My on again, off again search for a fourth-generation Corvette convertible continues and my latest muse was this 1993 I found in a dealership lot on my way home from the office recently. Resplendent in 40-Anniversary badging, it has only 60,000-miles on its analog, ruby-red ticker. LT1, automatic and an asking price, at the time, of $16,500. Woof. I don't care what kind of shape this is in, that's a crazy price. I don't care for the color either but what the heck, let's go for a ride and see what the top of the rate card can buy me.
Chevrolet made these fourth-generation, or what are referred to as "C4's", from 1984 through 1996 and I find many a fan of the "Stingray-body" or third-gen (C3) Corvettes are begrudging fans of them. I get that. Even I, given the choice and all things being equal, would choose a C3 over a C4 but things are not equal. Not even close. A C3 rides and handles like a truck built in a third-world nation compared to a C4. Through my foggy goggles, most of the design flaws of the C4, and there are many, are forgiven, when Chevrolet made convertible C4's available starting in 1986.
First things first, for the uninitiated, getting into and out of C4's is ridiculously hard and you either find it charming or you want no part of them after throwing your back out. These cars are impossibly low to the ground, and you have to step up and over frame rails that are absurdly high; it's like jumping up and into a garbage can. I've never been a passenger in one but on the driver's side, you have to use the steering wheel as a grip bar as you gymnastically swing yourself into the overstuffed bucket. Once you're in you feel like you're in a spaceship, but getting there is quite the struggle. It ain't for everyone.
While material fit-and-finish on 1993 Corvette's is improved over earlier C4's. it's still, forgive my bluntness, crap. The plastic is chintzy, when you tap on it, the dash rings hollow, the sun visors feel like they're straight out of a Chevette too. Hope you're not adverse to digital dashes, keep in my this one with its mixture of digital and analog, is far superior to the junky video game set up 1984-1989 C4's had. I'd stay away from those although there are analog kits that drop right in replacing them. You'll pay through the nose for it, though. Hope you're handy!
This one started up without a hitch and sounded marvelous. However, throttle tip-in was unimpressive, My '77 with maybe 200-horsepower feels spritely, snappy in comparison. Probably due to its tall, 2.73:1 axle, you don't get the first impression you're behind the wheel of a 300-horsepower automobile, my '77 with god's-green-earth 3.08 gears out back feels spritely and energetic at parking lot speeds. On the road, it's a different story. Stab the gas and this takes off. It's not incredibly fast, it's more in line with many of today's cars as power has become such a, yawn, commodity. Contemporary road tests peg a '93 with the LT1 and an automatic going from zero-to-sixty in 5.6-seconds. Quite fast for the times but rather unspectacularly these days. My son's 2017 Camaro V-6 zips to sixty in 5.2 seconds, a C8 can rip to sixty in under three seconds. That's insane.
These cars ride surprisingly well, so does my '77 for that matter. The ride wasn't flinty, jarring and harsh like it was on a 2002 Camaro Z28 I had years ago, even the 2005 Ford Mustang GT I had most recently. Amazing what an independent rear suspension can do to smooth the edges off a sports car's ride. Trust me on that one. I think I could live with this car all day long. Maybe even take an overnighter with the wife. That would be nice. Anyway, similar to my '77, it's a different story when the roads get rough as is often the case up here on "The North Coast" (Ohio). I hit a heavily pock-marked road on my test drive and I felt the car was going in every direction possible save for forward. Shimmy, shimmy, coco-pop. And then some.
A lot of that had to be due to the lack of a roof adding rigidity. That and this car ain't no spring chicken despite the low number on its odometer. 1993 was not thirty years ago, was it? Good grief.
Funny, during most of my test drive when I wasn't trying to put the gas pedal through the floor boards, I I actually found the car rather...ummm, gosh, dare I say, ordinary? Made me wonder what the point of a Corvette was in the first place if it doesn't feel anymore special than say my wife's 1995 Lexus SC400. This one was impossible to get into and out of, is claustrophobia inducing with the top up, the steering is annoyingly heavy and didn't feel all that much faster in a straight line that my V-6 powered, 2009 Toyota RAV4 is. Boy, that sounds really sad. What's more, this '93 was not half the visceral, manly challenge to maneuver that my restored but still woefully crude yet entertaining '77 is. You "drive" my '77, this thing I felt I was somewhat along for the ride.
Which makes me wonder what it is I'm looking for exactly in one of these. My wife and I already have a "sporty" convertible in our 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GTS that's quite the nimble little handler, I'll stop short of saying it's out and out entertaining to drive not that I found this '93 "gotta-have-it" awesome. Out little Mitsu drop top is comfortable enough and doesn't come with the litany of sacrifices a fourth-gen Corvette forces one make.
My plan right now if I find a C4 convertible is to sell the Eclipse and my '77 Corvette; the C4 taking the place of both. On paper at least. My 26-year-old, semi-auto-enthusiast son would kill me as he's not a fan of any C4 and adores our '77 although he knows how primitive a ride it is. Time is right at the moment to find a good deal on a C4 drop top too as folks who are sick of theirs and want to off load them want to do so before they have to pay for winter storage. Which, up here, is literally just days away.
P.S., this is still for sale more than a month after my test drive and they've dropped the price, incrementally, to $15,300. That's better but the closer I could get it to ten-grand the more I'd be willing to put up with funky color.
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