Feature Cars

1999 Chevrolet Corvette – ToyBox

A bit of tradition mixed with a lot of mumbo

Bang for your buck. If that’s high on your priority list, we’ve been saying for a while now that American cars is where the action is at the moment. This is a good example.

Without looking at the price, let’s talk high-end exotic supercharged two-seater convertible. Okay, it’s 20 years old, but it’s red and a fairly sleek design that has aged very well. And it’s by a big-name maker. How much? We reckon just sub-70k is pretty damn good.

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While we throw money at chrome bumper Corvettes – C2s in particularC5s remain largely overlooked, despite the fact the design and spec sheet says this is a well-crafted sports car.

In 2017, Road & Track mag in the USA rated the C5 as the ultimate performance bargain, saying this about it: “It was the first modern Corvette to challenge the world’s best sports cars on truly level ground, the first Corvette to take a class victory at Le Mans, and the last Corvette to feature those oh-so-cool hidden headlamps.”

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Basic specs include a very rigid chassis, rear-mounted six-speed transaxle for good weight distribution and of course that 5.7lt LS1 V8 with a conservative power claim of 354hp. That was enough to punt the car to 100km/h in around 4.5 seconds and give it a top speed a whisker over 280km/h. So yes, a serious performance car.

The folding roof on this model is said to be pretty easy to deal with and includes a glass rather than plastic window.

In case your were wondering, yes it is traditional Corvette in that it has some fibreglass in its broad mix of materials.

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This example was converted to right-hand-drive by the Corvette Clinic. At $69,500 it stacks up and is available through the Healey Factory in Melbourne.

You can view the car’s listing on our classifieds here!

 

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Photography: Guy Allen, Unique Cars magazine

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