If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive Corvette collectible, you might want to consider this award-winning 1993 ZR-1 currently being offered on Bring a Trailer.
Bidding, which has climbed to just $15,000 so far, will come to an end in five days. Considering this powerful C4 has been driven just 23,000 miles over the past 30 years and cost more than $65,000 new, that doesn’t sound like a bad deal to us.
The fourth-generation “King of the Hill” Corvette made its debut to much fanfare in 1990 with a special 5.7-liter, four overhead cam, 32-valve LT5 V8 engine designed by GM’s Lotus Group Division and built by Mercury Marine in Oklahoma. It produced 375 horsepower that first year, quite an improvement over the base Corvette’s 245 or 250 horsepower (depending on the axle ratio).
By the time this 1993 ZR-1 left the Bowling Green factory, however, Chevy had managed to coax 30 more horsepower out of the LT5, thanks to modifications to the cylinder heads and valvetrain. The ’93 also saw other improvements, including four-bolt main bearings, Mobil 1 synthetic oil requirement, platinum-tipped spark plugs, and better emission control.
Unfortunately, the base Corvette’s output had jumped to 300 horsepower in 1992, and customers didn’t think the ZR-1’s optional cost of $31,683 was worth the extra expenditure and sales began to dip. In fact, Chevy made the decision to use up its supply of the LT5 engines, with just 448 ZR-1s produced each year in ’93, ’94, and ’95.
We couldn’t recall seeing too many Arctic White ZR-1s for sale in the past, and a check with the ZR-1 Net Registry found a good reason for that scarcity – just 26 were made in that color in 1993!
This one isn’t perfect, showing minor road rash behind the front tires and on the front bumper, but it can still boast of earning prestigious awards in 2008, including a Bloomington Gold certificate and NCRS Top Flight Award.
The beautiful red interior looks to be in perfect condition, and we think the addition of black wheels makes this car look much more aggressive – sort of like the ’96 Grand Sport. For purists, though, the stock wheels are also included with the sale.
One of the problems with the C4 ZR-1, in the eyes of many, is the fact that despite its wider body and unique rear treatment (at least for the first year before Chevy switched all Corvettes to have similar looking taillights in ’91), the ZR-1 looked just like its much cheaper sibling, at least to ordinary folks.
As these cars are beginning to get some age on them, and front-engine Corvettes aren’t being built any more, we wouldn’t be surprised to see fourth-gen ZR-1s become more interesting to collectors. What do you think?
Source:
Bring a Trailer
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If more power and better driving experience is your goal, a C6 would be a better way to go. If investment is your only interest, stash this one away and cash it out in a few years. The “Corvette lifestyle” certainly means different things to different people.
For a few splits of a second to sixty difference you could save a he’ll of a lot a dough and just get a base 92 and up c4. The maintenance costs are much lower too.
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