The C4 Corvette has been gaining newfound popularity with Millennial and Zoomers, for its style, era of manufacture, and for the sake of so etnign that stands out. It’s easy to blend in a sea of crossovers and bland mobiles these days, even when driving more contemporary sports cars.
Some of us older folks; olds Millennial, GEN-X, Boomers may have forgotten just how simple and practical a ’90s car is by today’s standards. What was considered high-tech and very modern at the time, can seem almost like driving something from the 1970s when compared to a modern EV or the all-screens interior Cadillacs we see today. Nearly analogue in comparison. It retinal has some charm, but what are we talking about interns of price, performance, cost of upkeep, etc.?
Brad of the Retro Cars Forever YouTube channel has been tooling around in his 1996 Collector’s Edition Corvette with LT4/6-speed power for several years now. It’s one of the most stock, original, and mind example in the country that’s actually driven. But despite representing one of the best from the final year of C4 production, it’s the ’90-95 ZR-1 that’s regard not only as the King of the Hill, but peak C4 performance.
From ’90-92, the car cranked out 375hp, from ’93-95, it was good for a full 405hp — putting it square into ’02-04 C5 Z05 territory. Keeping in mind, this was also a DOHC 5.7L LT5 V8 co-developed my Lotus and Mercury Marine, and featured a lot of the latest tech available at the time. The particular ZR-1 example you’re looking at on this page, is a ’92 version, with 375hp, plus a few modifications; including a performance chip (yes, it was a thing then), and a Corsa Performance catback exhaust system.
In the video, Brad poses the question; out of the two cars, which one is the best bang for the buck, which one is the better investment, which one is better to live with, and which one tends to drop more jaws at the local car show? We can tell you, but we’d rather let Brad tell you himself. If you want to know more about the C4 Corvette, be sure to check out our Retrospective Guide, here.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
