:

“The Big Banana” is ready to peel off again.

This heavily modified 1968 Corvette convertible was featured in a series of build articles in Car Craft Magazine from November 1975 through August 1976 and definitely stands out in a crowd with its IMSA-style widened fenders and adjustable rear deck spoiler.

Now after three years of extensive refurbishing by the current owner, it’s being offered on Bring a Trailer …

Since the new owner acquired it in 2018, this custom Stingray has been repainted in a bright shade of yellow with orange and brown stripes by Butch Brinza of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the 383 stroker V8 engine with a Holley carburetor and Edelbrock intake manifold was rebuilt last year.

The seller also has rebuilt the power-assisted four-wheel disc brakes and three-speed TH400 automatic transmission, replaced the shocks, wiring harness, radiator, various belts and hoses, windshield wiper motor, and exhaust, recharged the air conditioning, and changed the oil in July.

Other features of the car include a black soft top, front and rear independent suspension, 3.08:1 differential, 15-inch American Racing wheels, power steering, and vintage-look AM/FM stereo.

Proof that this is indeed “The Big Banana” is provided by a plaque still present in the engine bay, along with magazine articles spotlighting this one-of-a-kind Corvette and how it was built. The new owner will also get two replica Hot Wheels toys and refurbishment records.

Bring a Trailer added before it sold for apparently $28,000:

This 1968 Chevrolet Corvette convertible is finished in yellow with brown and orange striping and was modified with widened bodywork as part of a build series featured in consecutive Car Craft Magazine issues between November 1975 and August 1976. Nicknamed “The Big Banana”, the car was acquired by the seller in October 2018 and refurbished over the following three years with work including repainting the body, rebuilding the 383ci stroker V8 and three-speed automatic transmission, and refreshing the brakes, suspension, and air conditioning. Additional equipment includes a black soft top, a 3.08:1 differential, 15″ American Racing wheels, four-wheel disc brakes, power steering, an adjustable rear deck spoiler, fender vents, air conditioning, power windows, and a vintage-look AM/FM stereo. This modified C3 Corvette is now offered in California with magazine articles featuring the car and build process, spare keys, refurbishment records, spare parts, two replica Hot Wheels toys, and an Arizona title in the seller’s name.

The fiberglass bodywork was modified with IMSA-style widened fenders and an adjustable rear deck spoiler as part of a build featured in Car Craft Magazine in the late 1970s. The car was repainted in yellow with orange and brown stripes by Butch Brinza of Milwaukee, Wisconsin as part of a refurbishment completed in 2021. Exterior equipment includes a black soft top, cowl-induction hood, driver-side mirror, concealed headlights, fender vents, and a dual exhaust system. The seller states that the windshield wiper motor was replaced under current ownership.

The 15″ American Racing 200S wheels measure 10″ wide up front, 12″ wide out back, and wear Hankook Ventus tires measuring 265/50 and 295/50, respectively. The car is equipped with front and rear independent suspension along with power steering. Work completed as part of the refurbishment reportedly included rebuilding the power-assisted four-wheel disc brakes and replacing the shocks.

The cabin is trimmed in black vinyl upholstery and features lap belts, air conditioning, a console-mounted gear selector, power windows, sun visors, and a Corvette-branded vintage-look AM/FM radio with an auxiliary input. Replacement air conditioning components were installed as part of the refurbishment, and the air conditioning was recharged in July 2022.

The three-spoke steering wheel is mounted to a tilting column and fronts a 160-mph speedometer and a 7k-rpm tachometer along with an analog clock and auxiliary gauges in the center stack. The clock does not work. The five-digit odometer shows under 45k miles, approximately 2,500 of which were added under current ownership. Total mileage is unknown.

The 383ci stroker V8 was rebuilt in 2021 and is equipped with a Holley carburetor and Edelbrock intake manifold. Additional work completed at that time is said to have consisted of replacing the wiring harness and radiator along with various belts and hoses. The oil was changed in July 2022.

Power is sent to the rear wheels through a three-speed TH400 automatic transmission and a 3.08:1 differential. The transmission was rebuilt, and the exhaust was replaced under current ownership. …

Various magazines featuring the car and build process are included in the sale and shown in the gallery along with included spare parts and memorabilia.

Among the numerous modifications is the 1974–77-style rear end (with the 5-mph bumpers, which scandalized the owner of the first Corvette I remember seeing, a neighbor down the street) and a later-than-’68 steering column. How do I know that?

The 1968 Corvette was the only C3 to have its ignition switch on the instrument panel. In 1969 GM moved all car ignition switches (except for the Corvair, which was about to die) to the new locking steering column, one year ahead of the federal mandate. Notice through the steering column where the ignition switch is.

The Car Craft story I saw also noted that the sound system had a PA microphone added, which fascinated me for some reason.

This is the sort of thing I thought was really cool when I read it, even though I had no concept of (1) how much these mods cost and (2) how what you spend on modding a car you never get back in its resale.

Motor Trend Online adds:

Petersen magazines got a lot of mileage (so to speak) out of this widebody Vette in 1976. “It’s big, yellow, goes like the devil and attracts oglers of both sexes and every age group,” wrote Chuck Nerpel in a feature Motor Trend published in the December 1976 issue. This story capped a year in which Car Craft magazine devoted nine issues to the buildup of the “CC Vett,” taking it from an auto theft victim to the “only Corvette of its kind in the world.”

The car belonged to CC publisher Steve Green, who spent years sketching and planning the dream machine he wanted to build. Once his ideas gelled, he sought a subject car and found what Nerpel described as “a stripped 1968 Vette that had found its way into a small junkyard as the result of a car theft insurance settlement.”

There wasn’t much to the wreck, apparently, but that was fine with Green, as he would completely rebuild the car. He was fortunate that the Vette came with a heavy-duty suspension, as that gave Dick Guldstrand a solid starting point to “work his magic” on the chassis. Along with heavy-duty shocks and a rear camber kit, the suspension required “special tuning to handle the extra-wide Firestone Parnelli Jones G50x15 front tires on 8-1/2-in. rims and N50x15 rear tires on 10-in. rims.”

The wide rear meats also posed a challenge when it came time to mount the IMSA-style fenders. “New Chevy IMSA wheel coverings were cast of fiberglass; then, with lots of grinding, cutting and fitting, they were blended into the body shell. The end result was a very smooth-looking treatment combining both function and distinctive styling without that added-on look,” wrote Nerpel.

The bulging hood covered a 350ci V-8 that was modified “to achieve the best performance possible and still have an engine flexible enough to drive comfortably in traffic or on the highway,” said Nerpel. After trying out a variety of induction systems, Green settled on an Edelbrock Torker intake manifold topped by a Carter Thermoquad 9800 carburetor, “which seems to be just the right combination. On a recent 1,200-mile vacation trip, cruising at near-legal speeds, Steve logged 15.5 to 16 mpg, not bad for a 3,600-lb roadster that does a 100-mph quarter mile in 14 sec.”

Inside, Green rode in Scheel bucket seats fitted with Simpson competition belts. Stewart-Warner gauges replaced all the stock instruments, while tunes (we wonder if Green was into K.C. and the Sunshine Band, or more of a Steve Miller guy) played through a Blaupunkt AM/FM/cassette system. A radar detector was mounted near the windshield; there’s an early mobile phone tucked between the seats; and, this being the 1970s, there’s a CB radio in there, too. Given the value of all these onboard electronics, Green invested in a “very sophisticated” alarm system that had its own power supply and was “hooked to a transmitter that signals a small beeper unit Steve carries with him whenever the car is left unattended.”

The Big Banana was an attention-grabber for sure, “truly a one-of-a-kind Corvette,” as Nerpel put it. Even in car-crazy Los Angeles, during the height of the bell-bottoms-and-polyester era, it would stand out wherever Green took it.

This car not only piqued my interest in Corvettes, it piqued my interest in automotive journalism. I was a business magazine publisher once, but I didn’t own a Corvette then, before then or since then.

R.I.P. P.J.

Nick Gillespie:

No one did more to mainstream libertarian ideas about peace, love, and understanding over the past half-century than P.J. O’Rourke, who has died at the age of 74. And like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Sid Vicious, P.J. did it his way: by taking a blowtorch to the sacred cows of both the left and right.

“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn,” he warned. “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”

Writing in popular outlets such as National Lampoon, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, and appearing on NPR’s Wait…Wait Don’t Tell Me!, O’Rourke distilled the insights of Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and Friedrich Hayek with far more oomph.

“Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys,” wrote O’Rourke. “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”

“Libertarianism isn’t political,” he insisted. “It’s anti-political, really. It wants to take things out of the political arena.”

Like his journalistic inspirations Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, O’Rourke was no armchair curmudgeon or Ivory Tower philosopher-king. At his very best—in books like All the Trouble in the World and Holidays in Hell—he engaged the world directly and often at serious personal risk, traveling to war zones and disaster areas in more than 40 countries, including urban and rural hellholes in the United States.

“I have always belonged to the pessimistic wing of the libertarian attitude,” he told Reason in 2020. “This is probably because I spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent, largely covering wars, insurrections, social upheavals, and disturbances of all sorts….We have a rational side, thank God….But it isn’t the only side in our multifaceted—and sometimes pretty ugly—little personalities.”

Even as he despaired over a presidential contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump—”I’m appalled by the choice that we’ve been delivered…I’m worried”—he was never dissuaded from his faith in individuals yearning to be free, whether they live in Chicago or China.

“At the core of libertarianism, as an attitude and as a way of thinking about politics,” he said, “is the idea that people are assets.”

His elegiac 2014 book, The Baby Boom: How it Got That Way and It Wasn’t My Fault and I’ll Never Do it Again, writes his epitaph. Far from being either a screed against his own generation (which is what he expected it to be when he started writing), or a take-no-prisoners attack on millennials, it was instead a funny and thoughtful meditation on how we’ve arrived at a kinder, gentler country that somehow manages to prize individualism and community, innovation and tradition.

When asked whether the fights between the Greatest Generation, boomers, and millennials had left the country weirder and better off, he told Reason: “I think so. Certainly more tolerant. In fact tolerance I think isn’t even a good word anymore because tolerance means, ‘Well, I’ll put up with you if I have to.’ It’s more enthusiastic about people’s differences of plotting them and embracing them as it were, and that’s good.'”

If that’s true, it’s in no small part due to the contribution O’Rourke offered up, first by making us laugh, then by making us think, and finally by making us want to go out into the world he engaged with such passion.

Jonathan V. Last:

He was only 74—I think he always seemed more youthful than his years because he had kids late in life, and nothing keeps you young like running around after children.

He was, to various writers in my world, a godfather, a mentor, a big brother, a best man. I was never especially close to P.J.—many of my friends knew him much better than I did. But I read him for many years. I edited him a few times. We hung out.

And so, if you’re wondering why half of the journalists in America are in mourning today, I want to take a stab at explaining. Which is hard to do, because the answer is so simple:

It’s because P.J. was great.

I came into the world of writing in 1997. By that time, P.J. had been a star for a generation.

He started writing in the alt-weekly world. His big break came when he took over National Lampoon. From there he became one of the best magazine writers of the ’80s.

P.J. was most famous for being a funnyman, but early on he did all kinds of writing. He reported. He did longform. He wrote books. And this is a big part of why writers admired him so much: P.J. could hit to all fields with power. And while he became a star, with the kind of career that most of us only dream of, he came up the hard way. He did not emerge fully formed from William Shawn’s head like Athena. He worked for it.

Let me put it this way: If you’re a writer and you look at Joan Didion, you see an untouchable prodigy, someone who might as well be from another planet.

But when you looked at P.J. O’Rourke you saw a craftsman and you thought to yourself, “If I work hard enough and hit the ball cleanly, on every at bat, every day, for a few decades . . . well, then maybe I could be like P.J.”

So that’s one reason we loved him.

Another is that he was a professional’s professional.

Here’s a secret of the trade: The better a writer is, the easier he is to edit.

Bad writers will haggle with editors over every comma. The best writers (a) need very little editing and (b) are perfectly open to edits because they see and appreciate when a phrase or a thought has been improved.

P.J. was a joy to edit. Collegial, professional. The kind of writer who makes you a better writer once you get to look under the hood at his process. The kind of writer with whom it is a privilege to work.

I suspect that the biggest reason P.J. was beloved by his peers and colleagues was his openness and kindness.

For many years he was as close to being a household name as magazine writers get. And yet he was never a big shot. No matter who you were, he’d talk to you.

When he was stopped on the street by admirers he was as gracious as you could hope for. If you were a staff assistant at a magazine and you approached him, he’d respond as freely and generously as if you were a longtime colleague.

And not just to exchange pleasantries. He’d talk to you about writing, or an idea—anything, really—thoughtfully, openly. He was neither superior nor patronizing. There was no bs. He’d talk to you like you were a real writer—just another member the guild, like him.

There are few gifts an accomplished writer can give his juniors that are more treasured.

P.J. spent his life bestowing such respect on a constant stream of writers and editors and researchers and fact-checkers and all of the sundry tradespeople who populate the world of letters.

P.J. was unusually beloved in my world. I know only a handful of writers who do not revere him. I’ve never met anyone who was not fond of him.

There’s an Oscar Wilde line about how “anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend” but it takes “a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.” Gore Vidal’s version: “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” These are very real phenomena. And yet they never touched P.J.

No matter how much success he saw, P.J.’s peers were never jealous. There were never any knives out for him. Quite the opposite, actually. We cheered for him. We admired him.

Because P.J. was what every writer hoped we might someday be: The best version of ourselves. Talented and kind. A champion for others. A workhorse. A wit and a gentleman. A writer. A tremendous writer.

He is already missed.

O’Rourke wrote for Car & Driver magazine, which is where I first saw his work. Jamie Kitman:

P.J. O’Rourke, the political commentator, satirist, and bestselling author who we maintain did some of his best work for Car and Driver, died February 15 of complications arising from lung cancer at age 74. The world is a poorer place.

O’Rourke first made his name as a regular contributor and later editor-in-chief of The National Lampoon, the daringly irreverent 1970s humor magazine that helped shape American comedy for decades to come, spinning off movies, TV shows, stage plays, name-brand actors, comedians, and albums. Though O’Rourke’s byline would go on to appear in many serious publications and on the covers of the more than 20 books he’d author, he was pretty much never serious, and the iconoclastic bent that allowed him to make fun of everyone and everything, including himself, was with him till the end. While his official political affiliation would in middle age see him become a Republican with a pronounced libertarian bent, he was, by way of example, as sharp-tongued and cantankerous about his new party as he was about Democrats and his former fellow travelers from the peace-and-love Sixties from which he’d emerged, a full-blown American archetype, a cranky ex-hippie who loved cars and could write his pants off.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, and graduate of the state’s Miami University (he’d later grab a master’s degree in English from Johns Hopkins), O’Rourke wasn’t a tech freak. Rather, he spoke the language of the American road, which like many of his generation fascinated him, but with an extra acuity that followed perhaps from his father’s having been a car salesman. (His mother was a school administrator.) This enthusiasm for car travel spilled over into the pages of the Lampoon often, but perhaps most notably in the 1979 demi-classic “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink.”

Today’s younger, woker readers will perhaps not be familiar with a style of writing that routinely celebrated drunk driving and sexual congress behind the wheel—hey, people, he was kidding! (We hope.) But in this old O’Rourke standard, too, lies a passage that led many an aspiring car writer back in the day to put pen to paper.

“Even more important than being drunk, however, is having the right car. You have to get a car that handles really well. This is extremely important, and there’s a lot of debate on this subject—about what kind of car handles best. Some say a front-engined car; some say a rear-engined car. I say a rented car. Nothing handles better than a rented car. You can go faster, turn corners sharper, and put the transmission into reverse while going forward at a higher rate of speed in a rented car than in any other kind. You can also park without looking, and can use the trunk as an ice chest. Another thing about a rented car is that it’s an all-terrain vehicle. Mud, snow, water, woods—you can take a rented car anywhere. True, you can’t always get it back—but that’s not your problem, is it?”

While O’Rourke’s wide-ranging wit and biting humor would follow him, briefly, to Hollywood (screenwriting chores on Rodney Dangerfield’s 1983 picture Easy Money were apparently enough to scratch the itch), it would also land him assignments as a war correspondent for Rolling Stone and essayist for the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal, and earn him regular spots on television (60 Minutes) and radio (most recently, NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me).

But we will always remember him for his car writing. A 1978 piece for Car and Driver, “Sgt. Dynaflow’s Last Patrol,” tells the story of a liquor-fueled journey O’Rourke took with an English chum, Humphrey, transporting a sickly 1956 Buick from Florida to California and breaking down each of their eleven days on the road.

“When the engine went out, we were in a desolate stretch of piney woods somewhere south of Tallahassee. There was no warning. All of a sudden it was just much too quiet and we weren’t going nearly as fast as we should have been. We figured it was probably the old set of points.

“There was this shack-like building about a hundred yards down the road with a couple of broken gas pumps out front and a sign that said ‘Beer.’ It was half overgrown with swamp and looked like the first panel in an old E.C. comic but it was the only building we’d seen for twenty miles so we pushed the car over there and I went inside to borrow some tools. There were about a dozen hard-visaged, definitely unfriendly and possibly cannibalistic Southern types in there, all eyeing me suspiciously. The bartender was a big, nasty-looking old guy with an enormous paunch, a flat-top haircut four inches high, and an unlit cigar turned backwards in his mouth. I got the idea that he didn’t much like my looks either, but he loaned me a screwdriver and an adjustable crescent wrench.

“Humphrey was all business under the hood, tinkering with this and tapping on that, I thought maybe he knew what he was doing until I realized that he couldn’t find the spark plugs. Buick used to put these lid things over them. God knows why. But, anyway, after we’d pried one off and given ourselves some electrical shocks, we figured maybe it wasn’t the old set of points after all. Maybe it was vapor lock. If you leave vapor lock alone it gets better. This is exactly the kind of mechanical problem that Humphrey and I are good at, and we decided it was vapor lock and went inside for a drink.”

Two years later, he was again in the pages of C/D, this time in a cross-country blast from New Jersey to L.A. in a Ferrari 308GTS.

“But best of all the looks we got were the looks we got from the ten-year-old boys. They’d be back there with their little faces pressed up against the glass in the RV back windows, and they’d see this red rocket sled coming up behind them in the $50 lane. It couldn’t help but touch your heart, how their eyes lit up and their mouths dropped down, as if Santa’d brought them an entire real railroad train. You could all but hear the pitter-patter of the sneakers on their feet as they ran up front and started jerking on their dads’ Banlon shirt collars, jumping up and down and yelling and pointing out the windshield, ‘Didja see it?! Didja see it, Dad?! Didja?! Didja?! Didja?! Didja?!’”

Gosh, we’ll miss you, man.

All I want for Christmas is …

Regular readers of this blog know about my affection for the Corvette, a vehicle I have yet to own. (Because life is unfair.)

Corvette ownership is incompatible with kids, a lack of garage, and employment in a generally poor paying profession. Corvettes are also expensive to own even beyond their usual gas mileage.

Corvsport suggests othwersie (boldface theirs):

Almost since its introduction 65 years ago, there has been a stigma in the automotive community that Corvettes are only driven by older, financially-well-off members of society.  This reputation exists because of the common belief that these are the only people that can afford them.  To the casual observer, this “stereotype,” (for lack of a better word,) tends to ring true.

When looking at the average age of active members is most Corvette clubs, or when frequenting car shows where Corvettes are on display, the owners do tend to be on the more mature side of the age spectrum. The seemingly obvious conclusion people come to is this – Corvettes are expensive and therefore require a budget that is free from the many financial burdens that are often connected with many of the younger demographics – such as paying for college, buying a house, raising a family, etc.

Right?

While the above argument sounds reasonable, and may even prove to be true in some instances, there are a number of Corvettes in the used car market that make ownership more affordable today than ever before in the brand’s history.  While a 1963 Split-Window coupe is still going to be financially out of reach for many of us, there are whole generations of Corvettes that can be purchased today for under $20k, and some now sell for less than $10k, thereby throwing those earlier claims of “senior-level-affordability” right out the window!

To help illustrate this point, and to help potential future owners find their first Corvette, we decided to collect some pricing data on eight of the most affordable Corvette models in today’s used car market. In each instance, we shopped for the same car in five different cities across the United States and then calculated the average price of each model to provide the prices you see listed below. Although these dollar amounts are an average, they reflect the pricing (+/- $1,500) listed on each car we researched in each of the surveyed markets.

Here then is our list of Corvette models that can readily be purchased by just about anyone (from most-to-least expensive (on average)):

2005 Corvette

Average Price: $20,215.00

It may come as a surprise to many Corvette enthusiasts, but it is possible to find a low-mileage C6 Corvette for right around $20k.

The 2005 Corvette, which featured a 400 horsepower LS2 V8 engine and could be ordered with all sorts of cool options, has become surprisingly affordable over the past couple of years.  Some say its because the 2005 Corvette was the first model year of the new generation, making it “more prone to issues” commonly associated with the roll-out of a new production vehicle. However, the 2005 Corvette includes a proven powerplant that promises exhilarating horsepower and performance. Moreover, it features a re-designed exterior that many enthusiasts praise as an improvement over the outgoing C5 model.

It should be noted however that the C6 Corvette was far more than just a redesign of its predecessor.  GM engineers had approached the redesign of the Corvette with the understanding that, for the first time in the brand’s history, they were going to build an all-out sports car. In addition to tremendous acceleration and top-end power, the 2005 Corvette also featured strong stopping power and race-car worthy cornering.  The sixth-generation Corvette provided owners with a driving experience that was far more refined than any of the earlier Corvettes that had come before it.

Still not convinced? Consider this…the 2005 Corvette was included on Car and Driver’s annual “10 Best” list and even beat out the 2005 Porsche 911 in a Car and Driver’s comparison test.  Additionally, it took first place in a 2005 Road and Track comparison of nine sports-cars, a comparison that included: the Honda S2000, the Dodge Viper, the Porsche 911, the Porsche Boxster, and the Nissan 350Z, among others. As quoted from the article, written by Sam Mitani on February 16, 2005, the C6 had “no real weaknesses and many strengths. It possess world class performance, a high level of comfort and dashing good looks. And it’s available for nearly half the price of a Porsche Carrera S.”

2001–04 Corvette Z06

Average Price: $18,920.00

When the Z06 Corvette was introduced in 2001, it was marketed as being a true, “race-ready” Corvette.  While the C5 Corvette coupe and convertible had been praised by the automotive community as a whole, Corvette’s Chief Engineer David Hill had been dissatisfied with the power and performance aspects of the (then) current-generation car.   He believed that some drivers simply wanted to “go faster” and have the “strongest automobile on the street.”

Early (2001–2002) Z06 Corvettes featured a 385 horsepower LS6 engine, while later models (2003–2004) featured a more robust version of the engine rated at 405 horsepower. This revised powerplant, which had been based on the LS1 engine used in the coupe and convertible models, propelled the Z06 from 0-60 in just four seconds.  Per David Hill, “We’ve enhanced Corvette’s performance persona and broken new ground with the Z06. With 0 – 60 times of four seconds flat and more than 1g of cornering acceleration (skidpad), the Z06 truly takes Corvette performance to the next level. In fact, the Corvette Team has begun referring to it as the C5.5, so marked are the improvements we’ve made and the optimization of the car in every dimension.”

Today, the fifth-generation Z06 Corvette is far-less powerful than the sixth- and especially the seventh-generation models that bear the same designation. However, as the newer cars have emerged and claimed their place in the ever-changing rankings of “most-powerful Corvette,” the price of the fifth-generation C5 Corvettes have dropped considerably.  And, while 385-405 horsepower may tremble in comparison to the 650 horsepower of the current Z06, these earlier-generation Z06 Corvettes are still an absolute blast to drive.

Even by today’s standards, the 2001–2004 Corvette Z06 is a “race ready (sports car) right of the box” and is still considered a bargain amongst comparably equipped sports cars from Europe – such as Ferraris and Porsches – from that same era.

1999 Corvette Convertible

Average Price: $16,295.00

Considering that the 1999 Corvette convertible had a retail price that started at $45,579.00 in 1999, it is nothing short of incredible that there are many low-to-moderate mileage examples of this car on the market today for well below $20,000.00! While this statement holds true for most of the C5 models, we selected the 1999 Corvette convertible because we felt it reflected the most value for the money of all the fifth-generation Corvettes on the used-car market today.

Elsewhere on the car, the 1999 Corvette featured a telescoping steering column, twilight sentinel headlamps and magnesium wheelsFor the 1999 model year, the engineers behind the Corvette had introduced a lot of awesome new technology into the car.  One of the most exciting new features was the introduction of the “Heads Up Display”, a sophisticated and high-tech system that projected data – from speed to engine RPM’s – on the lower left section of the car’s windshield.  The display was customizable and included a “check guages” warning light that would illuminate when the driver needed to pay attention to something on the dashboard gauge cluster that was not included as part of the heads up display.

But why recommend the convertible over the coupe?  There is no black-and-white answer to this question. We selected the convertible over the coupe in this instance primarily because, having driven both version of this car at length, we felt that the convertible was simply more enjoyable – more fun – to drive. Although some might argue that the addition of a convertible top adds considerable weight to the car, thereby reducing its performance capabilities, the reality is that the 1999 Corvette convertible weighed only one pound more than its coupe counterpart. With a standing 0-60 time of just 4.9 seconds, the 1999 Corvertible was a solid performer, and still enabled consumers to drop the top without the trouble of having to store a hard top in the rear half of the car’s cabin area.

1975 Corvette Coupe

Average Price: $14,800.00

For many Corvette enthusiasts, the C3 is the very definition of what a Corvette should look like.  The large fender flares, the swept back profile and the car’s long hood are all part of the car’s iconic look.  This body design, which was the hybrid brainchild of Zora Arkus-Duntov, Bill Mitchell and Larry Shinoda, was built from 1968 to 1982, with only minor revisions to the overall look of the car during that entire duration.  It remains the longest production run of any single generation of the Corvette.

So, given the number of other third-generation model years available, why did we choose the 1975 model?

The answer is two-fold. First, and probably the most relevant reason (as it relates to the topic of this article), is that General Motors reduced the number of available engines for the 1975 model year.  As a result, the only available choices were either the stock 165 horsepower engine, or the optional L82 engine, which produced a modestly more impressive 205 horsepower.   While neither of these powerplants offered consumers the blistering speed of the earlier third-generation Corvettes, this reduction in power has also made purchasing a C3 far more affordable in today’s used car market, providing you aren’t looking for high-output power.

The second reason that we selected this Corvette is that it marked two important milestones:

It was the last time that the C3 Corvette would be offered as a convertible.

It was the last time that a Corvette convertible would cost less than a coupe (when it was sold new), and is still a terrific value on the used car market today (NOTE:1975 Corvette convertibles sell (on average) for about $1800 more than the coupes, though there are still some amazing deals out there.)

Now we know what you’re probably thinking – our recommendation was for the 1975 Corvette coupe, NOT the convertible, right? When assembling this list of cars, we discovered that the 1975 Corvette coupes are now LESS expensive than the convertibles, though both are great values for someone interested in purchasing a third-generation Corvette. In fact,when it comes to buying a mid-generation C3 Corvette, the 1975 model year is about the perfect blend of classic design and affordability.

1979 Corvette Coupe

Average Price: $11,480.00

Known as the fastback Corvette (a re-design that was originally introduced in 1978), it is arguable that the 1979 Corvette was growing “long in the tooth” from a design standpoint.  Chevrolet had been manufacturing the third-generation Corvette for more than a decade already, and while the fastback rear-end gave the car an updated appearance, it was argued by many automotive critics from that era that Chevrolet had “worn out its welcome” with the current body design.

Despite these criticisms, Chevrolet manufactured 53,807 Corvettes in 1979, a production run which set the record for the largest number of Corvettes built in a single year (a record that still stands today.)

The 1979 Corvette came equipped with either the base L48 engine, which produced 195 horsepower, or the L82 engine, which produced 225 horsepower.  These powerplants resonated with consumers, and afforded owners a straight-line 0-60 time (when equipped with the L82) of just 6.6 seconds, a standing quarter mile time of 15.3 seconds and a top speed of 127 miles per hour.  While these numbers are tame by today’s super-car standards, the performance and value of the 1979 Corvette could not be questioned back in its day.

So how come they’re so affordable and so readily available now?

The limited market value that the 1979 Corvette has today can be correlated from those same criticisms that many made against this model year when it was new. Namely, it was an uninspired design that had lived past its prime. Chevrolet had manufactured a lot of these cars, and while they sold quickly, their value also depreciated quickly, especially once the fourth-generation Corvette arrived on the scene. Moreover, while the factory engine offerings might have excited consumers back in the late 1970’s, the L48 and L82 powerplants were hardly noteworthy entries in this history of the brand.

Still, the intrinsic collectors value of the  1979 Corvette (along with the 1980–1982 models that would follow it) has rebounded some over the past (almost) thirty years. Like other cars from that era, the classic nature of the 1979 Corvette adds to its mystique.  While the car may have lacked the factory power of its younger (and older) siblings, the overall aesthetic and allure of a late-model C3 is unmistakable.  More than that, the abundance of these cars makes finding parts for repairs/maintenance far more manageable, which helps keeps costs down….and let’s face it, if you are going to consider buying a decades-old car, there will be costs associated with its upkeep.

However, if you on the hunt for a classic-looking Corvette that will show well at the Saturday morning Cars & Coffee meet-up, then a 1979 Corvette may be just what you are looking for!

1996 Corvette Coupe/Convertible

Average Price: $8,840.00

For anyone that’s looking for affordable fun with genuine performance, you need look no further than the 1996 Corvette.

The 1996 model year was to be the last of the fourth-generation Corvettes. While Chevrolet was already geared up to begin production of the C5 model, the departure of the C4 was celebrated with a couple of special edition models – the 1996 Collector’s Edition Corvette and the 1996 Grand Sport Corvette – both of which were offered for just a single year.  These cars (especially the Grand Sport) still retail on the used car market for considerably more than the base model coupe and convertible referenced in this article, but both of these “special editions” have also become increasingly affordable over time.

What makes the 1996 Corvette (and the late model C4‘s in general) such an exciting buy is that this car was really the first model of the Corvette brand to feature exceptional handling and drivability, and not just straight-line performance.  The 1990–1995 ZR1 Corvette had catapulted the Corvette brand into supercar status, if briefly, but the base coupe and convertible had made performance driving affordable for a much broader audience than companies like Porsche or Ferrari.

Hidden under the hood of the 1996 Corvette was either an LT1 engine, rated at a very-respectable 300 horsepower or, for the 1996 model year ONLY (and then, only in those cars equipped with a manual transmission), the optional LT4 engine, which was rated (very conservatively) at 330 horsepower.  The LT4 engine, which many claim was underrated by GM for tax purposes, was a stepping-stone towards the more robust LS platform, which would prove to be transformative in the performance of future-generation Corvettes. Still, for consumers on a budget, finding the right 1996 Corvette will provide big-dollar fun without breaking the bank. Trust us, we’ve driven these cars, and they don’t disappoint.

1989 Corvette Coupe

Average Price: $8,140.00

These last two entries are all about fun on a budget.

The 1989 Corvette was introduced in conjunction with the Corvette ZR-1. While the ZR-1 was unveiled in 1989, its arrival would be delayed a year due to an “insufficient availability of engines caused by additional development.” However, some of the technology developed for the ZR-1 would find its way into the 1989 Corvette, including an all-new six-speed manual transmission.

The six-speed manual transmission was developed as a replacement to the never-popular Doug Nash 4+3 transmission, which had been part of the C4 Corvette program since its introduction in 1984. The new transmission was met with unquestioning approval, and would become a staple of the Corvette platform for the next 25 years (albeit with updates to the design).

The other big change for the 1989 Corvette was the inclusion of the Z52 suspension package on all models of the car. While the Z52 had previously been offered as an option, its inclusion as a standard feature in 1989 was a welcome addition among Corvette enthusiasts.  The package included a combination of the Z51 handling package with a softer suspension on the base models.  It also included a radiator boost fan, Bilstein shock absorbers, an engine oil cooler, a heavy-duty radiator, a faster 13:1 steering ratio and a larger front stabilizer bar.

Powered by the L98 V8 engine (the predecessor to the LT1, which would be introduced in 1991), the car produced a respectable 245 horsepower.  This translated into a 0-60 mph time of just 5.4 seconds and a quarter mile time of 14.1 seconds, both of which were on-par with the European sports car offerings of that era.

1985–86 Corvette Coupe

Average Price: $5,780.00

When it comes to affordable Corvettes, you won’t find any on the market for less money than a mid-eighties C4, especially one built between 1984 and 1986.

While the 1984 Corvette tends to be the lowest price ‘Vette out there, we have excluded it from this list mostly because their actual value – even at such a low price point – is questionable at best.  The 1984 Corvette was setup with both the Doug Nash 4+3 manual transmission as well as the incredibly finicky and fairly unreliable Crossfire Fuel Injection system. Yes, one can be had for less than $5,000.00, but the constant upkeep to keep the car on the road makes this one less desirable than its slightly more expensive younger brothers, the 1985 and 1986 Corvette.

In 1985, the engineers behind the Corvette abandoned the Crossfire Injection in favor of the more conventional, and utterly more reliable Tuned Port Fuel Injection platform. This new fuel delivery system, combined with a half-point compression increase (9.5:1) improved the 1985 Corvette‘s power output to 230 horsepower, a 25 hp gain over the 1984 Corvette.

So improved was the car’s performance that the 1985 Corvette was actually capable of performing at the same level as the Porsche 928, yet sold for approximately half the price when new. In fact, the 1985 Corvette was named the “Fastest Car in America” after achieving a top speed of 150 miles per hour!

The big news for the 1986 model year was the return of a convertible top, an option that had been absent on the Corvette since 1975. The 1986 Corvette also marked the second time in the brand’s history that the Corvette would serve as the official pace car of the Indianapolis 500. While convertibles today are a popular commodity, the price point of the Corvette convertible was high enough that the car did not sell very well its first year back on the market. Instead, the dominant – and the most readily available 1986 Corvette on the market today – is one equipped with the Z51 option.

Consider this, there are still a good number of available mid-eighties Corvettes on the road today. While the condition of these cars varies significantly, it is still possible to find one that has been well maintained and in good, working order. Better still, there are a number of reputable after-market parts distributors (both online and in actual store fronts) that sell just about every part conceivable for the fourth-generation Corvette.

What does all this mean?  It means that buying a used fourth-generation Corvette is not only possible, but its an excellent way to try your hand at Corvette ownership.  Naturally, you’ll want to do some homework and make sure the car you are buying is mechanically sound – unless, of course, you are intentionally looking for a project car (believe us, there are plenty of those out there too.) Still, with a little bit of patience and determination, it is possible to find a great Corvette for less than six-grand!

But What About That Stereotype?

You might recall at the start of this article that we discussed the stereotypes surrounding Corvette ownership.  While the argument has been made that owning a Corvette is simply too expensive for most people, we’ve proven beyond reasonable doubt that this simply isn’t true.

Why, then, does the general consensus indicate that the majority of Corvettes are owned by older individuals/couples?

First, we don’t think the older demographic makes up the majority of Corvette owners as some have suggested. Yes, many Corvette clubs are made up of more senior members of society – but that’s largely because retirees have the time and resource to be actively involved in a club.  Like many other car clubs across the country, Corvette clubs take multiple-day trips throughout the year, and so it makes sense that the majority of the participants would be retired – the rest of us are probably at work, wishing we could be out there on the open road with them!

Second, (for the two or three people on the planet who didn’t already know this,) Corvettes are strictly two-seat automobiles. The limited seating poses a challenge for anyone with children who need to be driven anywhere.

As both a Corvette owner and a father of three, I can tell you that I don’t get my car out on the road as often as I’d like. It’s a “juggling act” at times – finding time to drive my car when there are dance classes, soccer tournaments and countless other kid-friendly activities to attend to. Still, I find the time – often early on Saturday morning – where I get to hit the open road for a few hours while my wife and kids continue to sleep…but this isn’t just a Corvette-thing – my good friend, who is several years older than me, gets out during this same time to ride his Kawasaki Vulcan motorcyle – a vehicle that is commonly purchased by all age demographics both young and old!

Still, my comment proves a point. The fact is – most Corvette owners who can routinely drive their cars are one of the following: single, a young couple who either don’t yet have children or who have either elected not to have children or have since raised their children and now live only with their significant other. These lucky couples have the opportunity and ability to jump in their cars and go out wherever, and more importantly WHENEVER they choose.

See where I’m going with this?

Short answer – don’t let the “old men own Corvettes” stereotype prevent you from buying into your dream of Corvette ownership. Age is not a defining characteristic of Corvette ownership…and for most of us, it’s also NOT a mid-life crisis playing itself out.

These cars are designed to enthrall, to excite, to remind us why we are alive. If you’ve dreamed of owning one of these cars but have been waiting for the right time to buy one, let me suggest that the right time is just about NOW.

Take some time and explore the cars available to you in your own backyard, or across this beautiful nation of ours….and if you have to fly across the country to land an amazing deal, justthink of the adventure you’ll have driving your new Corvette – or at least NEW TO YOU Corvette – home.

Young or old, the feeling of driving your Corvette for the first time is priceless and it will be a memory that you’ll treasure the rest of your life.

The C3 through C5 Corvettes all meet my definition of what a Vette should have — a manual transmission (except for 1982), T-tops or.a targa top, and hidden headlights. The c$ is hampered by being the most difficult Vette to get out of, and the two hideous instrument panel displays.

Second song, same theme as the first

Not long ago Tim McGraw, who once sang about a truck …

… sang about another truck:

Before we go on: McGraw sings about “an old stick-shift dark blue F-150 in good condition.” But if you look at 45 degrees on the steering wheel …

… you will see an automatic transmission shifter. (No automaker has made a three-on-the-tree vehicle in decades.)

It turns out that there are now don’t-want-my-truck-anymore songs on the country charts, thanks to Dylan Scott:

I would suggest that McGraw and Scott trade truck, except that you’ll notice what happens to Scott’s truck at the end of the video.

It is interesting that two artists, or their writers, came up with the same song theme so close together time-wise.

One wonders who will be the artist who writes about a breakup with his truck. As someone pointed out, once trucks become self-driving a truck can initiate a breakup.

On the shooting brake

First question: What is a shooting brake, you ask?

Ask BBC’s TopGear:

Aston once built a DB5 Shooting Brake. It looks good. More so, it has reminded us just how much we like shooting brakes, which are nearly as old as the car itself (though they’ve changed a bit since their inception in the early twentieth century). Originally conceived for hunting game, shooting brakes were described by Commercial Motor magazine as having “seats for eight persons as well as the driver, whilst four guns and a large supply of cartridges, provisions baskets and a good ‘bag’ can be carried” in 1908.

James and Tracy Bond could have used this had Tracy survived “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” to produce next-generation 007s.

Nowadays, they’ve morphed into a sort of cross between an estate and a coupe. Sports car panache. Estate car space. And, more often than not, a soupcon of knee-trembling suave.

Here are some of our favourites.

You know it’s British when “favourite” is spelled with a U and when “whilst” replaces “while.”

1972 Volvo 1800ES

The all-glass rear hatch earned it the nickname Schneewittchensarg (Snow White’s coffin) in Germany, but that didn’t stop Volvo using the outline as inspiration for the 480 and C30.

1968 Reliant Scimitar

Hey, did you know Princess Anne had one? Probably. But then again, who didn’t have one?

The Scimitar’s production run stretched from 1968 to 1990.

I believe “Scimitar” means “looks like a Ford (Mercury in the U.S.) Capri wagon.”

1999 BMW Z3M Coupe

Is it a Shooting Brake? Possibly, though a small one.

It remains one of the better driving things in the history of the automobile, and the divisive styling’s matured well. We’ll take two.

2011 Ferrari FF

Yep, it’s the GTC4Lusso’s forebear, complete with less clunky (though less history-inspired) name.

Basics? 6.3-litre V12, mad grinning face, Ferrari’s first ever four-wheel drive system, and up to 800 litres of luggage space. …

1992 Aston Martin Virage Shooting Brake

A mess of older Astons were transformed into shooting brakes by bodyfiller sculptors in the sixties, but this one’s the real deal.

Only four were made by the company’s Works Service and it cost £165,000 back in 1992. Equivalent to £290,000 in today’s money. Crikey.

Which is around $350,000.

2005 Audi Shooting Brake concept

Unveiled at the 2005 Tokyo motor show, this design study was based on the second-gen TT and had a 3.2-litre VR6 engine hiding behind the LEDs.

It didn’t make it to production, but as Audi’s range expands to fill every conceivable niche, it’s surely only a matter of time…

2013 Callaway AeroWagon

It costs £9,100 on top of a new Corvette, it doesn’t hold much more stuff, you don’t get more seats or headroom, and there’s no performance benefit.

But hot diggidy, we still want a poor man’s FF quite a lot.

1972 Ferrari 365 GTB 4 Shooting Brake

The thing about Ferraris these days is they’re far too common; any old millionaire can have one. Far better, then, to go for something like this – a one-off 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB 4 Shooting brake, one of the most outrageous ‘brakes ever built. Starting life as the 805th Daytona off the line, it was fully rebodied by Panther Westwards in Surrey, England and has more than whiff of hearse about it.

But who cares about looking like the world’s fastest funeral carriage when you have a 352bhp 4.4-litre V12 to wring out, and enough boot space to move house?

2016 Toyota GT86 Shooting Brake

“It is a fully functioning, driveable vehicle that has been put through its paces on Toyota test tracks,” explains Tetsuya Tada, GT86 chief engineer. “The GT86’s nicely weighted and direct steering ensures the car retains the coupe’s involving driving experience with a slightly more neutral feel in tight corners.”

2016 Ferrari GTC4Lusso

Yep, the same shape as the old FF. But lots is new. The styling has had a big update while there’s a gamut of new tech, including four-wheel steering, plus an additional 30bhp, and a 208mph top speed. Yikes.

New too is the V8 Lusso T, which does without all-wheel drive and has a turbo’d V8 instead of the big V12. It’s barely any slower and looks exactly the same, but promises to be a fair bit cheaper… Click here to read our review of the V12, and here for more information on the new V8.

Coming to a road course near you

I normally do not follow NASCAR particularly often beyond perhaps two races — the season-opening Daytona 500 and the Memorial Day-weekend Coca~Cola (formerly World) 600.

The former is sort of NASCAR’s Super Bowl even though it starts the NASCAR season. The first live 500 …

… included this finish …

… and this fight.

(CBS’ race analyst, by the way, was David Hobbs, who will be happy to sell you a Honda in Milwaukee.)

The Coca~Cola 600 became a family tradition when it moved to the Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend, we started going to Glen Haven for its Fire Department catfish festival, and we started listening to the race on the radio.

Before that, I have been to Road America a few times since the first time in the early 1980s. Somewhere I have pretty good photos of the track, including cars that spun out in front of me. There is also a photo of me looking as if I’m attempting to break into a Ferrari (that may have been owned by a certain Wisconsin car dealer you may have heard of). There are probably no photos of the Three Mile Island-level sunburn I got that day. (I had to peel myself out of bed the next day.)

I went to a few Road America events during my days as editor of Marketplace Magazine. In one I stood near the start/finish line and watched Vic Edelbrock fire up a 1960s Corvette race car for one vintage practice race. Shortly before or afterward I walked past a tent where Carroll Shelby was signing autographs.

The last time I went was in 2010, when I parked my car in media parking, my Subaru Outback kind of pale in comparison with the Corvettes and Porsches parked there that apparently belonged to motorsports journalists. (I should have bought a Corvette, though I’m not sure at which previous point in my life it would have made financial sense to do that.)

For some reason I have been getting NASCAR emails. That turned out to be a good thing this one time, because the most recent email says:

NASCAR officials released the 2021 Cup Series schedule Wednesday, introducing three new tracks, expanding to six road courses and placing a dirt-track race on the calendar for the first time in more than 50 years.

Next year’s Cup Series remains at 36 point-paying races, starting as it did this year with the season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 14) and ending with the championship finale at Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 7). In between those bookends, there are new venues and schedule shuffles as part of the dramatic changes long hinted at by NASCAR officials.

Among the shifts for 2021 are these highlights …

— July 4: Road America, a historic 4.048-mile road circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, that last hosted the Cup Series in 1956.

NASCAR has been at Road America before, though not in its top level, since the aforementioned 1956 race.

Somewhere there is a video of a NASCAR truck race with three trucks going down the two-lane track before the one-lane turn. It’s a wild sight.

I may have to go cover this in July.

Our shiftless (and eventually driverless) days

David L. Scott:

My first car was a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air ragtop. I was 17 and it was one of the most beautiful vehicles I had ever seen. I treasured that car and six decades later it occasionally pops up in my dreams.

But it had two shortcomings: The engine was topped with a measly two-barrel carburetor (remember those?) and, more important, it was burdened with an automatic transmission. At the time no self-respecting high-school male wanted to drive an automatic—that was for parents and grandparents. I wanted a stick shift that would make me look cool. Plus, I could burn rubber in a manual, even with a two-barrel carburetor.

The baddest car in town was George Cameron’s black 1957 fuel-injected Chevy. This was a car only God himself could have placed on earth. In my boyhood home of Rushville, Ind., George spent weekend evenings cruising Main Street at a slow creep with no need to race the engine or squeal the tires. Everyone already knew this was the fastest car in the county. His Chevy sported a three-on-the-column stick shift.

Sadly, the end of the manual transmission is near, and the unfortunate truth is few people will miss it. Most young adults don’t know how to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission, and they aren’t interested in learning. Many modern automatics offer better fuel efficiency and quicker acceleration than their manual counterparts. Porsche now delivers 75% of its 718 and 911 sports cars with automatic transmissions. The new C8 Corvette is only available with one. When the stick shift loses Porsche and Corvette buyers, you know it’s quickly heading for the rearview mirror.

But there is more bad news. In the future, cars won’t only be automatics; it appears they’ll increasingly be automated, electric vehicles. The satisfying throbbing of the exhaust and the pleasure of driving will also become victims of progress. Traveling in a personal vehicle will be as exciting as riding in an elevator with windows.

Despite impressive improvements in vehicle technology, my devotion for manually shifting gears, listening to the rumble of the exhaust, and maintaining a tight grip on the steering wheel through a sharp curve remains undiminished. Gripping the shifter knob allows a driver to become part of the vehicle rather than someone who is little more than a passenger. Manually accelerating through the gears and downshifting into a curve are two of motoring’s most satisfying experiences.

The sound, feel and thrill of driving are to be relished, not relegated to the trash heap and memories along with carburetors, fender skirts, steel wheels and hubcaps. Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway in a sports car with a manual transmission and you too will become a believer.

Powerful Pontiacs

SD 421

69 TA convertibles

Humbler exhaust

73- 74 SD 455

Saf-T-Track

1957 Bonneville convertible fuel injection

1964 GTO

Hood tach

Rally II wheels

Ram Air IV

When eight was not enough

Readers know I have been, shall we say, skeptical about the C8 Corvette, a mid-engine design GM is unfamiliar with, which lacks a proper (manual) transmission and is grossly overpriced.

A quarter-century ago, though, GM had an idea for the Corvette that would have been bigger, in one sense, than anything in the C8. R&T (the upgraded Road & Track, or something) tells the story:

The original Dodge Viper was a game-changer. With its outrageous proportions and massive 8.0-liter V-10 engine, it outclassed pretty much anything else out of Detroit at the time. Except maybe this one-off V-12-powered Corvette.

Chevy built this experimental Corvette in the early Nineties as its answer to the Viper, and it’s a beast. Called the ZR-12, it uses the C4-generation ZR-1 as a base. The entire nose was stretched to accommodate the 600 cubic-inch V-12, built by Ryan Falconer Racing Engines. The all-aluminum engine was rated at 686 hp and 680 lb-ft of torque when new—far more than the then-new Viper’s output of 400 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque.

Of course, the ZR-12 never made it to production. The sole example languished at GM’s Heritage center for a number of years before being moved to the Corvette Museum, where it currently resides, according to LSX Magazine. The car used to have side-pipes and a different set of wheels, but has since been converted into a more subtle specification.

The DtRockstar1 YouTube channel was lucky enough to get insider access to the Museum while the ZR-12 was started and driven around, giving us a chance to listen to the unique engine note (above). Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t sound like your average Corvette.

This was far from GM’s first attempt at a V-12. Cadillac had one in the 1930s, along with a V-16. In World War II Rolls–Royce’s Merlin and the Allison V-1710 powered planes. Packard’s V-12 was placed (three each) in PT boats.

According to the always-accurate Wikipedia:

Each bank of a V12 engine essentially functions as a straight-six engine, which by itself has perfect primary and secondary engine balance. By using the correct V-angle, a V12 engine can therefore have perfect balance. The even firing order for a four-stroke V12 engine has an interval of 60 degrees, therefore a V12 engine can be perfectly balanced if a V-angle of 60 degrees, 120 degrees or 180 degrees is used. Many V12 engines use a V-angle of 60 degrees between the two banks of cylinders. …

At any given time, three of the cylinders in a V12 engine are in their power stroke, which increases the smoothness of the power delivery by eliminating gaps between power pulses.

The weirdest V-12, perhaps, was GMC’s, and I have seen an example of one reported by Driving.ca:

When you think of a V12 engine, your mind runs immediately to the high-tech, rev-happy, screamers made by Ferrari and Lamborghini. But did you know that between 1960 and 1965 GMC made a V12 of their own? And it was the size of two Ferrari 599 V12s combined.

It’s outrageous now to think of a gasoline-powered semi-truck but, in the 1960s when fuel was cheaper, a sizeable percentage of operators preferred gasoline power. Chevrolet offered a heavy-duty version of its famous 427 V8 to truck operators, but GMC knew they could do one better. They needed an engine with cubic inches, and lots of them. So they took the basic design from their 5.7L V6 and made a monstrous 11.5L V12.

This was not just two V6s bolted or welded together. The V12 had its own block, cam, a special oil pan that held 15L of oil, and a special crankshaft that weighed 82 kilograms. The engine was an absolute monolith. It was 1.3 metres long and weighed more than 680 kg fully assembled. Due to its inherent weight and girth, it wasn’t an engine you could simply bolt into a Chevy C10 pickup and drive around in. It was installed in full-on semi-trucks, and also as standalone power units for irrigation. It was never installed into a passenger car or truck by GMC, but many hot-rodders have shoved it into service for hot rods, and custom pickup-trucks.

For all its size and displacement, the V12 wasn’t a horsepower king, it was made for torque. It made just 275 hp at 2,400 rpm but produced a freight-train-like 625-lb.-ft. of torque at just 2,100 rpm. If those numbers aren’t enough for you, a Florida-based shop called Thunder V12 will happily sell you a rebuilt one in any specification from bone stock to tractor-pull stormer. Prices start at US$10,800 for a complete engine, so get your chequebook ready. Beat-up originals can be found on eBay for around $5,000, but buyer beware as no more spare parts are being made for these beasts.

The GMC V12 was made between 1960 and 1965 and, in that time, they made about 5,000 of them. Nobody’s sure quite how many are left but most guess that there can’t be any more than 1,500 in semi-serviceable condition. After the big V12 ran out of production the writing was on the wall for gasoline-powered trucks. At 11.5L it remains one of the largest gas engines that ever powered a road vehicle, and we’ll never see a dinosaur like it again.

Except that, according to Fox News:

Sure, you’ve got a V8 in your Chevy, but you could’ve had a V12.

At least now you can.

A new Australian outfit called V12LS has created a 12-cylinder version of the venerable General Motors LS1 V8 and is putting it on sale.

The company started out by taking two LS blocks, lopping off a couple of cylinders and melding them together to create a V12, but has now developed its own single cast block that is compatible with many LS parts. The last time GM made its own V12 was the GMC “twin six” truck engine in 1966.

V12LS is currently offering a 9.0-liter crate engine with an iron block good for 717 hp for $35,000, but is working on an aluminum version. Various kits in different states of dress run from $21,300 for a basic builder package to a dyno-tested turnkey engine for $46,200.

Those prices include shipping to the USA.

For that matter, while GMC was producing V-12s, Cadillac was contemplating a V-12 for its new front-drive Eldorado personal luxury car. Caddy never built a V-12 Eldorado, but Popular Mechanics reported in 1988 that since BMW was developing a V-12, other luxury carmakers would, including Cadillac.

Cadillac worked to develop a V-12 with Lotus for its Solitaire concept car, the two-door version of its Voyagé concept car.

The Voyagé (left), which looked similar to the 1991 Chevy Caprice, Buick Roadmaster and Cadillac Fleetwood, had a mere V-8, while the Solitaire had a proposed V-12 with 436 horsepower.

As an aficionado of big coupes, as you know, I would definitely drive that.

Not to be outdone, Cadillac proposed in 2003 the Sixteen, powered by, of course, a V-16.

Motor Trend drove one.

“Would you like to drive our 13.6-liter/1000-horsepower V-16 sedan?” asked GM’s Jeff Holland. Even though we knew there’d be extra-sticky driving rules and caveats regarding the $2 million concept’s mechanical polish, there was only one possible answer: “Duh.” Next thing we knew, we were piloting Caddy’s sexy showstopper around GM’s Milford, Michigan, Proving Ground. The Sixteen has been literally the biggest thing to roll onto the auto-show circuit this season. Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman of product development and chairman of GM North America, says it’s “a modern interpretation of everything that made Cadillac the standard of the world.” But is it merely a lavish reminder of a once-glorious past or a relevant vision of the future? Enough scene-setting. What’s it like to drive almost 19 feet and 16 cylinders of handbuilt concept car?

Remarkably sweet. Entering the Sixteen requires punching a button on the key fob or lightly squeezing a microswitch inside the top of the front door. There are no door handles to clutter the Sixteen’s lyrically curving body sides. Once inside, you’re surrounded by the rich scent of fine leather, glints from polished walnut and aluminum, and thick carpets–woven of silk, no less.

The driver’s leather bucket is large, soft, and gently contoured. It power-adjusts to a comfortable position, surprising given the lack of ergonomic work that usually goes into a turntable toy. Likewise, the leather and polished-wood steering wheel can be powered into a just-right spot, which lets you easily read the speedo/tachometer gauge in the center of the dash.

To start, step on the brake pedal and push a green button to the right of the wheel. You’ll hear a strange, aircraft-style starter whine, then the mammoth V-16 erupts in a raggedy roar that quickly settles down to a somewhat bumpy idle (virtually no tuning was done on the powertrain’s five engine mounts). As the engine starts, the instruments–including the clock–cycle and sweep their needles to calibrate themselves, emitting odd ticking and ratcheting clicks.

From inside the cabin, the engine’s sound is neither the jungle murmur of a Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG nor the near-silent thrum of a Bentley or Rolls. It’s slightly rowdy and clearly coming from something in large displacement, particularly as you blip the throttle. Asked if they’d done any exhaust tuning, one powertrain engineer shrugs and says, “Well, we had four mufflers, and we threw two away.”

Ease into the throttle, and the car moves with a quickness that belies its mass and size. The automatic transmission has four gears, but we feel only two shift surges during our drive. This huge sedan glides precisely, with a catlike balance that puts us at ease. The steering feels light, and the car drives smaller than it looks. Give it more gas, and the result is a Mississippi River’s worth of torque that surges the car forward. We back off to listen for crunching, grinding, or banging. Nothing–impressive for a machine whose primary purpose is to dazzle a show crowd. The Sixteen’s ride is a bit jiggly, which doesn’t say anything positive about the suspension, since the pavement is billiard-table smooth.

The brakes don’t feel up to the engine’s grunt. Despite six-piston calipers and 16-inch rotors, not much happens when the brake pedal is depressed. Perhaps that’s because the master cylinder is remote-mounted in the trunk and operated via a tangle of electronics. We remember that our GM support crew warned us about “green” brake pads.

There isn’t much turnaround room for us at the end of one particular Proving Ground road, but four-wheel steering comes to the rescue. Turning in opposite phase to the front wheels at low speeds, the rear wheels tighten the car’s long turning circle to approximately that of a midsize sedan.

The Sixteen isn’t as polished as a production car; understandable, as that’s not its mission. But it’s easily the most refined concept car we’ve driven, which further teases us about what sort of production potential it, or some of its componentry, might have. The car’s design represents an updated, and somewhat more elegant, variation on Cadillac’s crisp-edged design language; perhaps some of the Sixteen’s themes will show up on the upcoming Seville/STS and the next-generation DeVille.

Does anyone need 16 cylinders or 1000 horsepower? No. But the idea–like the engine itself–sounds simply wondrous.

Of course it does.

Back to the original premise: What about a V-12 Corvette?

Remember that this was right after Chevrolet debuted the King of the Road, a Corvette with a double-overhead-cam 32-valve-per-cylinder V-8 designed by Lotus and built by Mercury Marine in Stillwater, Okla.

Given GM’s history with the Northstar V-8 — an unfamiliar engine design (also DOHC, built for Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles) that became notorious for head gasket (actually head bolt) failures, which result in antifreeze in the cylinder walls and engine oil in the radiator, with really bad result (If you’re driving when it’s, say, 10 below zero and your car starts to overheat, that’s not good) — the thought GM could have successfully designed a V-12 that would have worked as designed for every Corvette is, well, optimistic. A V-12 designed by someone else, as the King of the Road V-8 was, might have made more sense.

Whether a V-12 Corvette could have performed better sales-wise than the King of the Road (whose sales slowed after the first year) is a better question. For years Corvettes have seemed to pale in comparison with more exotic Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches (even though they are powered by mere flat-sixes) in part because of interiors perceived to be subpar, despite the Corvette’s superior horsepower-per-dollar. (The mid-engine C8 is GM’s attempt to compete with more expensive supercars, though ironically the C8’s V-8 still uses pushrods, as every Corvette except for the first two years of the C1 and the King of the Road.)

It’s not clear that the wealthy snobs who apparently drive supercars would be interested in a V-12 Corvette any more than they were interested in the DOHC Corvette. People who appreciate American-made performance and value might have had a different opinion.

The vehicular hypocrite

The Detroit News reports about this ad:

In the course of “vetting” a vice presidential running mate, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden might have accidentally spilled General Motors’ future product plans.

In an 80-second campaignspot posted on Biden’s Twitter account Wednesday, Biden surprises by not talking about politics but cars, and his love of the Corvette and the American car market. In it, he says, “They tell me” that GM is making an all-electric version of its iconic sports car that will go 200 mph.

Turns out there are plans. Someone familiar with Corvette production at its Bowling Green Assembly in Kentucky confirmed to the Free Press there is a plan for an all-electric version of the Corvette, but the timing and its maximum speed are unknown.

The electric version is likely at least two years or more out, the person said, noting it will follow GM’s performance versions of the car due to market over the next year. The person declined to be named because there was no authorization to speak to the media.

GM spokesman Jim Cain,when asked about an electric Corvette,said company policy is to decline to discuss future products.

But GM has said it will have an all-electric lineup across its brands one day, with Cadillac being the lead brand for that technology. Cadillac’s boss has said the brand lineup will be nearly all-electric by 2030.

GM did not plant any tip about an all-electric variant of the Corvette in Biden’s ear, said Jeannine Ginivan, GM spokeswoman.

“I don’t know who ‘they’ are who told him that, but we don’t have any news about any new electric Corvette,” Ginivan said, reiterating that GM does not discuss future product. “We are excited about the line of vehicles we have coming. We have the GMC Hummer electric pickup and tonight the Lyriq (SUV) reveal.”

And exactly who is going to be able to afford a $200,000 electric Corvette? Maybe Biden, who has, like many politicians, gotten curiously rich (at least $9 million in net worth) while he was in, then since he left, office. Not normal people, who should be reluctant to purchase one anyway given GM’s bad record with new tech:

Biden is a Corvette owner, as Fox News reports:

Joe Biden is looking to rev up his presidential campaign by getting behind the wheel of his 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to ‘vette’ himself for office.

The presumptive Democratic nominee has released a new ad promoting American manufacturing that features the classic green convertible. …

Biden is the original owner of the car, which was a wedding gift from his father, who worked at a Chevrolet dealership. During his time as vice president, he often lamented that he wasn’t allowed to drive it due to security concerns.

Biden did manage to take the sports car for a spin for an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage just before the 2016 presidential election, but at a secure facility rather than on the road. Biden told Leno that he’d once driven it 160 mph, but his 327-cubic inch model had an official top speed closer to 130 mph.

In the new video, which appears to have been shot along the drive to his Wilmington, Del., estate, Biden says the car brings back memories of his father and his late son Beau.

He rhetorically asks, “How can American-made vehicles no longer be out there?”

According to the Automotive News Data Center, over 10 million vehicles were manufactured in the U.S. in 2019.

“I believe we can own the 21st-century market again by moving to electric vehicles,” Biden continued.

He then says that “they” tell me that they’re making an electric Corvette that can go 200 mph.

Chevrolet has not confirmed plans for such a vehicle, however Maryland-based Genovation sells a Corvette converted to run on electricity that holds the top speed record for street-legal electric cars at 210.2 mph.

The Genovation GXE costs $750,000, plus the price of the donor car it is based on.

I guess my $200,000 estimate is too low. My bad.

Biden’s ad didn’t tell you this, but Issues & Insights did:

Joe Biden’s $2 trillion climate change plan, released this week, was described by one liberal outlet as “the Green New Deal, minus the crazy.” We beg to differ. Just look at Biden’s plan to eliminate the internal combustion engine.

Biden says that on his first day in office, he will develop “rigorous new fuel economy standards aimed at ensuring 100% of new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles will be zero emissions.”

He hasn’t said exactly when he wants new cars to be all-electric, but House Democrats have already established a timetable. Their new climate change plan calls for mandating 100% “clean” vehicles by 2035.

Keep in mind that as of today, plug-in electrics account for 0.5% of cars on the road, and made up less than 2% of new vehicles sold in 2019. And that’s despite massive public subsidies that have cost taxpayers $5 billion in credits to — mostly wealthy — EV buyers.

Clearly, consumers are not that interested in plug-ins, which is why Biden and his fellow Democrats want to force electric cars on everyone in the name of climate change.

Aside from fuel economy mandates, Biden also wants to extend and expand the EV tax credit, pump federal money into charging stations, and create a new “cash for clunkers” program for those who trade in a gasoline-powered car for a plug-in.

The cost of all this? Who knows. Aside from the $2 trillion price tag that Biden put on his entire Green New Deal plan, he hasn’t broken down his EV mandate scheme. But Sen. Chuck Schumer has already proposed a cash-for-clunkers plan, which would cost $454 billion over a decade.

And for all this, the electric car mandate will have a negligible impact on CO2 emissions and zero impact on the climate.

For one thing, the CO2 advantage of electric cars is vastly oversold. These are not “zero emissions” vehicles. They simply change the source of the emissions from the car to power plants — most of them powered by coal and natural gas.

A study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute found that when you factor in CO2 emissions from electricity production, the average plug-in produces as much CO2 over its lifetime as a gas-powered car that gets 55 miles per gallon.

The CO2 advantage of electric cars diminishes even more when you consider the entire lifecycle of the vehicle, including the environmental impact of mining required to manufacture the batteries. A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that CO2 emissions from manufacturing electric cars was 68% higher than gas-powered cars.

When you add it up, the impact on the climate is zero. A report from the Manhattan Institute notes that even if every car on the road were replaced with electric vehicles by 2050, “the resulting reduction in CO2 emissions would be less than 500 million tons per year.” That reduction, it says “will have no measurable impact on world climate.”

The rest of Biden’s environmental plan is equally untethered from reality. Take his proposal to have all the nation’s electricity produced by “clean” fuels by 2035.

Today, 20% of electricity comes from renewable sources. The Energy Information Administration says that based on current trends, that will increase to 32% by 2035 and 38% by 2050.

That’s a long way from 100%.

Plus, a fifth of today’s renewable energy comes from hydroelectric power, which has been declining as a source of energy in part because environmentalists hate dams. Another 43% comes from biomass, which environmentalists also consider dirty.

As the Natural Resources Defense Council put it, “biomass energy damages our climate and air, our forests, and our communities while the industry hides behind veils of misinformation.

That leaves solar and wind, which are massive land hogs. Proposed solar plants in Virginia would eat up 490 square miles of land — which would be like covering all of Los Angeles in solar panels. A single 50 turbine wind farm requires 23 square miles, notes Real Clear Investigations. Both energy sources are uneconomical without generous government subsidies.

Then there’s Biden’s promise that the entire U.S. economy will produce zero carbon emissions by 2050.

When the Heritage Foundation tried to calculate the economic impact of the carbon taxes needed to cut CO2 emissions by just more than half, it crashed their economic model.

The Green New Deal was never about saving the planet. It’s always been about the left’s desire to gain control of every aspect of our economy and our lives. Biden’s version might be a modestly watered-down version of the one proposed by socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but it’s hardly any less crazy.

Biden’s party believes people shouldn’t own vehicles, period, but should ride mass transit like good little communists, particularly since if Biden is elected president you will be poorer, not richer, in income and rights. So the electric Corvette convertible is a fantasy, and not just in Biden’s mind.

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2001–04 Corvette Z06

1985–86 Corvette Coupe

But What About That Stereotype?

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1972 Volvo 1800ES

1968 Reliant Scimitar

1999 BMW Z3M Coupe

2011 Ferrari FF

1992 Aston Martin Virage Shooting Brake

2005 Audi Shooting Brake concept

2013 Callaway AeroWagon

1972 Ferrari 365 GTB 4 Shooting Brake

2016 Toyota GT86 Shooting Brake

2016 Ferrari GTC4Lusso

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