...with BIG muscles!








This last pic is outside the Bowling Green assembly plant. I bought the car in Ohio on Saturday night, drove it back to Texas, and made it to work on Monday morning...

Sat in traffic for 5 hours between Nashville and Memphis because it snowed and traffic was at a standstill for 60+ miles because no one knows how to drive on a bit of snow! Anyway, got back at 2 a.m. and still made it to work...that is after driving the Maxima 450 miles on Friday night and hopping a plane to Ohio on Saturday.

Specs: 1996 LT4 6-Speed Corvette (Black on Black) 60K miles

 

Pic of the Tennessee Expressway-turned-parking lot

 

Nice, congrats.

 

nice grab. lol
ohio->kentucky->texas=long trip in a 'vette
how bad was sitting in that seat for ever?

btw, this is not a max...

 

The car is actually very comfortable...Sport seats with 5 different air bladders FTW!

 

cool, nice pickup

 

So, what happened to the Max?

 

Not a big fan of vettes, but im lovin this pic. Congrats on your car.

 

Still have it, will probably hang onto it for awhile...After all, I have grown kind of attached to it.

 

You should have stopped by you missed some nice back roads for a suspension test..

 

I was wondering when you were going to post on it.

 

Unfortunately I had to take the car to a shop (at least it's a Vette only shop) yesterday. It was getting squirrely in the turns. It turns out that the drivers side front wheel bearing was just about ready to come off!

Whoever owned the car before me had it replaced (looked pretty new), but used some cheap (probably Idiotzone) replacement part. There was no lubrication in it and it pretty much ate itself apart over the 1200 mile drive back to Texas! It should be ready to pick up later today...

And for you guys who whine about the cost of Maxima parts...A new AC Delco wheel bearing is almost 500 bucks!

 

Didya pickup some chewin tobaccy on the way home?

 

that was after his markup.
A good aftermarket one runs about $230 before his markup. The delco should have run him about $410.

it also includes the ABS sensor.
BTW if you really want to see expensive hub assemblies, check out AWD astros around 2k model year. For a "work" vehicle they are $$$

 

After growing up in that area for 3 years, I can tell you you're exactly on target with that assumption. No one there knows has a lick of common sense when they see snow. They all go stupid... come to think of it, they do the same thing here in South Dakota, must be the Cali transplants.

But I just smile and wave as I drive by in my 2wd truck and their 4wd is sitting in the ditch.

Nice find, how's all the paint?

 

c'mon you know people in TN can't drive when there's one flake on the ground.

 

kinda makes you miss those serviceable hub/bearing assembly ay?

 

Nice pickup. I am not a big Vette fan, but you can't argue about owning a real sports car, as opposed to a 4dsc.

 

nice sir

 

Nice, congrats on the purchase... I prefer the 98+ body but hey not bad. wanna race?

 

You mean 97+, but that's OK...you don't speak GM-ese

I could have bought a C5, but there's something about the C4 that draws me to it...Think of it as why we drive "quirky" and / or slower 3rd Gens as compared to the "superior" 4th Gens.

The C4 is more of an unapologetic sports car than the C5. The interior has more of a cockpit feel and it has more unique / "quirky" features than the C5. It appeals to a certain breed of people.

Not only that, but they only made 4 or 5 thousand examples with my motor (LT4) as opposed to the LT1. Just an all-around better, more powerful motor. And 96 was the only year C4 that had OBDII (read: tunable)


Besides, C5's are a dime-a-dozen down here, whereas my car has a bit more individuality.

 

 

i was about to say...they are usually LT1s..wasn't sure if you made a typo w/ the LT4. nice ride.

 

kind of, but at the same time on a normal application it is much easier to swap a complete hub assembly. sadly no longer are things serviceable on cars.

 

I dunno.. I'd rather replace a $10 bearing every 5 years than I would a $150 hub assembly every 10 years.

 

Coolio.

 

$150? that's it? Wow I'd take that over the $375 each it would have cost for hub assemblies on my old F-250. Of course, Dynatrac was nice enough to make a change out for $1700 that allowed me to use Timken bearings. Then it was just $10 swap out... LOL

 

what modern car uses $10 bearings anymore?
anyhow, realize that a GM hub assembly usually includes the ABS sensor, and allows you to use significantly less expensive rotors. in the end it comes out a wash.

 

my 93's bearings came out to 39 bucks each plus like 12 bucks each seal back in 2006...

I'm sure the newer maximas are a hell of a lot more expensive.

So Ben, tell us some more about this vette aside from it having this LT4 you speak of

 

Maxima rear hub assembly is about $135-150 from a dealer.
front wheel bearing is $35, BUT they almost always eat the hub as well when they go out. The hub is $135. Then throw in wheel seals for $10 each. so a front bearing on a Maxima truly costs about $190 per side.
Rear are about $135.

I'll be glad to go back to the good ol' days of tapered roller bearings and a bucket of grease that get repacked every time you do a brake job.

You could still very easily set the rotor assembly up like Nissan's rotors too. And absolutely there's no reason those things should cost more than a Chevy's entire front bearing/hub/rotor assembly.

for example, look at a Datsun 240Z front hub assembly. It uses greasable tapered roller bearings and a rotor that bolts to the hub. It's a great design. just too small for performance use!

 

60K miles, removable targa top, ZF 6-speed, underrated factory specs of 330 HP & 340 TQ (more like 345 and 350, respectively)...It has the F45 selective ride control option (fine for now, will get replaced with Bilsteins or Konis when something eventually goes wrong), needs a Hurst shifter, long tube headers, Borla exhaust, and a dyno tune stat! (Seeing I just spent $918 to get it out of the shop today, mods are a little ways off.) But it is frikkin fast and gets a lot of attention...In fact, a guy in a GT40 pulled up next to me at a stop light earlier, complimented the car, and said he also had a C4 (ZR-1)!

Still want to line it up with Mike Kantor's E55...

 

Nice vette! It's good to see another chevy-guy here. I had a 95 Z28 LT1 6MT back in the day. Do you have opti-spark?

 

All LT engines have Optispark. It's not a bad system as long as you make sure the water pump isn't going bad and leaking on it. And if you are that worried about it you can convert the ignition system to coil packs for less than 500 bucks.

 

Congrats on the purchase! I'll let you know once I get some new tires

 

^^sounds like you've done your homework!

 

you have a 96, the opti-spark will last just fine. the early systems were problematic even w/o the water pump gaskets leaking.

 

Indian/Pakistani guy in a Silver GT? (It's a Ferd GT, not a GT40 btw...)

Sanjay Doesn't live too far from you... His ZR1 is SCARY fast. Has about 3 or 4 other vettes too, plus a CLK55 and some other toys.

Real nice guy. Makes me wish I woulda gone to med skool and become a surgeon!

 

Ha, small world! That has to be him!

 

Town of 5.6 million people and I can't fuggin get away from you......

 

He's stalking you matt..