Bill Burkholder
12-02-07, 01:01 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/billburkholder/vetteofthemonth.jpg
The Corvette for this month is Bob Rosenberg’s 1999 Torch Red Fixed Roof Coupe.
This is no garage queen as it has 34,000 miles on the clock. It has been to the North Carolina Outer Banks, Pittsburgh and Southern Maryland a few times. It has seen track time at Pocono, Englishtown and Atco.
Back in the fall of 1960, I purchased my first sports car, a brand new 1961 MGA for $2,700. A new 1961 base Corvette had a MSRP of $3,934, 45% more than the MGA. The fact that the Corvette had nearly 3 times the horsepower was not lost on me. However the MGA was what I could afford. I had that for a while, but I realized it was an unreliable car in the winter and since I had no garage, I decided to trade it in on something more dependable, a Chevy Corvair. It took over 35 years before I went back to a Chevrolet dealer.
In 1991 I bought a 1978 MGB. This MG had 98 hp, roll-up windows and was more comfortable than my MGA. Also I had a garage to store it during the cold weather. Personal problems forced me to sell it in 1993 for a little bit more than I paid for it.
After a while, I again thought about buying another sports car and began looking for a Triumph TR6, after all, it had a 6 cylinder, 98 hp engine. A friend suggested I look at Corvettes and so I went to the 1999 Cavalcade in the Willow Grove Naval Air Station to see Corvettes.
There I was convinced that the Corvette was the car for me. Unfortunately I learned, not all Corvettes were good values. I purchased a 1989 coupe, the first year for a ZF six-speed transmission. On one of my trips to Englishtown with my C4 (the last as it turned out), I got to ride back in the passenger seat of a flatbed truck with my C4 and its fried engine in the back.
Upon learning a replacement engine was necessary to get the C4 back on the road; I decided it was C5 time. I found a stock 1999 torch red FRC (or hardtop) with 15,733 miles about 5 miles from my home. As they say, the rest is history.
Modifications include:
DRM heat extractor hood
Vette Essentials interior
Fiske Profil 5S wheels
B&B PRT cat back exhaust
LG long tube headers
Donaldson Blackwing intake
Kirban short shifter
Various cosmetic upgrades to the engine compartment, exterior and interior
The car now has 34,000 miles on the clock.
Of the 33,270 Corvettes manufactured in 1999, 4,031 were Fixed Roof Coupes. 1,245 FRCs were painted Torch Red. The Fixed Roof Coupe was only sold 2 years. Another 2,090 FRCs were manufactured in 2000.
Standard on all FRCs:
FE3 - sport ride suspension
Z51 - performance handling package
19I - black Interior trim
GU6 - 3.42 rear axle ratio
345 HP, 350 c.i.d. LS1 engine
NM6 – Borg-Warner six speed manual transmission
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/billburkholder/Rosenberg03t.jpg
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.
.
.
.
The Corvette for this month is Bob Rosenberg’s 1999 Torch Red Fixed Roof Coupe.
This is no garage queen as it has 34,000 miles on the clock. It has been to the North Carolina Outer Banks, Pittsburgh and Southern Maryland a few times. It has seen track time at Pocono, Englishtown and Atco.
Back in the fall of 1960, I purchased my first sports car, a brand new 1961 MGA for $2,700. A new 1961 base Corvette had a MSRP of $3,934, 45% more than the MGA. The fact that the Corvette had nearly 3 times the horsepower was not lost on me. However the MGA was what I could afford. I had that for a while, but I realized it was an unreliable car in the winter and since I had no garage, I decided to trade it in on something more dependable, a Chevy Corvair. It took over 35 years before I went back to a Chevrolet dealer.
In 1991 I bought a 1978 MGB. This MG had 98 hp, roll-up windows and was more comfortable than my MGA. Also I had a garage to store it during the cold weather. Personal problems forced me to sell it in 1993 for a little bit more than I paid for it.
After a while, I again thought about buying another sports car and began looking for a Triumph TR6, after all, it had a 6 cylinder, 98 hp engine. A friend suggested I look at Corvettes and so I went to the 1999 Cavalcade in the Willow Grove Naval Air Station to see Corvettes.
There I was convinced that the Corvette was the car for me. Unfortunately I learned, not all Corvettes were good values. I purchased a 1989 coupe, the first year for a ZF six-speed transmission. On one of my trips to Englishtown with my C4 (the last as it turned out), I got to ride back in the passenger seat of a flatbed truck with my C4 and its fried engine in the back.
Upon learning a replacement engine was necessary to get the C4 back on the road; I decided it was C5 time. I found a stock 1999 torch red FRC (or hardtop) with 15,733 miles about 5 miles from my home. As they say, the rest is history.
Modifications include:
DRM heat extractor hood
Vette Essentials interior
Fiske Profil 5S wheels
B&B PRT cat back exhaust
LG long tube headers
Donaldson Blackwing intake
Kirban short shifter
Various cosmetic upgrades to the engine compartment, exterior and interior
The car now has 34,000 miles on the clock.
Of the 33,270 Corvettes manufactured in 1999, 4,031 were Fixed Roof Coupes. 1,245 FRCs were painted Torch Red. The Fixed Roof Coupe was only sold 2 years. Another 2,090 FRCs were manufactured in 2000.
Standard on all FRCs:
FE3 - sport ride suspension
Z51 - performance handling package
19I - black Interior trim
GU6 - 3.42 rear axle ratio
345 HP, 350 c.i.d. LS1 engine
NM6 – Borg-Warner six speed manual transmission
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/billburkholder/Rosenberg03t.jpg
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.
.
.
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