1999 Corvette Hardtop Illustrated Series No.109

In the car industry, if you don’t sell enough of a particular model, it won’t be around for long. When the C5 Corvette was being planned, Corvette sales were dismal. The sales record holder was the ‘79 Corvette coming in at 53,807 units, with the ’84 model coming in second at 51,547 units. Despite improvements in the C4, as the years rolled on, sales were in a steady decline. When the new C5 was being developed, management issued a mandate - 25,000 units per year, or else.

Fortunately, Dave Hill and his team had a three-part plan for the Corvette to his its sales numbers. It seemed that it took a year for buyers to warm up to the new C5. 1997 sales came in at 9,752 - not good. But with the introduction of part-two, the new convertible, in ‘98, sales rocketed to 31,084 units.

Part three was supposed to be an “inexpensive” fixed roof, hardtop version. Almost from the beginning in 1953, there has been a contingent of management in GM that has wanted the Corvette to be something other than what it was. (Remember the proposed 4-seater ’63 Corvette?) The planning days of the C5 was no exception. In an attempt to boost sales, a “cheap” Corvette was seriously considered. The strippo model was to have a smaller 4.8 or 5.2-liter engine, cloth seats, roll-up windows, smaller wheels and tires, and an automatic transmission only. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

A few prototypes were built and marketing tests were ordered. Fortunately, the strippo didn’t light anyone’s fire. Those surveyed felt that at $32,000 Corvette would cheapen the entire line. So the final decision was to make the hardtop a “performance” model with a manual transmission only and the Z51 suspension. The hardtop would be slightly cheaper with limited options, weigh a little less, and be faster, but not by much.

But the engineering department had a surprise that the product planners hadn’t anticipated. Starting with the convertible body and chassis, the hardtop was permanently bolted and bonded in place. The net result was a 12-percent increase in chassis stiffness, making the new hardtop the stiffest production Corvette ever. Then they threw in the Z51 suspension, and took out 80-pounds of standard items. Car magazines since the ‘50s have been complaining about the Corvette’s squeaks, rattles, and lack of structural rigidity. No more! With 345-horsepower, this was a setup the magazine guys loved. Buyers scooped up 4,031 hardtops in - 12-precent of total sales for ‘99.

The GM bean-counters must have hated this project. In order to keep the package cost below the $39,171 Corvette base price, they had to limit the availability of many options. The $38,777 hardtop option included the standard 345-horsepower LS1 engine, the 6-speed manual transmission, the Z51 Performance Handling Package, a black interior with black leather seats, and a choice of six exterior colors. What you could not order with the hardtop included an automatic transmission, magnesium wheels, power sports seats and other interior colors, and no Real Time Dampening option. Interestingly, the Active Handling Suspension option was available on the hardtop.

Even though the plan of a cheap Corvette didn’t quite work out as envisioned, the hardtop fell nicely into the slot for buyers who wanted that slight extra edge. The sales figures for the coupe and convertible alone were well above the 25,000 units-per-year management mandate.

The basic Corvette comes with more horsepower than most people will ever experience. Hardtop addition allowed the suspension better handle all that power with racer-like response. The hardtop’s roof line wasn’t as slippery as the coupe and limited the hardtop to just 170-mph, 5 less than the coupe. Zero-to-60 and quarter-mile times were 4.4 and 13.3 @108 mph. Hill and his team set down the groundwork for their next hot rod Corvette - the 2001 Z06.