Posts Tagged: Corvette
Restore a Corvette too close to perfect and purists call foul; restore it too loose and you lose the numbers-matching value collectors chase. This decades-old argument over Corvette restoration standards, factory-correct versus “better than Detroit ever made it,” still splits owners today. Read on for both sides of a debate that has no clean answer, and the questions that help you pick your own.
Spring doesn’t just mean pulling the cover off a Corvette and turning the key — a dry start after months in storage can scuff a cam or starve a bearing before the car even leaves the garage. Mid America Motorworks runs through the eight checks that stand between a smooth wake-up and a tow truck call, covering fuel, coolant, and the brakes most owners forget to inspect.
A 6.0-liter LS truck engine doesn’t become a 6.2 with a few bolt-on parts, and this hands-on build video from Myvintageiron7512 shows exactly why, bore work, machine shop tolerances, and the same architecture GM used to build the LS3 that powers C6 Corvettes and fifth-gen Camaros. One viewer summed up the appeal simply: this is someone who clearly knows the platform inside and out. See what it actually takes to bridge the gap between a budget truck engine and genuine LS3-spec displacement.
This 1968 Chevrolet Corvette carries the rare RPO L89 aluminum-head 427, a factory option that trimmed weight without giving up the 435-horsepower rating of the more common L71. Finished in Polar White with a 4-speed manual and well under 10,000 original miles, it is one of the best-preserved examples of Chevrolet’s most exclusive big-block Corvette option. Watch to see why V8TV dedicated a full episode to it.
Hagerty’s Stefan Lombard spent time with a 1963 split-window Corvette to explain what makes the C2 the most collectible generation in the model’s history — and where buyers get burned if they don’t know what to check. It’s a buyers guide built from decades of watching these cars change hands, including one correction Hagerty had to issue after the fact. Watch to find out what even an executive editor got wrong on camera.
Doug DeMuro calls the 2019 Corvette ZR1 the ultimate Corvette in this review, working through the supercharged LT5 V8 and the quirks that earned it his signature DougScore. The comments are just as entertaining as the car, endless “Doug is the type of guy” jokes, plus one pointed reminder that the mid-engine C8 arrived not long after. Watch to see if the ZR1’s case still holds up.
You found it — a 1967 Corvette Sting Ray sitting in a garage, dusty but complete, priced thousands below what a finished example sells for. The math looks obvious: buy it cheap, do the restoration yourself, and end up with a six-figure classic for a fraction of the price. Then you talk to a shop that has restored hundreds of these cars, and the math stops looking so obvious. A proper frame-off restoration on a C2 Corvette can run 1,000 to 1,200 labor hours before a single part gets ordered, and once paint, trim, and mechanical work are added in, the total routinely clears $100,000. The bargain project sitting in that garage might only be a bargain if you already know exactly what condition it’s really in — and that’s the part most buyers get wrong. Here’s what separates a smart buy from an expensive lesson.
Chevrolet has only ever used the LT5 badge on two Corvette engines – one hand-assembled by a boat-motor company in Oklahoma, the other a supercharged monster built nearly 30 years later. The first set FIA world records within weeks of hitting showrooms; the second made 350 more horsepower. Here’s why GM recycled the name instead of starting fresh.
When GM wanted to revive the GTO nameplate in 2004, it didn’t design a new car, it imported one, rebadging the Australian-built Holden Monaro after board member Bob Lutz read a single magazine article that convinced him. The resulting car packed a Corvette-sourced LS1 V8, then a 400-horsepower LS2 in 2005, but a currency-inflated price tag and understated styling kept American buyers cold. Read on to find out how a business trip to Australia became one of GM’s most divisive muscle car revivals.
The L88 427 was Chevrolet’s most brutal engine of the muscle car era, and it never once appeared on a factory Camaro order sheet. This 1968 SS/RS wears one anyway, the product of a dealer tradition that turned Corvette-only horsepower into a street-legal secret weapon. Here’s the real story behind an engine GM rated at 430 horsepower that everyone in Detroit knew made closer to 570.
A dust-covered 1963 Corvette Sting Ray came out of a barn on a detailing channel — and viewers immediately recognized it as one of the rarest Corvettes ever built. Its split rear window lasted exactly one model year before GM killed it, and today it drives six-figure auction prices. But it was the story behind the car’s owner, surfaced entirely in the comments, that turned 587,000 views into something closer to a tribute.
You’ve found it: a numbers-matching 1967 Corvette Sting Ray, big-block 427 under the hood, sitting in a barn find listing or a classifieds ad with a price that seems almost too good. Before you hand over a deposit, understand what you’re actually buying. The C2 Sting Ray’s fiberglass body can hide decades of hidden rust in the steel frame and birdcage structure underneath it, and a “numbers-matching” claim is only as good as the paperwork and stampings behind it. One restoration featured by Car and Driver — of a 427 roadster owned by the magazine’s own technical director — shows exactly how deep those problems can run, and how rewarding it is to dig them out properly. This guide walks through what that restoration revealed, what NHTSA has on record for the Corvette of this era, and what you need to check before you buy.
This 1963 split-window Corvette spent two decades buried in a barn before the team at WD Detailing brought it back into the light — dirt, mold, and all. It’s the only model year Chevrolet ever built with that iconic split rear window, a design detail that makes this car one of the most sought-after Corvettes in collector circles. Comments under the video suggest there’s more to this car’s story than just neglect. Watch to see what twenty years of dust was hiding.