BOLD RIDE
Copyright © 2015 Bold Ride LLC.
V8 coupes, what isn’t there to love? The formula of eight whirring cylinders up front and power sent to the back isn’t revolutionary, but arguably it’s the best for going fast and inducing smiles. It’s no secret either. The car-builders of the world embrace the tried-and-true V8 coupe.
But that made us wonder, who does it best? While there’s a veritable sea of options to choose from, we’ll start with two of our favorites: the world-beating 1990 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 and the swan song 1994 Porsche 928 GTS. Both are up for grabs on eBay and we want to know, if it were your money, which would you buy?
It’s easy to see why the vaunted Corvette ZR-1 will have its share of fans. In the late 1980s, Chevrolet reached across GM’s corporate architecture and enlisted Lotus Engineering to build a new all-aluminum V8 engine, intended for a Corvette the likes of which had never been seen. Lotus obliged, crafted the 5.7-liter LT5 V8, and Chevy sunk it underneath the hood of the ZR-1.
Prod the accelerator and the racy ZR-1 unleashed 375 horsepower, achieved 0-60 mph sprints of just 4.3 seconds, and could sail all the way up to an astonishing 180 mph top speed. And thanks to Lotus’ trick FX3 suspension, it more than proved itself in the twisty bits. This one-owner example shows a mere 21,000 miles on the odometer, and recently scored two National Corvette Restorers Society Top Flight honors. Original sticker price in 1990? Try a whopping $59,000.
Hardline Porsche fans aren’t the easiest group to impress – change the formula too much, and it simply won’t do. That’s probably why the front-engined, V8 powered 928 grand tourer never caught on with the Stuttgart faithful as well as its 911 brother. Nonetheless, it lived long and enjoys cult-like following.
Across its lifespan, the Porsche 928 featured various sizes of its alloy V8 engine, beginning with the 4.5-liter mill and ending quite triumphantly with this – the 5.4-liter 928 GTS. Those three digits denoted 345 horsepower, 369 lb-ft of torque, and membership into a club of only about 400 US-spec cars, sold from 1993 to 1995 at a cost of around $82,000. This rare one-owner shows 78,000 miles on the clock, and according to the seller, has been maintained religiously over the years.
So which is it going to be, the ‘Vette or the Porsche?
______________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment