Here's the story...
Illustrated Corvette Series No. 104 - 1997 Corvette
"The C5 Arrives!"

The C4 Corvette was not supposed to have a 13-year run. Chevrolet product planners were hoping to get the C5 released in 1993. GM was having serious financial problems in the early '90s, and a new Corvette was the last things they were concerned about. When the C5 project was finally approved, it was given a $250-million dollar development budget - a dismal amount of money to develop a completely new car. Some models receive that much just for a simple restyling. Dave Hill and his team got to work and the results were better than anyone expected.

This would be the first time a Corvette would be completely redesigned using virtually no carry over parts. As advanced the C4 was over the C3, by the '90s it was a 10-year old design in a market full of newer designed sports cars. Hill and his designers were very much aware of the Corvette's short comings and set out to fix everything that wasn't right with the C4. The only carry over part was the 4L60-E automatic transmission and a few fasteners.

The basic layout and materials selection was actually proposed in the 1957 "Q-Corvette" concept study. Duntov had proposed a new Corvette featuring a fuel-injected, all-aluminum engine, a transaxle, 4-wheel independent suspension, and more. Although it took four generations and 40-years, the essence of the Q-Corvette was alive and well in the new C5 Corvette.

The new C5 was bigger in every dimension, yet it weighed 80-pounds less than the '96 Corvette. The length went from 178.5-inches to 179.7-inches, the width went from 70.7-inches to 73.6-inches, the height went from 46.3-inches to 47.8-inches, the front track was increased 4.4-inches in the front and 2.9-inches in the rear. Even thought the car was larger in every direction, the new styling was lean and slick.

The new LS1 engine was like the ghost of the famous ZL-1, 28 years before. The LS1 was an all-aluminum engine with cross-bolted 4-bolt main bearing caps, cast-in cylinder liners, a shallow aluminum oil pan with side reservoirs, a composite intake manifold, aluminum valve covers. Also included was a hollow camshaft, separate ignition coils for each spark plug with crankshaft and camshaft sensors, and double-lined exhaust manifolds. The complete engine weighed 44-pounds less than the '96 LT4. Horsepower was 345, up from the LT4 rating of 330.

Using a transaxle in the back end of the car helped create a near 50/50 front-to-rear weight ratio. Buyers had a no-extra cost choice of either an electronically-controlled 4-speed automatic or the new Borg-Warner 6-speed manual with a limited-slip Getrag rear axle.

The all-new interior featured Lear leather seats, complete analog gauges,
a centrally-located barking brake handle, and a glove box located under the passenger-side air bag.

The suspension used front and rear double wish bones, transverse composite mono leaf springs, and thicker brake rotors with no-pulse anti-lock calipers. The new perimeter frame was made of stainless hydro-formed tube steel, with aluminum, and magnesium bracing.

Even cynical car magazine writers were impressed with the fact that the new C5 did everything better that the '96 Corvette. A long-standing complaint about Corvettes has been body rattles and noise. Engineers were able to get the body vibrational frequency up from 15 hertz to 23 hertz. The Mercedes SL Convertible had a frequency of 19 hertz. But the real kicker was the price increase - up only $270 from the '96 model! Yet performance was better that the exotic ZR-1. With 0-60mph times of just 4.7-seconds, quarter-mile times of 13.3-seconds at 109mph, and a top-speed of 172, what was there not to be happy about?

The Corvette team created a winner with the new C5 Corvette, but it took the public a year to catch on the new design. Sales for the '97 Corvette were less than half of the '96 figures, only selling 9,752 units. However, the following year sales more than tripled to 31,084 units. The '97 C5 was just the beginning of an amazing generation of Corvettes that finally yielded the ultimate world-class sports car victory at the 2004 24-Hours at Le Mans in the GTS class. Zora Arkus-Duntov would have been very happy. - K. Scott Teeters