My goal for this weekend was to swap the amplifiers in my ‘vette and thereby restore the functionality of the stereo system. The 90′s Bose system is somewhat notorious for failure; some of the capacitors were of dubious quality and basically turn to powder with age. This leaves you with a system that howls like a banshee, brays like a donkey and squeals like a 5 year old on acid – often all at the same time!
The choices are simple. Buy a set of new amps from Bose, or one of the Corvette parts suppliers – this costs between $125 and $150 per amp. As there are four of them altogether this gets to be a pretty expensive solution.
The other option is to keep an eye out for a good deal on Ebay, which is what I did; a complete set of amps, tested working, for $100 – less than a quarter of the new cost. That had to be a bargain.
Removal of the speakers to access the amps is fairly straightforward, though requires a certain element of contortionist skills in places – especially when removing the front speakers. Despite this I had the two back speakers out in about an hour (mostly because I was deliberately working slowly to avoid any problems).
The two front speakers, well they took about an hour and a half, due to the aforementioned contortion issues. The driver’s side came out easily once all the trim was removed, the passenger side… well that was a little different.
Though removing the passenger side speaker was actually slightly easier than its mirror twin, as I pulled the unit out it snagged the carpet slightly and this was enough to tear off two of the plastic ‘tabs’ where the screws go to hold it in place.
You often hear about plastic becoming brittle with age, but this was ridiculous. There’s always something to bite you when you least expect it!
So… a quick trip to the local parts store for a number of alternative possible fixes, including some ‘plastic weld’. I tried this first and to my complete surprise it made a strong fix that was perfectly usable.
I was a little cautious re-installing the speaker unit, half expecting the weld to fail and the tabs to fall off again; but it worked perfectly and in about another thirty minutes everything was back reinstalled.
A quick test showed the amps to be doing their job perfectly and ‘The Dragon’ now has his voice back! How’s that for a successful weekend?
Now? It’s Miller Time!
Yesterday was a beautiful day here. The snow has largely gone, the roads are pretty clear (so long as you stay off the side streets) and teh temperatures are hitting the pluses with reasonable frequency.
I couldn’t resist any longer. We picked up the gear necessary and went to wake The Dragon from it’s long Winter slumber.
After re-installing the battery he cracked into life first time and purred contentedly. Out on to the streets the beast rumbled sedately, stretching himself in the warm Spring sunshine as we made our way across town.
The first run is always fairly sedate, the tires aren’t really at operating temperature and I spend most of the journey listening to noises from the car, watchful for any telltale warning signs after the Winter hibernation.
There were no concerns. The Dragon was in fine shape, rumbling pleasantly all the way home.
At one point I couldn’t resist, dropping a couple of gears to bring the revs up and ‘exercise’ the secondary injectors. The Dragon reared forward, eager to pound the highway content to do my bidding, whatever that might be. A tingle of excitement jumped up and down my spine and the ‘permagrin’ settled on my face.
ZR-1s are pure excitement!
It’s more or less the end of the ‘vette season here in the ‘great white north’; if I’m lucky the weather might stretch out to another few weeks of patchy driving for the ZR-1. It seems strange to imagine I only took delivery of ‘The Dragon’ on that icy night back in February; the summer has had a peculiar timelessness to it.
The first couple of months were filled with immense frustration, having taken delivery and then having to place him in storage where I couldn’t even get access particularly easily. After the journey up from Detroit he was covered in road gunk and looked a complete mess, like taking in a stray puppy and then not giving them a bath and a warm place to stay.
I admit it; I pushed to get him out. We were lucky to have a fairly mild winter, which helped and I hoped to get him on the road for my birthday in March. That didn’t happen, but I did have my first real ride in him a week later. (Yes, that is snow in the background.)
So how was it? How did Achilles feel when he rode Xanthus? How would it feel to be a Dragon rider on Pern?
At first I was almost in awe of the Z, hardly daring to ‘loosen the reins’; though I have driven some fairly fast cars, nothing could prepare me for the sheer explosive nature of the Z when you ‘get on it’. The power kicks in and you think you must really be kicking ass, then a quick glance down informs you that you still have around half the rev band available! The power curve on the LT5 is quite simply awesome; the closest I have come to it previously was on the Jaguar V-12 engine, that red-lined at 6800RPM but had 25% less power.
One of the things that surprised me a little with the ZR-1 was how brutish the car felt. After reading everything I could on these cars for the last seventeen years, I had expected a more ‘refined’ feel to it. Mine was more like an untamed Beast, ready to snap and bite at any moment. The only time it felt vaguely controlled was with the power key firmly in the ‘off’ direction.
A very early modification I made was the installation of one of Marc Haibeck’s updated chips; this was really the thing that made the difference. Afterwards the car had even more power, but now the delivery was silky smooth yet still just as ‘eager’ when called upon. The transformation was really staggering; the Dragon really was ‘tamed’.
The change to our lives was also quite a discovery. As relative newcomers to Vettedom and Canada we didn’t have many friends, so when we bought the car we also joined the local Corvette club. Suddenly we found ourselves with a bunch of new social contacts; not only that, we found that everywhere we went we were greeted as friends by an amazingly diverse set of fellow owners. When you own a Corvette, other owners really aren’t strangers; they’re just friends you haven’t been lucky enough to have met before.
Then there is the Registry itself, the members of which have been so helpful and encouraging in so many ways and always ready to provide helpful advice, or playful sociopathic banter, as appropriate. Our first ‘real’ road trip was to meet BobbyHi, from the registry forum; we spent five magical days in the Z for an all too brief visit. Not only did he make us feel truly welcome, he even helped us clean the Dragon after the long journey. Brotherhood of the Beast indeed!
Some myths need clearing up. Owning a ZR-1 will not get you recognized immediately as a superstar sex-symbol; in fact you probably won’t get much attention at all. Even other Corvette owners will blithely dismiss the Z as ‘just another C4′. If you are looking for that kind of attention you probably don’t want the KOTH. No ‘vette can be called a ‘sleeper’, but the ZR-1 comes close (as it was designed to).
Open the hood and put the beautiful LT5 on display and you’re sure to start gathering some attention though. Most people still won’t know what it is, but they’ll realize that they’re in the presence of something strange, legendary and beautiful.
Something that most definitely isn’t a myth though is the ‘permagrin’ feature that was hand built in to each and every ZR-1 ever built. The process for finding this feature varies somewhat from car to car but generally goes something like this: start the car, edge out onto an open road with not much traffic around, cruise around a few miles then drop him into third and hit the gas! The acceleration pushes you back hard in to the seat, the car grabs the road like it had claws instead of wheels, and hurtles you forward to illegal speeds in a staggeringly brief period.
Congratulations! You just unlocked the permagrin and awoke the Beast.
Throughout the summer we spent numerous weekends and evenings cruising somewhere with the Dragon. It really didn’t matter where too much; driving the ZR-1 is living – everything else is somehow dull and unexciting in comparison. We went for hikes, driving off then changing into boots to walk a trail. We went on cruises with our (I originally wrote ‘the’ here and realized it was much more than that) club. The club events typically involve more eating than driving but are still bags o’fun(tm) nevertheless. We took Kyla, our four-legged canine beast, in the car (gasp, shock, horror!) and drove off to places to walk with her. In fact we tried to combine the Z with everything we did.
The Dragon took it all in his stride, never phased, always ready to do more and go just that little teensy bit faster.
The culmination this year was just last week. We finally had some vacation and did a road trip around New England – Albany, Boston, Portland and finally back to Canada and Ottawa. It was very much a journey of discovery; we only had the loosest of plans and had no real expectations of what we’d find. It was a chance to see places we’d never seen and mostly a chance to drive places we’d never driven, in the most incredible Corvette ever. As can be imagined, there were things we’d probably not do again, and there were things that we’d very much like to do more and explore further.
The roads through Adirondack Park were incredible, not only for the beautiful scenery but also the sheer fun of driving. Route 2 from Albany over to Boston was an unexpected pleasure. It had everything: tight corners, twisty fast sections and changes of elevation that were nothing short of breathtaking.
One constant was the ZR-1, the Beast, King of the Hill… our Dragon. He never missed a beat and took everything in his stride. On the few highways we took he was impeccable, on the twisty back-roads he was simply awesome.
Whenever I open up the garage to take the Dragon out, it still sends a shiver through every pleasure center. When I park up somewhere and return I feel a thrill as I approach just from seeing him sat there. The Z takes even the most mundane of trips and turns it into a wondrous journey.
So, what’s it like owning a ZR-1? Magnificent, spine-tingling, thrilling, and above all, inspiring.
Long Live the King!
(Originally published in ‘Heart of the Beast – Issue 12′ by the ZR-1 Net Registry)
There’s been a lot of talk on the ZR-1 forum and others about the removal of Zinc from motor oil, specifically Mobil 1 and the potential detrimental effects on the LT-5 and other Corvette/high performance engines. Opinions have varied and I’m certainly no expert so I decided to do the obvious – I asked Mobil through their support line. The response was -
“The new ILSAC GF-4 motor oils (10W30 and lower viscosities) do have reduced (0.08%) ZDDP in the formulation for longer longevity of the catalyst converter and system. This is not a problem on newer vehicle designs that utilize the roller cam, valve train technology however, if you have flat tappet cam, valve train technology you generally want higher ZDDP levels. Mobil1 15W50′s, Mobil1 diesel motor oils, Mobil1 motorcycle motor oils and Mobil1 High Mileage 10W30 and 10W40 have high ZDDP levels and would be the best choices for these engines.”
I also found some good online resources discussing this issue and additives in general -
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e…ech/index.html
http://www.performancemotoroil.com/truth_about_oil_additives.html
Hopefully this will help people make an informed decision.
The deed is finally done!
After all this time I have finally bought a ZR-1.
The vehicle is currently in Michigan and has 33000 miles on it, the bodywork is almost flawless and so is the underneath. It has a custom exhaust and wheels, but comes with all the original parts (including the original 1991 tires!) and even has the original window sticker (original price $66000!)
The previous owners have really kept the car in amazingly good condition and a big thank you goes out to all of them.
Of course, the story is not quite that simple. It never is it seems 
– in this instance the car is in the US and I’m in Canada, so now I have to go through the importing process.
My first thought was that I would drive it back Continue reading
The latest copy of ‘Corvette’ magazine has a feature on the ZR-1 and exploring its demise in the kind of derogatory tones that I’ve gotten used to seeing quoted in far too many places.
The resounding idea from the article is that the car’s engine, the mighty LT-5, was too expensive and that it became obsolete and unnecessary because good ol’ Yankee ingenuity made the aging small-block Chevrolet almost its equal.
As an example of this, it tells the story of how the GM engineers developed reverse-flow cooling systems for the small-block that allowed them to create more power from the engine without the heads melting.
Traditionally, engine cooling feeds cool water from the radiator in at the bottom of the engine, this works its way up and the hot water is sucked out of the top. Hot water naturally rises, aiding the flow and all is well.
Except, by the time the water gets to the cylinder heads (the area most in need of cooling as that’s where combustion takes place) the water has been heated in its journey through the rest of the engine block, making the cooling effect less effective and constraining the power levels achievable.
With reverse-flow, as you might imagine, the cool water is introduced at the top through the heads where it can be most effective and is forced down by pressure, where it is removed at the bottom. This gives more cooling up top and allows more heat (power) to be generated without having to suffer lots of unpleasant things such as detonation or combustion chamber meltdown.
A great refinement. Good engineering. A deft solution to an old and stubborn problem.
Perfected by Lotus engineering on the development of the LT-5.
There’s a ZR-1 for sale on the registry site for $5000. Now, hold on just a second, before you go running off to get the number to call the seller, there’s something you should know. It’s been rolled.
There’s no engine or transmission. Most of the front and bodywork is gone and there could be some rear damage too, there also appears to be some damage to the top of the windshield too possibly.
Okay, so now it’s a junker, right? Why am I wasting your time with this?
Well, there are some real possibilities here.
First of all, the overall condition of the chassis and the passenger cell etc. looks in good condition. The parts that are damaged are mostly the parts that are standard to any C4 so plentiful and cheap.
So what you have here is one hell of a fantastic project potential.
First there’s the obvious scenario. Rebuild the car, find an LT-5 and transmission and drop it in. The problem with that idea is that LT-5s aren’t exactly hanging around on street corners waiting to be bought and when you can find them they’re expensive. Still allowing around $10k for the engine, $2k for the transmission and maybe another $6k for the rest of it still leaves you with a fairly good priced ZR-1.
Some other options spring to mind though. Let’s say you do find an LT-5, originality isn’t an issue here so how about mounting the ‘Heart of the Beast’ to an automatic gearbox? The mounting should be a fairly easy fabrication for anyone with a decent home workshop or could be farmed out to a good shop. I can hear the purists gasping in horror at the thought, but hell you’d have the only slush-box ZR-1 on the planet probably.
As I said an LT-5 is pretty hard to find and expensive. So how about dropping an LS-1 or LS-2 in there. Again this might be sacrilege to many, but in many ways the new C5 and C6 engines are the descendents of the mighty LT-5 (albeit a somewhat side branch of the family).
A standard LS-1 will give power levels approaching a pre-93 ZR-1 and with some fairly simple bolt-ons will surpass it, at least on a pure horsepower level, if not in terms of refinement and top end.
The newer engines are also very amenable to tuning; there is a bewildering array of power-adders and updates for these engines. What’s more they are plentiful and relatively cheap. And on top of that, like the LT-5, they’re a completely aluminium engine so the power to weight ratio is excellent.
The fabrication again shouldn’t be too hard. The LS series engines were tested in the C4 chassis while GM was doing early testing with ‘mules’ so should present few problems. The gearbox and instrumentation may need some work but hey we all like a challenge don’t we?
Lastly, how about this for an idea. Install a C5-R 427 or similar. This probably wouldn’t cost any more than trying to find a replacement LT-5 but the power levels would be fantastically insane. One thousand horsepower should be easily within reach with this kind of setup. Adding in super or turbo chargers would provide enough power to move a small planet
Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of rescuing a fallen warrior and breathing new life in to him, giving him the weapons he needs to rise again, that sounds very cool!