In 1990, I was driving a brand-new Chevrolet Lumina Euro 3.1 with a 135-horsepower, 3.1-liter overhead-valve V-6 that could do zero to 60 in 10.1 seconds and the quarter mile in 17.8 seconds at 80 mph. Adequate, but nothing special, and I knew that. Still, it was a vast improvement over the woebegone 1982 Buick Riviera it replaced.
Therefore, kids, the notion of driving any Corvette, let alone a 375-horsepower ZR-1 like this 1990 model, was the stuff of pure fantasy.
These days, I could simply write a $60,000 check, drive less than an hour from the Triple Wide, pick this one up, and fulfill my early-adulthood dreams. This old man would then slaps his knee, adjust his teeth, laughs, and says, "And that's not going to happen, by crackie!"
Why? Are you serious? Well, before we get to that, this particular ZR-1 is interesting. It has just 300 miles on it and appears to be in museum-quality condition. A museum is probably where it belongs, too.
I'd be afraid to drive it, fearing that every additional mile on its odometer and every paint chip would cost me thousands in resale value. And the roads around here in northern Ohio wouldn't do the suspension any favors, either. Finding a mechanic willing and able to work on it could be challenging, too.
You'll pay through the removable roof for parts, as well. Corvettes are "catalog cars," meaning you can find just about any part you need. But these ZR-1s are different because Chevrolet built so few of them, and their specialized components can be expensive and difficult to source.
Introduced for the 1990 model year and built through 1995, these ZR-1s represented the second generation of Corvettes to wear that designation. The first ZR-1 was offered from 1970 through 1972 and featured a high-performance, 350-cubic-inch LT-1 V-8, a heavy-, I mean heavy-duty transmission and suspension, upgraded brakes, and other performance enhancements. Its competition-oriented suspension and other beefed-up components were best suited to a track.
Only 53 of those early ZR-1s were built. Above is a 1972 that sold at auction, in 2014, for $115,000.
This 1990 ZR-1 featured a performance-tuned suspension and FX3 Selective Ride Control, which used electronically adjustable shock absorbers to let the driver tailor the ride and handling. Like other C4 Corvettes, it retained four-wheel independent suspension and transverse composite leaf springs.
The real magic, though, lies under the hood.
Dubbed the LT5, this all-aluminum, 5.7-liter V-8 featured dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. Developed by General Motors in cooperation with Lotus Engineering, the engine was manufactured and assembled by Mercury Marine's MerCruiser division in Stillwater, Oklahoma, before being shipped to Bowling Green, Kentucky, for installation in the car. The result was an unusual combination of American V-8 muscle and sophisticated, high-revving, overhead-cam engineering.
When first introduced, the ZR-1 was among the fastest American production cars you could buy. The numbers were blistering: zero to 60 mph in roughly 4.5 seconds, the quarter mile in the 13.1-seconds range, and a top speed of nearly 180 mph.
In 1990, that was serious supercar territory. The idea that a Corvette could run with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and other exotic machinery raised a few eyebrows. It seemed almost comical at the time, but the numbers were there, even if few would have equated, or would equate the ZR-1 with Italy's or Germany's finest.
At the time, it seemed that overhead-cam V-8s, particularly double-overhead-cam, four-valve-per-cylinder engines like the LT5, were the future of performance cars. That wasn't how things ultimately played out at Chevrolet.
General Motors eventually returned to a simpler, less expensive approach to high-performance V-8s. By the time the LS1 arrived in the redesigned 1997 Corvette, it delivered 345 horsepower using "old school" push rods and overhead valves. It didn't match the original LT5's peak output on paper, but it demonstrated that a sophisticated, expensive engine wasn't the only way to deliver serious performance.
And when Chevrolet increased the LT5's output to 405 horsepower for 1993, the comparison became even more interesting: the two engines represented very different approaches to extracting performance from a V-8.
As for blowing $60,000 on this or any car, I don't know where my portfolio would need to be for me to feel comfortable spending that much money on one. And I most certainly wouldn't spend it on a cream puff like this that I'd be too scared to drive.
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