This 25-Year-Old Corvette Is An Affordable Slice Of American Cool

Earlier this week we brought you news that the next Corvette, the C8, could offer two turbocharged engines as well as the big old ‘Murican supercharged V8… but what about a much, much cheaper option with a normally-aspirated V8 instead?

Slide your brown-tinted aviator sunglasses on and open an extra button on your Hawaiian shirt, because this is 5.7 litres of prime late-1980s rib roast. It’s a Corvette C4, the definitive American sports car of the era and one of the cars that dropped my tiny jaw to the floor as a child.

Originally launched in 1984 with a 205bhp, 290lb ft 5.7-litre L83 V8, it was swiftly upgraded to a 230bhp L98 V8 for the following year, gaining ‘tuned port fuel injection.’ That engine peaked at over 400bhp in one twin-turbo Callaway B2K version. LT5 and LT1 V8s eventually took over in the 1990s, but the capacity always stayed at 5.7 litres.

What we have in this lovely-looking red example is a 300bhp LT1-powered coupe from 1992. It was the first model to get standard traction control, which is probably a good thing with 330lb ft under your right foot. That said, the lazy-ish power delivery does mean you’ve really got to try if you want to break traction.

It’s two cars in one. It’s a coupe most of the time, but in good weather you can remove the targa roof panel and go about your burbling, V8 business with the sun warming your noggin nicely. There surely can’t be many cooler cars to be seen cruising in than this. Let’s be honest, here: you’d look like a boss.

That’s not just because of the colour, head-turning style or the pop-up headlights (huzzah!). Just check out those fabulous leather seats, gloriously retro dashboard and front-hinged bonnet. It’s a self-propelled bucket of awesomeness.

It’s an automatic and left-hand drive import, which will make the drive-thru awkward without a passenger. The dark metallic red looks spectacular on it and with a measly 54,000 miles covered it must still be as fresh as a daisy.

It’s had a few modifications, and we like the sound of them. Literally. A cat-back Magnaflow stainless steel exhaust, apparently at a cost of over £1000, will help make the big V8 sound amazing. It has been given a DAB and Bluetooth-capable stereo and a ‘recent’ MOT. Most of the notoriously failure-prone weather seals have been replaced, the seller says.

The price for this achingly cool – and rare, this side of the Atlantic – piece of Corvette heritage is £9995. For that you also get the parts necessary for a quad projector headlight conversion – a mod the seller never got around to fitting.

Time to let us know what you think, CTzens: can we get any love for a sub-£10,000 C4 Corvette?