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Here's the story...
Illustrated Corvette Series No. 105 - 1998 Corvette
"Praise Comes Pouring In"
Perhaps
it just took a year for Corvette fans to get used to the new C5. Sales
more than tripled over the '97 model, making the '98 edition the
best-selling Corvette since ‘86. With total sales of 31,084
units, the C5 was finally beginning to show returns on GM’s
$250 million investment in development costs. The buyers were back, and
they were loving what they saw.
Chevrolet rolled out one major variation and several very juicy options
for the Corvette in '98. The biggest news was the return of the
roadster. Although the roadster was a $6,930 option, it was a stunning
package and was considered by many to be the best topless Corvette ever
made. Next, there was the Indy Pace Car Replica, which added another
$5,804 on top of the roadster's steep premium. Only 1,163 units were
built, making it the second-most collectible of the four Corvette Pace
Car replicas.
Although the Selective Ride and Handling option had been available
since '89, ’98 brought a new suspension option, the $500
Active Handling System. This advanced system used traction control and
anti-lock braking to maintain vehicle stability..
For the first time ever, Corvette buyers could order real magnesium
wheels. These beautifully styled 5-spoke rims were similar to the
5-spoke aluminum alloys used on the ZR-1 in '94 and '95, as well as on
the '96 Grand Sport and Collector's Edition. The new "mag" wheels were
a $3,000 option.
Engineers are constantly making mechanical improvements to the
Corvette. By deleting a brace on the rear of the alternator and
revising the accessory-drive tensioner, they were able to eliminate a
high-speed whine. A quieter electric fuel pump was installed, and clips
were added to better hold the glass to the seals during high-speed
driving, reducing interior noise. To improve tracking, the steering
caster angle of the front suspension was slightly increased. Finally,
the automatic transmission had a new second-gear-start mode to reduce
wheelspin on slippery roads.
The more people got behind the wheel of the new Corvette, the more they
loved it. Motor Trend gave the '98 Corvette its Car of the Year Award,
a telling accomplishment for a car whose predecessor had long since
fallen out of contention for such accolades. Former Corvette owners
raved over the new car. "Makes me feel like a kid again!" was a typical
comment.
And why wouldn't they rave? The new Corvette accelerated quicker, went
faster, stopped shorter, and handled better than even the stoutest 427
Corvettes. One magazine ran a '98 Corvette to a top speed of 173.9 mph,
with a 0-60 time of 4.8-seconds and a quarter-mile time of 13.2 seconds
@109.3-mph. Further sweetening the deal, there was no price increase
over the '97 model.
The base '98 Corvette went for $37,495, while the roadster commanded
$44,425. While that's still not cheap, the new Corvette had tradition,
unique styling, and did everything as well or better than sports cars
costing much more. And remember, the C5 was just getting warmed up...
many more amazing things were in the works.
Here's
the story...
Illustrated Corvette Series No. 106 - 1998 Corvette Roadster
"The Roadster Returns"
In the early ‘80s when the
C4 Corvette was being designed, a convertible version was not part of
the plan. Convertibles had fallen out of favor in the ‘70s.
When the decision was made to make a roadster C4 Corvette, an add-on,
x-brace was needed for structural rigidity. The fix worked and it was
great to have the Roadster back. But unlike the C4, the C5 was designed
to be a roadster right from the beginning.
During the eleven-year run from 1986
to 1996, Chevrolet sold 74,651 Corvette Roadsters. This accounted for
approximately 25-percent of the Corvette’s annual sales.
Chief Engineer Dave Hill wasn’t about to let the new C5
Roadster be a second-thought version.
Magazine writers who road tested the
‘98 Roadster were astonished at how the car was just as rigid
as the coupe version. The usual convertible
“wiggle” was hardly noticeable. The new C5 Roadster
weighed 114-pounds less than the ’96 C4 version and the
chassis was 4-times stiffer than the C4. One magazine tested the car
and found that the salon times were on par with the Ferrari 550
Maranello and the Jaguar XK8 Coupe. The cynics were almost speechless.
The aesthetics of the new Roadster
were picture-perfect. Unlike most convertibles, a hard tonneau cover
was already part of the body design. Lowering the top required
releasing two latches at the top of the windshield, pushing a button to
release the tonneau cover, then manually lowering the top into the
trunk. It only took 6-to-10-seconds to get the top down. An electric
system would have been nice, but the manual system kept the weight to
just one-pound more than the coupe.
Except for a few noise reduction
adjustments, the ‘98 Corvette was the same as the
’97 model. However, the Roadster had several very nice
features. The convertible top was fully insulated and the rear glass
was heated. A separate “trunk” with outside access
hadn’t been available since ‘62. The storage space
was slightly more than half of the Coupe at 13.9 cubic-feet, versus
24.8 cubic-feet. And with the top down, there was 11.1 cubic-feet of
space. The stereo system was speed sensitive and would increase in
volume at higher speeds with the top down.
For a roadster, the aerodynamics were
excellent. The coefficient of drag was .33 for the ‘98
Roadster and .29 for the ‘98 Coupe. Considering that the
coefficient of drag for the ’84 Corvette Coupe was .34, this
was amazing.
Corvette Roadsters had long-since
carried a premium, and the new C5 Roadster was no exception. The $6,930
option priced the car at $44,425 before any other options. However,
this was $635 less than a ‘96 Roadster! A fully-loaded
’98 Roadster cost over $52,000 - not including the $5,039
Indy 500 Pace Car Replica package.
The ‘98 Corvette Roadster
was bloody fast as well. One road test reported an automatic version
with 0-60 times of 4.9-seconds, quarter-mile times of 13.4-seconds at
105.5 m.p.h., and a top speed of 167 m.p.h. with the top down. The
Roadster was back and it was better than ever!
Here's the story...
lIlustrated Corvette Series No. 107 - 1998 Indy 500 Pace Car Corvette
"Pacing the 500... Again"
What we didn’t know in 1997
was that there was to be a three-stage rollout for the new Corvette.
First, there was the big-splash introduction of the C5 in ’97
- the first new edition in 13 years. The following year, the
‘98 convertible stunned the motoring press, whose members
seemed unprepared for such a well-rounded car. And finally, in
‘99 we saw the arrival of the new Corvette hardtop. This was
the first fixed-roof Vette since 1967.
Automotive journalists were simply enraptured by the ’99
model. Car and Driver magazine voted the car to its “10 Best
Cars of 1999” list, while the readers of AutoWeek magazine
voted it “Best Car of the Year.” You
can’t buy advertising like that! When testers can only
complain about flimsy seatback latches or having to get out to put the
top down, it’s clear that all the fundamental elements of a
design are in place.
All of this netted GM increased sales
for ‘99. Even though the base price was increased $1,667, to
$39,171, buyers drove home 33,270 Corvettes, up 2,186 from 1998. The GM
bean counters were very happy.
The other big news for 1999 was the
Corvette’s return to factory-supported racing. Chevrolet
contracted race-car builders Pratt & Miller to build two C5-R
Corvettes to compete against the Vipers, Porsches, Ferraris, and others
in production-based racing classes. The C5-R had 600 horsepower and
weighed 2,510 pounds, paving the way for the 2006 C6.R Corvette racer.
The ‘63 Grand Sport lives on.
Chevrolet has a reputation for
regular evolutionary improvements and an occasional revolutionary leap.
Aside from the introduction of the hardtop version of the car, the
’99 Corvette had three new options and a host of minor
improvements. The “Telescoping Steering Column”
option allowed a 20mm forward-to-aft adjustment for only $350.
For $375, buyers could order the “Head Up Instrument
Display,” which projected all or partial instrument
information onto the base of the windshield. And for only $60,
customers could get the “Twilight Sentinel,” which
used a low-light sensor to automatically open the headlight covers and
turn on the lights. Minor improvements included a new door-sill plate
and improved, “next-generation” airbags. Aside from
a revised cylinder-head design, the 345hp LS1 engine was unchanged.
Since the ‘99 Corvette didn’t gain or lose any
weight, and the engine was the same, performance was as spectacular as
on the ‘98 model: 0-to-60 in just 4.8 seconds, 13.2 in the
quarter-mile, and a top speed of 175 mph.
Also, by ’99
“specialty” C5 Corvettes had started showing up
from Mallett, Lingenfelter, Callaway and others. You could say that the
Corvette definitely had its “mojo” back!
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