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Sold my 65 convert with air and took part of the proceeds and bought my 996. Prior to the 65 I owned 4 other vetted. 60, 67, 84 and 91 zr1. The 996 is far better than any of the vetted that I have owned.
The first car I ever bought for myself was a 1979 C3 in the late 80s after graduating from college. I used it as a daily driver and pretty much had to work on it almost every weekend to keep it running. It was the last used car I bought for many years and I've never really had a desire to go back to Corvettes.
Always wanted a Corvette. They are the cars that got me “in to” cars. A classmates father showed up to middle school one day with an orange ‘76 and it was down hill from there
Almost bought a 2001 C5 about 3 years ago but backed out since it wasnt very practical, for me, at that time.
I’ll have one at some point to scratch the itch....
We have a '16 convertible with the automatic for the wife. It's really a great car. Ours is the standard model but with the 3LT leather interior. We ordered it in our color choice and it's Night Race Blue Metallic on Kalahari canvas top and interior. I prefer the 996. For me it's more natural and the 6 speed takes me back to my "ute" youth. The 996 is way more practical. So much more space but the performance and sound of that LT1 V8 is intoxicating.
My previous fun car was a 1990 Corvette ZR-1. That is the one with the 400 hp. Lotus designed four-cam engine. My 996 is a much better car in every way but I do miss the Corvette. It was always needing something to make it 100% right. It needed modern fuel injectors to be able to run gas with ethanol. There are 16 of them and they were buried under the plenum. The originals failed after a year or two when the injector coil insulation dissolved. There are modern ones available now. It also had an unreliable starter. I fixed that with a relay right by the starter to get full battery voltage to the starter solenoid built into the starter. Finally it needed a better radiator for idling in traffic on a 90 degree day.
I took my car to be judged at a series of NCRS (National Corvette Restoration Society) events and ended up with a McLellan Award which is the top level. It was fun to arrive at the Nationals where I got that award and need to wash the car after driving 1000 miles. Everyone else came in covered trailers.
The Corvette was interesting because I felt able to work on it while the Porsche is too fancy for me to do that.
On my 91 zr1 I remember replacing the Bose Radio Amps and clutch slave cylinder. I also had tire balance problems. I was not nearly as comfortable as the 996, but faster (in a straight line). I don't really miss it. To much cheap plastic crap. As expensive as it was, it was made of cheap parts.
I bet the tire balance problem you had came from a bent rim. I had that. Hunter Road Force machine balancing is the best and tests wheel straightness. It was easy to have fixed by a wheel repair shop once you knew what was wrong.
There were all kinds of little but irritating problems with that car. Everyone had trouble with the Bose amp. I replaced mine. The TPMS sensors were no good. I took the fault light out of the dash. The transmission had a device that forced you to shift from 1 to 3 when diving less aggressively. That was easy to defeat by unplugging the wire to the transmission. The idle was slow to come down at a stop in order to help emissions. I got an aftermarket chip and this was then normal. Plus I got and extra 25 hp.
All this made the car an interesting challenge for me. That said, I would not go back.
Previous car was a 2002 C5 Z06. Very fun to drive. But for the roads around here, I'm preferring the size of the 996 and the loss of power isn't a big deal.
I never really cared for Corvettes growing up. On a whim, I bought my C4. I was pleasantly surprised with it. I get compliments on it, too. It was to the point where every other time I drove it, I got a compliment.
The interior materials aren't the best but I was surprised it wasn't as bad as I thought.
10-21-2018, 11:28 AM
