Vehicle Description
This car is a rare and unique chapter in Corvette history. It was
the product of the purchase of Lotus engineering by General Motors,
and the task they were assigned of making a C4 Corvette the world's
fastest production car. They did that by building an awesome double
over head cam engine, dubbed the LT5, that powered the car to seven
international and world records on March 1st, 1990. It was
exorbitantly expensive to build, and to buy, this special car in
1990. Today, you have a chance to own this low mileage example at a
small fraction of that price.
All the new C4 Corvettes had new more sleeker styling than the C3s,
but in 1990, the ZR1 was distinguishable from the other coupes by
is wider tail section with 11- inch wide wheels tucked up under the
fenders. The back-end look was also different with a convex facia
and square taillights. By 1991, those styling cues were
incorporated into the base models too, making them all look the
same. This one is coated in its original Dark Red Metallic paint
and it looks good. The smooth styling of the hood slopes down
toward the ground over the hideaway headlights, and a chin spoiler
reaches further to the ground to keep air out from under the car at
speed. There is a tinted glass Targa roof and a glass rear hatch
that allows easy access to the storage behind the seats. A ZR1
badge appears discreetly on the rear bumper and quad exhaust tips
peek out from underneath it.
Open the door and you will find a beautiful Saddle interior that is
a perfect complement to the Dark Red paint. The door panel has a
long armrest for comfortable cruising and power switches for the
windows, door locks and mirrors at your fingertips. You can settle
into the comfortable and supportive leather seat that is both power
operated and heated, and reach out for the leather wrapped steering
wheel mounted on a tilt column. The shifter for the 6-speed manual
transmission is just a flick of the wrist to the right and begs to
be stirred around. The dash board has a digital display in the
center with a sweep tachometer on the left and sweep gauges on the
right for both oil pressure and oil temperature as well as water
temp and voltage. The ventilation system includes air conditioning
to keep you cool on those hot summer days and there is an AM/FM/CD
and cassette player for your listening pleasure.
Under the hood is the very special motor that makes this car
unique. It is an exotic, yet reliable piece of machinery that fills
up the engine bay with four overhead camshafts and 32 valves to
pump out 375 horsepower. Lotus Engineering developed the heads as
well as a unique air management system that varied the intake and
fuel injection systems to provide for a very wide power band. The
power it makes flows back through a 6-speed transmission to the
rear wheels and then to the ground through those 315/35ZR17 inch
tires. The suspension that keeps them planted on the ground was
specially tuned by Lotus also to ensure that this Corvette could
hold its own against any sports car in the world. The front
suspension benefited by the first use of a carbon fiber transverse
leaf spring instead of coils which reduced weight and improved the
handling capabilities significantly.
A unique and potent chapter in Corvette history. Body work unique
to the 1990 models before filtering down to all models in '91. And
piles of documentation, maintenance records, and an owner's manual
that you should be sure to ask your salesperson about.