The C4 Corvette has finally come out the other side of it’s days as an oft-joked about, rock bottom cheap, old sports car. Every car goes through the cycle. Cool when new, aging against a new model it looks less cool, then it enters the dark period of near worthlessness and ridicule. After that, they slowly become cool again, and after a while old guys who wanted them when new start paying stupid money to get hold of their childhood dream car. Remember, Roadkill effectively got off the ground hacking one to death and making all the Corvette purists angry. They chose the car they did because it was seen as something of little to no value and basically it was the butt of the joke. No longer!
This look back at the 1996 Corvette Grand Sport makes us want a C4 real, real bad. The 330hp LT4 in this thing had it cooking, the big wheels and tires from the ZR1 made it handle like a monster, and in true Corvette fashion it delivered on performance numbers that cars three to four times its price struggled to keep up with. It also had the typically un-good GM interior of the time with the plastic and el-cheapo feel that has since been rectified in later generations.
There’s always something cool about the final release of a last generation car, especially one that is all about performance. Allowing engineers and designers to make “special” editions gets people lining up with the money. The best version of the chassis, the best version of the engine, and the most sleep styling always land with the last generation of anything.
The Grand Sport was a crusher then and boy do we think it is cool now.
