Junkyard Find: 1985 Chevrolet Corvette
The C4 Corvette is about the only Corvette that you can get for Camaro prices these days— even the 19-horsepower ’79s are worth good money now. Still, it’s pretty rare that I find a C4 at a cheap self-service wrecking yard; most of the examples I run across are melty-fiberglass burn victims, and the remainder have been picked clean. Here’s one of the latter type, discovered a few months back in Northern California.
Corvettes are much like Porsche 911s in the willingness-beyond-all-reason of their owners to spend money, and so those who run Corvette or Porsche shops stock up on parts whenever possible. That means that a Corvette must be rough indeed to make it past the auction process and into the hands of a junkyard’s buyer.
Look, it still has part of the driver’s seat!
I predict that the taillight lenses and rear glass didn’t stick around long after I shot these photographs.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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"In 1988, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) outlawed all Showroom Stock Corvettes from its racing events. The reason? The Vettes had not been beaten in three years of racing against the world's best sports cars, and their competitors complained so loudly that the sanctioning body finally had to act." ....... "In 1985, the SCCA expanded Showroom Stock into a full-season racing series.The C4s were undefeated from 1985 through the end of the 1987 season and usually filled the top eight to ten finishing positions. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that the SCCA would outlaw the plastic wonders and approach Chevrolet about creating a Corvette-only series." (Note to Porsche: Must issue press release alternatively blaming owners for this very public humiliation, and/or pointing out the lack of interior gaps and the much more beautiful interior compared to the junky Vette interior. TTAC will reprint said press release word for word) ....... "Until 1999, the Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette (bought by ticking a few boxes on the order sheet) held the World production car speed record of 254.76 mph (410.00 km/h). It is an emissions compliant, street legal vehicle, with all the creature comforts like Air Conditioning, Radio, etc that you would find in any production street Corvette. Built using production chassis 1988-051, it achieved its World Record Title in November 1988 at the Ohio Transportation Research Center (TRC)." But this is TTAC. Omygawd.......the awful gaps in the interior panels! Mullet-wearing trailer park types! It's not European! Squeaks and Rattles!"
I wish I could find a nice C3 or C4 in a junkyard that isn't a charred mess. I love Corvettes of all flavors! http://www.my1976corvette.com