C4: if it looks right, it is right!

Dear Classic American,

I’ve been a subscriber for years and generally like the mag very much. I’d like to see more technical stuff though (and yes, I appreciate that your budget is probably a bit less than Hot Rod’s!). I was pleased to see the Across the Pond article on the Corvette C4. I’ve had a Competition Yellow ’95 C4 Coupe for a few years and agree that they are great value for money, especially the ’92-on facelifted versions. As well as being (to my eyes at least!) a lot prettier than the early ones, the interiors are much better. Mine’s done 75k miles and has proven to be very reliable.

I’ve taken mine to LeMans a few times with no issues and it’s an excellent long-distance express. The glass rear window is actually a fully opening hatch and it’s surprising how much stuff fits in. The instruments can display in either metric or American which is very handy when in France. It’s been surprising economical too, achieving low 20s per gallon running around locally and high 20s per gallon at the 130kph/80mph French autoroute speed limit with the AC on – no doubt helped by the tall gearing, with 80mph being a tad over 2000rpm. It just loafs along all day. Torque is abundant and the power delivery from the LT1 is beautifully linear.

Its only real fault has been a hot idle misfire, which turned out to be the optispark distributor cap. There are endless articles on the web about optisparks but in my experience they work very well (until they don’t...) – it fires instantly, hot or cold, thus reducing emissions, whereas my 1990 Chevy truck with TBI and a conventional distributor turns over for several seconds before firing on a cold start. With a new optispark from the excellent Keith at Eurovettes and a bit of patience I managed to change it myself.

All the body panels unbolt apart from the rear wings, which I think can be peeled off with the help of a heat gun to soften the glue that holds them on. Single leaf composite transverse springs to save space, aluminium suspension, galvanised frame... but of course they aren’t perfect – the ride is hard on mine, they can creak a bit, weatherstrips fail and they can suffer from poor connections in the dash – mine needed the HVAC control board taking out and cleaning with a pencil rubber which wasn’t too difficult a job.

General servicing stuff (including brake pad changes) is easy although they are too low to get a normal trolley jack underneath and I had to make up some shallow ‘lead-in’ ramps to get it on to normal car ramps. Parts availability is good and the CCCUK gives great support. All in all a great car and (in my view) the first Corvette to have European standards of braking and handling. Of course the C5 is better, and the C6 better still but a late C4 is one of the prettiest cars ever made, ageless, one of the cheapest 160mph cars you can buy and in yellow it attracts attention wherever it goes. And if it looks right, it is right!

Mark Stuart Over Cambs

Thanks for the positive comments Mark, C4 Corvettes offer an affordable and fun way into performance American motoring and we’ve even known them to be used as daily drivers, so reliable and (relatively) cheap are they to run…