Need some advice (Mustang/Corvette content)

In reply to Jaynen :

I'm familiar with that car.  He had it for sale about 18 months ago asking 11k.  It's a well built car.  I bet it could be had in 7500 range. But he's not in a huge hurry to sell imo.

That being said you would spend a lot more to duplicate even if you started with a $4000 nice c4 6 speed...1.6 roller rockers, lingenfelter cam/springs, stroker crank, externally balanced, suspension, 383 machine work, ss shorty headers,  throttle body up grades, upgraded brakes, race seats/belts, 11 inch wheels all around, yadadada...lots of top shelf stuff on that car.

Adds up quick

Sure but explaining to SWMBO how you saved so much of the money you would sneak out of the budget over the next couple years to improve your track car vs money upfront is always hard :P

I won't know my budget until December anyway and it might be much lower than I would like. In which case maybe I'll just buy something interesting on copart and track it while trying to resell or something.

Honestly, don't poo poo the idea of an auto c4. I've driven (but never owned) both and I can truly say that I don't think from a functional standpoint, the auto c4s really give much up to the manuals. Both were LT1 equipped, and I'd imagine the difference with TPI is even less. That said, if you really have to row you're own gears, then you really won't be happy with an automatic regardless of performance.   

I worry about having an auto shift on me during a corner on the race track, otherwise I don't mind the auto I just don't like how unpredictably or sloppy the shifts can feel

Didn't the auto-equipped C4's get a weaker rear end than the manuals? I want to be able to launch the car when drag racing so I'd rather start with the best components. Also, the automatics tend to rob more power so the actual wheel horsepower tends to be less, especially with the older automatics from the 80's and 90's.

The other thing is that I really want to have at least one manual car... my daily driver is an automatic, which is fine for a daily driver but not ideal for a fun car.

In reply to dannyzabolotny :

Auos had Dana 36 rear.  Manual had beefier Dana 44.  FWIW road test data from the time all had auto faster in the quarter mile by about 2/10 sec.

Manuals have high gearing, 2.73 was the standard ratio, with 3.08 as the "performance" option.  With a .50 2nd overdrive on the 6 speed, you can definitely consider more gear depending on your goals (i.e. in auto-x the high gear ratio may help).

Maybe the auto but with a manual valve body/shift kit might be ok. I have not really heard of those before however. The dana 44 and the faster steering rack discussed in the other thread would be nice however

Whatever I buy will likely get a 3.73 or 4.10 installed. I don't care about fuel economy, I want that quick launch.

So I drove a 1995 C4 LT1/6-speed today, it was pretty nice. $5900 for a clean title red on black car with original paint and a clean interior. New Optispark and a bunch of other work done recently. The clutch bite point was rather high in the pedal, I wonder if that's the way they all are or if it was just this particular one. The torque felt wonderful. Power-wise the LT1 is similar to my daily driver BMW's M62tu which has around 300hp and 320tq, except in Corvette form there's like 800lbs less car to haul with it, and the torque comes on way earlier because 5.7L > 4.4L.

One of my friends then started telling me about all the electrical issues that the cars are supposedly known to have, and recommended I find a C5 Corvette instead. While I do like the C5 more overall, the price difference is pretty massive, especially for a 6-speed. I've found a few C5 automatics around my price range though, I could always buy one and do a transmission swap down the line. I'm gonna try and drive an auto C5 tomorrow to see how it feels. I greatly prefer manuals but with enough power an auto can be pretty fun too.

This is on the low end of what I have seen c5's go for. However I might have seen one get as low as 7k once. And its a salvage title

c5 manual vette

This one is almost challenge priced

Almost challenge priced vette

In reply to Jaynen :

I'd buy th C5, drive the wheels off it, then when it dies, get the $2k C4 to drop the engine into. 

I would speculate prices of all c4-c7s to begin fall when new vette is released next year.

I found an auto C5 for $5500 locally, gonna go check it out today. It’s got a rebuilt title from a side swipe but according to the seller the airbags didn’t go off and there’s no frame damage. Sounds like a perfect track car to thrash around, and I can always swap it to a manual in the future with how much money I’ll save on buying an auto vs. a 6-speed. The cheapest 6-speeds I’ve seen so far have been around the $10k range, even with high miles.

Plus I’d feel bad buying that C4 I checked out yesterday, it was honestly far too nice to be subjected to a life of drag racing and hoonage. I want a car that I won’t feel bad crashing and then fixing in my garage.

I'd still go look at it but keep in mind that a C5 transmission swap is going to be both more work and more money than the same job on a C4.

In reply to Chadeux :

Yeah, I know it won’t be the cheapest thing ever, but with all of the recent hurricanes I anticipate a decent supply of flooded manual cars for parts. And I have a BMW that I plan to manual swap, now that’ll be at least a $2000+ endeavor when said and done, because the Getrag 420g costs like $1000 and then all the other parts add up, like the clutch and flywheel for like $800... 

I do like the C5 Corvettes a lot, and with the increased stock power of an LS1, the automatic should still be a lot of fun. I figure I can just keep adding power to the engine until I blow up the auto haha

If I could find a 5kish manual c5 I'd be all over that when the time comes even if it was salvage title/rough around the edges etc

In reply to Jaynen :

And this one's already been fixed, so it has a rebuilt title and is road legal. Cosmetically it looks fine. Usually I find that automatic Corvettes tend to be in better shape since people don't really abuse them as much as the manuals.

Dunno about a manual for $5k though, unless you buy from Copart. I've been looking there too, but I can only buy what's in Arizona, otherwise I think I need a dealer license or go through a broker which adds a lot of cost to it.

You don't need a license to buy out of Arizona but you do need to buy from a state where the public can buy cars. Part of me wants to go C4 anyway for older/simpler stuff I like the idea of building a SBC out of the car to swap into it in the future

So I went and test drove the salvage C5. While it was an automatic, it was still a whole lot of fun to drive! Funnily enough, the C4 I drove yesterday was a 1995 and the C5 I drove today was a 1998, but they felt like they were a decade apart in terms of interiors and overall build quality. The C5 interior felt a lot more solid, and the LS ran beautifully. The price on that C5 was actually better than the price on the C4 I looked at, so I think I'll be getting that C5.

So I guess that escalated pretty quickly... from thinking about some kind of Corvette to more or less buying one in the course of like 2 days. Whoops.

In reply to dannyzabolotny :

Awesome!

In reply to dannyzabolotny :

If you really want a manual c5 and are willing to accept a salvage title car, you might want to contact Jeremy (pimpm3 ) on the forum here.  I understand his may be for sale.

Ovid_and_Flem said:

In reply to dannyzabolotny :

If you really want a manual c5 and are willing to accept a salvage title car, you might want to contact Jeremy (pimpm3 ) on the forum here.  I understand his may be for sale.

How much would he want for it? The C5 auto I'm buying tomorrow is a salvage title as well, and I'm getting it for $5k. The body's already been fixed (from a minor side scrap), it's in mint condition mechanically and the interior is perfect. Maybe I'll hit him up.

Danny I pm'd him and he responded I am sure he would send the info to you too. Its a 6 speed car looks good except for the windshield needing replaced he said about 5500 is what he thinks he wants and might throw in some extra wheels for a GRMer in short. Seems like a great deal to me. However I think he is east coast and I think you are west so you'd have to deal with transport? It's not Ovid's car btw its pmpn3's