At $7,500, Would You Run To Buy This Non-Running 1990 Chevy Corvette ZR1?

Today’s Nice Price or No Dice ZR1 is a bit of a Secret Santa regarding the problems keeping it from tearing up the streets. Let’s see if the price tag is a big enough bargain to make it worth unwrapping.

I Need American Muscle On A Budget | What Car Should You Buy?

I think we can all agree that Subarus are cool. Not all of them, mind you, but enough of them to imbue the overall brand with a halo of hipsterism. The 1995 Subaru SVX LSi that we considered yesterday presented as a bit worse for wear, what with its patina’d paint and dents called out by the seller. Those factors didn’t make the underlying car any less cool, however. That fact, along with a $3,700 asking price, proved a winning combination, earning the SVX a solid 80 percent Nice Price victory.

Hey, have you ever played miniature golf? In its as-is condition, today’s 1990 Chevy Corvette ZR1 looks like it might have just as many traps and pitfalls as your typical Golf N’ Stuff.

According to the ad, this Corvette was originally purchased by the seller’s father and passed on to the seller upon the father’s passing. The seller hasn’t had the opportunity to enjoy the car at any since, as it has apparently been sitting immobile for years. That’s a shame because the ZR1 is not only the highest-performance iteration of the C4 Corvette Chevy ever built, but it’s a pretty interesting car in its own right.

Chevrolet’s goal with the ZR-1 was to create what, at the time, would be the fastest production car on the planet. As an incentive to earn that title, GM’s engineers gave the car the nickname “King of the Hill.” The car’s creation involved two partners: Group Lotus, the British sports car builder and engineering firm recently acquired by GM, and Mercury Marine, an Oklahoma, U.S.A.-based marine engine builder well-versed in the ins and outs of aluminum engine fabrication.

The result of that not-too-many-chefs recipe was an all-alloy V8 with quad cams, 32 valves for breathing, and a complex intake system that employs three throttle bodies and two tuned intake runners per cylinder for maximum performance across the entire rev range. At the model’s introduction for the 1990 model year, that power was claimed to be 380 horsepower and 370 lb-ft of torque. To make the most of those ponies, Chevy asked Lotus to help massage the ZR-1’s suspension and braking and fitted the car with a ZF S6-40 six-speed manual, the only transmission offered in the car. The bigger back tires required wider fenders, and those were joined by a unique rear facia incorporating squircle tail lamp lenses.

Per the ad, this first-year edition acquired a laudable 140,000 miles before being bedded down like Rip Van Winkle. A quick check of the license plate shows that it was last tagged 20 years ago, in 2003. Now, the seller says it needs a battery and a fuel pump but doesn’t let on as to whether it needs more than just those two items to make it run. We can guess that it does since the engine bay pictures provided in the ad show the millipede intake unbolted from the block and just sitting loosely in place. Another indication that some monkeying around has taken place is the disconnected A/C lines.

This may have all been in an attempt to address a no-start issue. The ZR1’s engine fits the starter in the valley between the heads, and water built up under the starter due to washing or other intrusions can cause corrosion, which can kill the starter. Chevy issued a service bulletin directing dealer service departments to pull the intake and starter and drill an additional drain hole in the block(!) to address this problem. Was that this car’s main issue? Or is it something else? Who knows?

At least the car looks good, even if it’s a static art installation at present. The black paint seems to hold a shine, as do the factory alloys. There’s no word in the ad about the age of the tires on those wheels, but we can assume they are as old as the hills.

The cabin also presents as clean, although the seller thought it a good idea to cover everything in there with Armorall or maybe baby oil as it is all crazy shiny. There are some rips in the carpet from legs dragged over the C4’s notoriously high sills, and the weather stripping on the door surround is in desperate need of replacement, so add those problems to the ZR1’s list.

In case that list proves less daunting than we might expect, it’s now time to contemplate the car’s $7,500 asking price. That’s a heck of a discount off the typical price of a running car, with the seller stating about the price, “My loss is your gain.”

How much does a new owner have to gain at that asking? Is $7,500 a fair price for a mystery car that could be a money pit to get back on the road? Or is this just too big a question mark to spend even that much?

You decide!

Phoenix, Arizona, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Kristoffer Anderson for the hookup!

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