No, only joking, that's the old one
Pushing the envelopes of 'Retro' by all means and accounts now - but I thought that seeing as they started making the things in 1983, it's still got a bit of heritage!
Voila. I've got no photos of it myself barring a few random ones from collection, so I'm just re-using the eBay shots for the meantime - hopefully I'll troll out with the camera this weekend
(this pic's not from mine, just for an example - missing the FX3 suspension controls in the middle)
Random interior shot trolling back on the M25ring at night...
Anyway, I'll try to get some more photos in due course - there are some very interesting differences, of course the obvious one being the interior, which is a totally different beast! Basically, I loved my Maroon C4 (at the top) and regretted selling it - but it did have it's issues, the main one being the rare 4+3 manual overdrive transmission, which was just a PITA and whilst the actual box was nice to use, the overdrive felt frail and was, to me, irritating.
So I sold that - and have been looking around for a new motor (missed on a 383 stroker engined Jaguar XJ coupe, which was what I hoped to get) and started looking at later Corvettes, primarily because I really liked mine but wondered what a later car would be like.
I went through several on eBay, looked at a project 6 speeder near me and 'failed to meet the reserve' on a few others. Briefly, I did toy with the idea of buying a manual one but I fancied trying an autobox in one (plus you don't have to deal with the stupid unreachable flyoff handbrake) - and I'm glad I did, because the autobox is a real nice piece of kit
I finally found one with a sensible reserve and one blind eBay purchase later, went and collected it! This is a 1995 Corvette, so nearing the end of the C4's life. It has the 300BHP/340ft.lb LT1 engine, 4 speed automatic transmission, LSD, all the toys (including traction control!).
It's a completely different beast from the last one. Firstly, the engine - the previous L98 I had was a torquey beast and didn't rev higher than about 4500 - but this one pulls hard all the way to the 6000RPM line and feels like it wants to pull more!
The interior is a much nicer place to be as well - whilst it lacks the charm of the digi-dash model, it also lacks all the rattles, cracks and irritating quirks of it as well - everything's clear, well built, comfortable and the whole car feels a lot tougher and more 'complete' than the previous effort - as you'd expect for a nigh-on 10 year age difference.
This one is considerably quicker too, knocking 60 in around 5.5 seconds. Bigger, ventilated discs front and rear help reel it in better too, and it's got the FX-3 electronically adjustable suspension too, so it rides smoothly without any of the knocks, bumps and crashing of the '86 but at the flick of a switch stiffens up and handles fantastically! Can't believe how well it sticks.
It's a lot more tail happy than the previous one though! Full throttle shifts from 1st>2nd kick the tail out wiiiiiide, before the traction control cuts in and straightens it in.
I have to say, whilst I do find the traction control a bit intruisive (primarily because I've never had a car with it on) it is actually a bit of a godsend, because if it's wet or greasy, you've only got to come out of a junction and squeeze the pedal and it'll completely light up and start heading sideways. I think I'll get used to it but I do enjoy driving with it off too
The TC is an interesting system though - there's a cable that runs from the pedal to the actuator, which then has its own spool that controls the throttle. Now, there's no lag involved, so this is about the first 'non direct' system I don't mind. What happens is that if you nail it and light the tyres, the TC reels the pedal in from under your foot, so you feel it move away from you, indicating the TC's operating - it's really quite neat because it allows you to gauge what's going on whilst driving, just another form of feedback.
Of course, you can just turn it off....... Gets a bit
sometimes though 
Anyway, I'll do a proper writeup when I get some more photos and have driven it a bit more (only had it a week) but I thought I'd just give you the gen on what I'm driving at the moment. I am enjoying the (working) ice cold air con and all the other gadgets too, as well as the power
Got a rolling road session next week, so I'll see if it's making book power. Hopefully my new filter system might turn up by then as well! Only other things I might change as of now are the alloys (need some dish) and maybe a sports exhaust, because it lacks the rightous noise of the previous one.
One thing though.......I'm starting to feel 300BHP is not enough. I'm guessing it's a downhill spiral! ;D
