The Pick of the Day is a 1996 Chevrolet Corvette coupe listed by a Missouri dealership on ClassicCars.com.
Whenever I see the letters NCRS (National Corvette Restorers Society), I automatically think of a perfectly preserved C1 or a restored C3. It’s hard to believe that that organization also judges C4 Corvettes, but the reality is that the newest fourth-generation Corvette, such as this 1996 coupe, is almost 30 years old.
The 1996 model year was significant in Corvette history. It marked the end of the C4, which Chevrolet celebrated in several ways. It still offered the 300-horsepower LT1 V8, but it also released a high-performance 5.7-liter V8 engine known as the LT4. Generating 330 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque, it was standard equipment in the Grand Sport, a model name that returned after an absence of more than 30 years, and available in 1996-only Collector Edition models and regular Vettes equipped with the six-speed manual gearbox. By the time the C5 rolled around, the LT4 was gone, entering the Corvette history books as a one-year-only engine.
This particular ’96 coupe has the four-speed automatic, which could only be paired with the LT1. While it may not have the hottest engine available at the time, it has plenty of other things going for it. Just look at the Dark Purple Metallic paint. It’s so wonderfully ’90s and you don’t see it on Corvettes every day. In fact, you may have never seen it on a 1996 Corvette before because Chevy only made 320 of them in that color.
Then there’s the mileage. If you look past the Black leather power seats, automatic climate control, and Bose AM/FM/CD/cassette radio, you’ll see the digital odometer shows only 11,961 miles.
As I learned with my 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt, mileage isn’t everything. Age plays a huge factor in a car’s condition. A man named Tim Powderly, who seems to have previously owned this car, did a great job of holding back the years (Simply Red would be proud) because the NCRS deemed his C4 worthy of a Top Flight award earlier this year.
If you judge this colorful Corvette to be deserving of space in your garage, you can make your vote official by paying the $29,995 asking price.
Click here to view the listing for this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com.
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