For the last twenty years, I’ve been doing more with less. I’ve turned a V6 sedan into a track car that’s made it to the top of the Pro-Touring heap twice with trips to SEMA and the OUSCI. Managing that required overcoming deficiencies inherent the platform itself. The Buick Regal was a sedan designed in the 1970s by scaling down and converting to metric another design that originated in the 1960s. Performance was never a goal of GM when designing the platform, and it shows.
Then I rescued a $500 Ford Probe, got it to another OUSCI event at COTA, then turbocharged it and managed to land a podium at an Optima Ultimate Street Car event. Then I blew it up and rebuilt it and am about to embark on another attempt with the Probe to do something with very little. But this platform also has issues. It’s front wheel drive; The powertrain has limited aftermarket support; and our experience at the 2021 Time Trials Nationals where the engine simply crumbled exposed the possibility that the KL V6 may be more fragile than the internet lets on.
But the Probe is basically done as a project. If it blows up again, it’s getting scrapped. If it survives the season, it’s likely going to go into mothballs until my kid needs a car. That means I have to start looking ahead to what I’ll be driving for 2024, and I wanted to step into something that provided a platform with fewer compromises than I’m used to dealing with. A vehicle that was designed with high performance driving in mind. Something that could make good power without the complexity and heat generated by turbocharging.
My new shop situation has opened some doors. I now have the space to do a total restoration of a car, which means I could now shop vehicles that presented a great value but too large of a job to fit in my old shop. What I needed was a car built on a premium platform in fair cosmetic condition, mostly complete, but in horrific mechanical shape.
Bring in the the C4 generation Corvette. The C4 platform was a shot across the bow of European sports cars when it debuted. The engineering in the chassis was world-class, and Chevrolet continuously improved it throughout the 1980s, culminating in the 1992 models when the vaunted but short-lived LT1 V8 finally gave the car the power to fully exploit the chassis.
The refinement continued, and by the time 1996 rolled around, an LT4 powered C4 Corvette was a machine that was on par with the DOHC C4 ZR1 and actually could outperform the C5 LS1 powered vehicle that followed the next year.
The future is now
Which brings us to now. A friend in Pennsylvania and his wife are expecting a girl, and he’s getting out of racing. He happened to have a 1992 Corvette he’d been autocrossing, but had experienced an engine failure. With a kid on the way, he wasn’t going to be able to complete the repairs, and the storage location was costing him several hundred dollars a month. He needed the car gone, and I wanted a complete but mechanically totalled starting point.
So I hooked up the trailer and headed for the Harrisburg, PA area to pick this up:
This is a 1992 Corvette. It has almost 200,000 miles on it. It is a base model, so not a ton of frills, though Corvettes came well equipped even as a base model. It was originally equipped with the Gen II Small Block LT1 V8, displacing 5.7 liters and making a generous for the time 300 horsepower. This one sent that power to the ground through a 700-R4 four speed overdrive automatic transmission.
This model sports some 17 by something wheels with all season tires, Bilstein shocks, a nice set of long tube headers, and a two-bolt LT1 I surmise was lifted out of a B-body. The original four-bolt main block came with the car.
I also got a pile of parts that included the iron heads from the B-Body engine, some brackets, the B-Body intake, a set of 18×9.5 C5 five spoke wheels, a set of used tires, and some weather stripping.
The plan
The plan? Tear it completely apart, clean it up, fix it, paint it, and then put it all back together using the original block, but with modern components. Bucking the current trend, I’m not going to LS swap it. The LT1 is a fantastic engine. The iron block is good for huge power, and modern heads and camshafts can easily lift this relic to big power levels. The parts are still relatively cheap compared to what I’m used to. The rotating assembly is the same as a Gen 1 small block. So, a forged rotating assembly and a top-end kit with modern heads can get me a nearly 500 horsepower 383 for about the same prices as a similarly powered LS-based crate engine… but then I don’t have to source a different transmission or mounting kit to swap the LS into the C4. It’ll be the original motor and transmission. It drops right back in.
The transmission will get rebuilt by Boost Crew, who built the 200-4R in my Grand National. A proper build and a high-effeciency torque converter will leave me with a slushbox that’s very much not slushy, and I learned the hard way how to keep an automatic cool on a track. I’ll just apply those lessons to this one. No expensive manual conversion.
Suspension is also easy. Several places still sell kits to convert the car to coil springs and high quality shocks are plentiful and affordable. The fact the car has a properly engineered suspension means it doesn’t need fancy control arms or geometry changes. It just needs a refresh. New bushings and ball joints and we’re off.
Then brakes. Big brake kits for this car are anywhere from $2100 to $2500. But it’s a Corvette. It came with big brakes for the time. However, a set of $125 adapter brackets can allow a retrofit of the brakes from the C5 and C6. The kicker is this particular car came with a set of C5 calipers, so I already have the expensive part. Combine those with the adapters and the 13″ front rotor from the C6 Z06 and I have a big brake kit on the car for about $400 all in with pads and rotors, and it can be serviced at a local chain parts store.
The interior is filthy, but complete. A few of the panels are broken, but replacements are already on the way.
The body is well worn. The clear is peeling and there’s rust in the floorpans and some fiberglass damage to repair. It’s going to need a total bodywork and repaint. But I have the space and the equipment to do it myself.
So what are we going to do with it? Whatever we can. Goals for it next year are many. A sub 2:25 lap at NCM would be nice. A full season with the Appalachian Hill Climb Association would be fun. If we get enough of the kinks out and the cosmetic restoration comes out good enough, we may even make another run at SEMA with it.
But we’re also going to drive it on the street. I do not want to make it so harsh I can’t just jump in it and go somewhere. Lifestyle events like Hot Rod Power Tour, FM3’s Road Trip, and maybe even some of the new bougie events run by Road and Track could be on the table.
So, keep an eye on this space and the Youtube channel. There’s a lot of work to be done here and it’ll likely take a whole year to get it done.
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