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!
|
