We’ve heard of stripped down cars, but how about this 1986 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible that shed its fiberglass skin and reemerged as a gold caged, track ready kart.
Now live on Bring a Trailer, bidding on this naked, no-reserve ‘Vette sits at $3,000 with six days to go, and the comments section is already buzzing with equal parts awe, envy, and “my neighbors would kill me.”
The seller, JeremyG, bought the car in 2020 and promptly turned it into the bare bones beast now up for grabs. The transformation started with a full body delete, replaced by a custom tubular roll cage finished in gold — a cage, he notes proudly, built to satisfy NASA, SCCA, and NHRA regulations. “I’m old enough and smart enough to make sure I’m not going to die in the car,” he jokes, adding that the tubing is “a bit of overkill both for spec and for reality.”
Onlookers approve.
W650gb500 chimed in: “I’m glad to see somebody built a Corvette cart with an SCCA and NASA legal roll cage. Too many of these are non compliant.”
Jeremy quickly followed with the specs, happy to reassure the safety minded crowd.
Underneath the cage sits a heavily massaged 5.7 liter L98 V8, a Frankenstein of performance parts: Patriot heads, a 264hr cam, LT1 rods, flat top pistons, TPI headers, a modified LT4 intake, 28 psi injectors, MSD ignition, and a BBK twin 52mm throttle body. The seller says it dynoed at 443 horsepower and 438 lb ft of torque, which explains why one commenter, BrianHag, summed it up simply: “This thing sounds mean as hell!”
Power runs through a Doug Nash 4+3 manual transmission and a limited slip differential. The clutch, transmission fluid, and diff fluid have all been refreshed, and the car has been autocrossed twice since its rebirth. Jeremy admits he hasn’t had time to run it on a full track — “we started a business,” he says — but he did manage a 12.2 @ 123 mph quarter mile on a soft launch. “I think it has mid low 11’s in it,” he adds, almost casually.
With its BRZ style headlights, carbon fiber wing, and exposed chassis, the kart draws attention everywhere it goes. Sometimes admiration, sometimes confusion, sometimes both.
PulseCheck joked that the C4 was “pretty darn ugly” from the factory, prompting Jeremy to admit he enjoys parking next to stock Corvettes at shows and telling owners he thinks his looks better. “It really gets their jorts all up in a bunch!” he laughs.
The kart rides on staggered 17 inch and 18 inch wheels wrapped in Nitto NT05s, with C5 front brakes, slotted rears, stainless lines, and Porterfield pads. Suspension upgrades include coilovers up front — a rarity on a C4 — and Banski components with Bilstein shocks in the rear. Jeremy beams when talking about the setup:
“As far as I know, this is the only (or one of the only) C4s with front coilovers. My fabricator ran software to figure out the specs. First time I drove it, it was nearly perfect.”
The cockpit is stripped to the essentials: twin racing buckets with NRG five point harnesses, a custom dash panel, a fuel cell behind the seats, and a suite of Glow Shift gauges monitoring everything from oil pressure to air/fuel ratio. There’s no odometer — a fact that prompted Lotzacars to quip, “No odometer :)” — and the steering wheel shows some wear, but it still tilts and telescopes like it did in 1986.
Jeremy says the kart weighs around 2,700 pounds, not including the driver. That power to weight ratio explains why he chickened out at 130 mph during a top speed run. “It was still pulling pretty good,” he admits. “I think it’ll max out the transmission before it maxes out on power.”
The seller calls the build a “labor of love,” complete with scraped knuckles and a budget that grew faster than the kart’s revs. But he also says it’s one of the most fun things he’s ever driven.
“It handles AMAZINGLY,” he writes. “Plus it makes nice sounds.”
The BaT crowd agrees.
JohnF1966 offered perhaps the most poetic take:
“They say beauty is only skin deep. What is inside is what matters. This car supports that. The beauty is below the skin.”
And then there’s BloodyHell, who imagined a world where these things are mass produced:
“Build these in volume… and they’d outsell Gator Tail Bites everywhere.”
So why sell it?
Jeremy’s answer is simple: life got busy.
“We started a business and I’m busy every weekend,” he says. “No chance to track it, and I think it deserves to be driven.”
He’s even willing to deliver it on his trailer to the right buyer.
When lizardbait1 said he’d always wanted to build one, Jeremy replied:
“DO IT! I’m near Monteagle.”
Source:
Bring a Trailer
Related:
Corvettes for Sale: Survivor-Quality 1972 Corvette Convertible Offered on Craigslist
2026 Corvette ZR1 with the ZTK Performance Package is Headed to Mecum Houston this Weekend
Corvettes for Sale: 14K-Mile 1958 Corvette Offered on eBay
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I think it’s cool as hell. Dave Frieburger and Mike Finnegan would be envious. This is way nicer than the one they built on Motor Trend’s Road Kill.
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