The C5 Corvette is the Ideal Blend of Vintage and Modern

The C5 Corvette combines modern levels of performance with vintage cool in a package you can use every day.

I have a confession to make – I’ve always wanted a Corvette Sting Ray. Specifically, I’ve always wanted a 1965 or ’66 Corvette Sting Ray convertible in Nassau Blue with a 4-speed manual. Wilem DaFoe is to blame for this because he drove one in the movie “White Sands”. The movie itself is forgettable except for a standout performance by Samuel L. Jackson. But the scene with DaFoe driving the Corvette across a twilight desert landscape left me lusting after a Sting Ray ever since.

You probably won’t find a clip of the Corvette scene. I didn’t see anything on YouTube and the trail on our own Corvette Forum went cold about 15 years ago. Likewise, I’ll probably never own a Nassau Blue C2 Sting Ray convertible unless I win the lottery. My limited means and lack of garage space make me something of a bottom feeder when it comes to cars. I also lean towards the pragmatic because I need my cars to serve my transportation needs. This fact is equally good and bad because while it limits my options, it also saves me from making bad decisions like buying an $8,000 Maserati or one of about a dozen Jaguars.

Fortunately, when it comes to Corvettes there is a middle ground – the C5. It’s affordable, modern enough to drive daily, and vintage enough that you don’t see them every day.

The C5 Corvette is a Performance Bargain

Back in 2017 Road and Track called the C5 the ultimate performance bargain. With 0 to 60 times in the high 4-second range, and a top speed in excess of 170 mph it’s still fast today. Want more power from an LS swap? Easy-peasy because the C5 started life with a 345-horsepower LS1 motor. Just swap in a new crate motor for an extra 100-horsepower or more.

Better still, the LS motor and 6-speed manual transmission are just about bulletproof. I have a friend who up until recently used to daily his C5 on a 50-mile round trip commute, racking up over 14,000 miles a year. Nothing ever went wrong with the drivetrain. In fact, nothing went wrong mechanically with the car other than a noisy fuel pump and leaky rear differential.

Trim and interior bits are hit and miss – but let’s be honest, this wasn’t GM’s finest hour when it came to quality. In retrospect, it wasn’t terrible. But compared to the C8 the C5’s interior’s quality looks like something put together by Playskool. There are other areas to watch for too like headlight problems and rattles as covered in this forum thread.

At the time of the Road and Track article in 2017, prices for good C5s with manual transmissions started at $15,000 with clean Zo6 models in the $25,000 to $30,000 range. Incredibly prices remain close to those levels today. With all of the insanity of the car market, including new C8s selling at significant dealer markups and people losing their damn minds on Bring A Trailer, Corvette prices should have doubled. Why they haven’t is beyond me but I like to think it’s because the owners are too busy enjoying them.

Back when the Corvette C5 was new, car manufacturers started embracing retro style. Companies produced cars like the Ford Thunderbird, Chrysler PT Cruiser, and Ford Mustang, among others to create a wave of nostalgia and increase sales. Chevrolet didn’t have to bother with restyling the Corvette to look retro. The pop-up headlights and curvaceous styling both made it look more modern than the C4 while recalling the lines of the C3. Interior styling was an ideal mix of modern with the 3D instrument cluster and heads-up display paired with a dashboard that recalled the twin-cowl design of the C1 and C2.

For my money, the C5 is the second best-looking Corvette after the C2 Sting Ray. Many of you will disagree but to me, no other Corvette offers the same mix of vintage Corvette style with modern performance and driveability. It was the last in the line of Corvettes with concealed headlights and the last Corvette of the 20th Century. It’s very analog without electric power steering, all the traction control, and suspension settings, or even an infotainment unit in the dashboard.  But it was the first “modern” Corvette with a hydroformed frame and rear-mounted transaxle.

20-plus years later you don’t have to make excuses for its performance. There’s no “Yes, but it was fast for its time.” or “That was the Malaise Era. All cars were slow then.” It’s a car you can drive comfortably, put down respectable lap times at a racetrack, and take out on date night.

When it comes down to it there are three Corvettes. There’s the modern-high performance car that lays waste to cars costing three times as much. There’s the vintage car that looks effortlessly cool and is great to cruise around in. Then there’s the C5 which is both.

I may not be able to afford a 1966 Sting Ray like Willem DaFoe drove in “White Sands” but I could get a C5 and drive it to White Sands. And they even make it in the same Nassau Blue color.

Photos: Chevrolet and IMCDB

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