Hello

[couger]

Hi everyone :)

I went to an American get together last night and was blown away with the Corvettes that were there, absoloutly stunning motors, Im very keen on one of these, and may be contemplating selling my Esprit to fund the purchase, is it best to buy in this country or do the import thing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Ian :)

[VetteG]

Have you got a year or model in mind?
Generally importing is cheaper, but then you have to have the time to apply to that. Others here have first hand experience who can advise.

G

[c4koh]

couger said:

Hi everyone I went to an American get together last night and was blown away with the Corvettes that were there, absoloutly stunning motors, Im very keen on one of these, and may be contemplating selling my Esprit to fund the purchase, is it best to buy in this country or do the import thing? Any help would be greatly appreciated Ian

Hi Ian.

Firstly, nice Esprit you've got there!

Secondly, Corvettes. Did you know that mine (and others on here who have ZR1s) have an engine co-developed by Lotus? 6,900 only or so of these, being quad-cam V8s... the other 1.1million Corvettes being push-rod V8s, apart from I think a few of the earliest 6-pot ones...

Now, enough history!

You can buy Corvettes cheaply enough second-hand here, and that will mean [usually] all the light-conversion should have been done. Loads (probably around 50) are for sale generally all the time, check the usual places; also ebay now, exchange and mart, and if you want to go to a dealer, there's quite a few who specialise in Corvettes.

You'll probably want something as fast or faster than your Esprit; in stock form, you'd be looking at:

C4 - 5.7L V8 16V C4 (4th Gen Corvette)1992-1996
..with the LT-1 engine... 300hp and 330lbft or thereabouts. You can get these with a 6-speed manual, and FX51 suspension, which means pretty decent handling too.
Prices probably £10-£17K
0-60 around 5 seconds
Top Speed around 165mph

C4 - 5.7L V8 32V 1990-1995 ZR1.
King of the Hill, 375-405hp, 370-485lbft of torque. All 6-speed manuals. Great Car, quite rare, holds 7 FIA endurance records (e.g. averaging 175mph over 24 hours in a 100% [well minus cat and a roll-bar!] stock ZR1]
Prices probably £12-£20K
0-60 around 4.5 seconds
Top Speed around 185mph

C5 - 5.7L V8 16V 1997-2004.
340hp in LS1 form, 385/405hp in Z06 form. Z06 standard 6-speed manual, good suspension; LS1 may have 6-speed manual, look again for FX51 suspension package for stiffer handling... Note: the C5 is a stiffer package alround than the C4...
Prices: £15-£30K for the C5 LS1, probably £25-£35K for the C5 Z06
0-60 around 4.7 seconds
Top Speed around 180mph

C6 - 6.0L V8 16V 2004+: 405hp, 400lbft torque on base model (LS6). 2005 (this autumn) is the C6 Z06, 500hp, 500lbft of torque.
C6 LS6: 0-60 around 4.5 seconds, top 180mph ??
C6 Z06: 0-60 around 3.9 seconds, top 200mph ??
Prices: £40K+


All the above from memory, so subject to errors etc., but I think a rough intro into price/performance.
Note, all of the above is on STOCK motors, i.e. no mods at all... Mods are generally quite cheap and quite effective (remember, you're starting off with some pretty decent displacement!).

Servicing can be done at home if you want. No cam-belts [all chain-driven cams], oil change a doddle. All vehicles are fully documented in Factory Service Manuals (yellow pages thickness!!); all 1992+ have on-board-diagnostics as well.

Finally, to repeat: I didn't mention pre 1992 based on you expecting similar/better performance than the Esprit... But, there are some beauts before then!!

Hope this helps!

[couger]

Thanks for that really appreciated, Im looking to spend around 10K, maybe a bit more but not much, so Im a little limited on choice, its good to hear theres no cambelt thats always a worry with any car.

[V7TTE]

10k will get you a nice early/mid 90's C4...

[mrvet]

well i would say import from the USA, as thats what i did, but as mentioned before you need plenty of spare time to arrange all that then you have the work of getting it too UK spec, but all in its worth it i think

[Gixer]

12K would get you a real nice and very quick 90 Callaway TT. Or £15 will get you the cleanest ZR1 in the country. I know both the owners as do some others on here.

[vetteheadracer]

12K would also get a 1996 Supercharged LT4........

[yellowshark454]

12K and change would get you a 7.2 big block convertible 4-speed manual.