Chevrolet Corvette C5 Coupe (355 PS) specs

Someday I'm gonna get this car. Yellow, targa, 6 speed manual, preferably after 2001. Wish me luck boys

0-100: 5 seconds
0-200: 16.6 seconds

Truly a magnificient car. And it's affordable even for the average Joe.

1/4 mile is 13.1@111

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/a3ff2f0fd7c10cf51ad5cf4b5692b991.pdf

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparisons/01q3/bmw_m_roadster_vs._chevy_corvette_m-b_slk32_amg_porsche_boxster_s-comparison_tests

@Viking

GM sure did make some crappy auto trannys in the late 80\'s-mid 90\'s didnt they! I had one go out after 40k miles on a brand new truck.. never abused. It was that span of timing that was most damaging to GM\'s reputation... reliablity was terrible.

@E yeah, 20 plus mpg was very easy, even 30 plus if you were on a long highway trip at moderate speed (70 mph or so). My issues with the two Corvettes that I have owned (a C4 1995 and a C5 2002) were suspect reliability and with the C5 a lack of sufficient ground clearance. Great speed and style and fuel economy if you wanted it. Reliability issues: the 1995 had an automatic transmission that only lasted 80k miles. The 2002 had a steering interlock problem that stranded me once (had to be towed to the dealer for a fix), and ate three batteries in five years. The dealer claimed the rate of battery replacement was perfectly normal for Corvettes. I though that they were full of ****. One of the biggest problems was the lack of ground clearance, only 3.7 inches from the ground to the air dam. The air dam scraped on every driveway, and over every road crown when crossing streets on the east coast of the United States. It would not go over some speed bumps in the Washington D.C. area. Had I not turned around to avoid them, it would have resulted in major undercarriage damage. Unfortunately, my employment necessitated staying close to these terrible driving conditions. These are some of my reasons for not keeping the 2002 Corvette. I do miss the highway fuel economy however!

20 mpg on a Corvette shouldn\'t be difficult. The record is in the 30\'s from some fuel conservation competition, though I don\'t have the article on me.

According to the engine torque curves that I have seen. The 2001-2004 Corvettes had only about 80 bhp available at 60 mph in sixth gear (1400 rpm). My Mustang 5.0 does not have as much low end torque, but the short gears allow for better sixth gear exceleration with about 113 bhp available at 60 mph (1950 rpm). Of course I am way over analysing this stuff. I am a bit bored at work today, sorry.

Sixth gear 0.50 and 3.42 rear axle with 275/40 ZR 18 tires equals 1400 rpm at 60 mph. Great for fuel economy, but not for fun. The low end torque (2001-2004 model years)is 300 lb/ft at 1100 rpm rising to 340 lb/ft by 2500 rpm and finally peaking at 375 lb/ft at 4400 allowed one to loaf along at very low rpm. Very little passing power in sixth gear, just enough to deal with moderate hills. Top speed (over 170 mph) was achieved in 5th gear (0.75) since the 6th was too tall. Sixth gear would only get around 145-150 mph and the transmission would quickly over heat at that speed in that super overdrive. Once again, mixed highway and city would not be nearly as impressive. My city mileage was more like 14-15 mpg. On an autocross or road course expected mileage would be 4-5 mpg. So if you drove a Corvette with fun in mind expect to get considerably less than 20 mpg!

@fastestlaps

I dont have my vette anymore, or I would be happy to do so. Although I wouldnt get nearly 30mpg unless I drove it like a granny all the time which would be silly. Even with the mpg figures shown for the C5 you still dont think 30mpg is possible? Any manual tranny can get far better MPG than listed if its driven carefully.

See this... and this is a more powerful C6 Z06.
http://green.autoblog.com/2008/10/11/corvette-z06-wins-mpg-marathon-in-the-uk/

The reason for the possibility of high mileage with a vette is all in the gearing, torque curve of the pushrod, low weight and slick front end. These OHV engines make around 70% of their torque at idle and 6th gear is designed just for fuel economy. When you are not hard on the gas the manual transmission requires you to shift from 1st directly into 4th gear to save fuel. You can seriously cruise along at highway speed with the engine at idle and still have plenty of pull to go up hills.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-general/1465549-best-corvette-mpg.html

Corvettes doing 30 mpg... I am not convinced.

How about a challenge?

Write down your current mileage and from now on every time you fill up log the amount of fuel you put in. After a couple hundred miles check the mileage again to get the amount of miles covered. Then sum up the amount of fuel you used and calculate mpg (UK and US - they differ a lot).

You\'ll be lucky to get a figure anywhere near 20 US mpg for a Corvette.

I am carefully logging fuel spending on my Audi diesel and so far I am averaging below 6.5 l / 100 km. That\'s a lot of mpg :D

@fastestlaps

It all depends on how you drive and conditions. I am not saying I got that number all the time or highway/city combined. During the day my numbers were way lower due to having to stop and re-accelerate in traffic. When I came home late and the traffic was clear it was no problem to stick it in top gear and idle all the way home (93 miles all highway with no stops). Under the right conditions you can get fantastic mileage out of a vette. You can believe it or not, I know what its capable of.

A C6 Z06 vette won the fleetworld MPG marathon in the UK by averaging nearly 31mpg over 411 miles. Thats highway/city combined.

@Fastestlaps

I couldn't find figures close to 19/28 for C5 Corvette on the Internet and I can't believe in those numbers.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/calculatorCompareSideBySidePopUp.jsp?column=1&id=14800

The EPA recently (2007) changed its rating method. If you look at the link the offical rating for a '99 C5 with a manual was 18/28 but under the current rating system would be 16/26. Though it was not uncommon for C5 owners to get 28 or better on a hwy cruise of 70mph or lower. Even my 6spd '95 Camaro (LT1) would get mid to upper 20s on a hwy cruise.

Edit: Here are the numbers for a '01 C5 which was 19/28.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/calculatorCompareSideBySidePopUp.jsp?column=1&id=16439

I couldn\'t find figures close to 19/28 for C5 Corvette on the Internet and I can\'t believe in those numbers.

When you follow another car close enough on the highway you can end up getting all sorts of exotic mpg figures.

@viking

30mpg only if driven very long time at 60mph never brake or acclerate... under that conditions EVERY car gets exccelent mpg.. under such conditions my car was once with 39.7mpg close to the magic 40mpg number...but to be honest that are completely unimportant numbers because expect very long road trips on restricted roads you NEVER get close to such numbers..
take that C5 through a normal city and you are lucky to see a number better than 15mpg... during tests were the Corvette was used for what it was build ...a sportcar and driven like a sportcar not like a rollator they NEVER get close to 20mpg..in german tests the C5 always ended under 15mpg AVARAGE .... at Autobahn speed the mpg drops to 10mpg...

City mileage in the Corvette was another matter entirely. In stop and go traffic the best I could get was maybe 15 mpg. That is about the same as my new Mustang 5.0. So far the best highway mileage in the Mustang was a very gentle drive from West Virginia to Washington D.C. which averaged 25 mpg. All other highway trips have been 23-24 mpg. The EPA sticker on the Mustang shows 17/26 city/highway mpg. The U.S. EPA ratings only show city and highway expected mileage, they don\'t try to estimate combined (okay, yes they do for CAFE reasons, but they don\'t advertise their figures to the public).

I usually got between 30 and 32 mpg on long highway trips. I was very careful in my calculations. Only once did I get 36 mpg. I did it by following my girlfriend (she was driving the Neon ACR) at a loafing 55-60 mph. Turning only 1350-1400 rpm got 36 mpg in the Corvette that day, but it was too slow for me to ever repeat it. The Neon got 40 or 42 mpg that day, I can\'t remember which. The EPA rating on my Corvette\'s window sticker (I still have it) shows 19/28 city/highway mpg. The 1995 Neon was rated 29/38 city/highway.

I could get 36mpg out of my old manual C5

No way! The Internet says highway mpg for C5 manual is ~20 mpg US.

36 for any kind of combined trip must not be possible. Maybe you weren\'t quite accurate with your calculations and calculated for UK MPG in first place.

36 US mpg combined is diesel and 16 valve sub two liter territory.

@Viking

Yeah, its pretty amazing to cruise at 60mph in 6th gear. Pretty much idle.. and you still got plenty of torque to accelerate if you need too.

On late night trips without having to stop for traffic I could get 36mpg out of my old manual C5. Not much fun to drive it like a granny but on a long trip its not like your gonna be running it all out anyway.

By the way, I used to get great mileage with the Corvette. Do you also get over 30 mpg on long highway trips?

@Haggis yep, your C5 coupe with six speed manual is a very fast car. I used to have a 2002 convertible with six speed manual. Very fast, and excellent fuel economy for such a fast car. Maybe you can find some lap times to add. That would be groovy. 0-60 mph is around 4.7 seconds as you pointed out, 0-100 km/h is around 4.9 to 5.0 since 100 km/h is 62 mph. Still, both speeds are reached in second gear. Do you have any trouble with the really low air dam?

0-60mph for the 1997 345HP C5 Coupe is officially 4.7 seconds. Top speed should be somewhere around 285/295km/h. Quarter Mile seems about right, maybe a bit on the positive side. Pre 2000 model C5\'s had 345hp instead of 350hp, so 2000+ models should even be a tiny bit faster. The 6 speed manual was the quickest from 0-60 (4.7 sec.), the auto tranny did it at 5 sec. but had a slightly higher top speed than the manual or so I\'ve read.
I have a stock \'99 C5 Coupe 6 speed manual myself and it\'s fast!

It is too bad we don\'t have any lap times for this car. I used to own a 2002 C5 Corvette with a six speed manual. When my 1995 Neon ACR racecar got too old, I started competing in the C5 Vette. It did rather well and was very civilized going to and from the track as well.

@expert

sportauto tells different there the Coupe was weight lighter than the convertible, up to 60kg depending on trimm level and transmission (auto box or manual) they have tested several C5 the lightest C5 (manual) was 1450kg the convertible (manual) was 1510kg

Georg the convertible weights less than coupe.

Wow my first quote below and I cant spell..lol.

The weather its the 345hp or 350hp. It all depends on the driver. 0-60 should be between 4.7 - 5.1 ( depending on driver). And 0-100mph around 11.0 - 11.7sec. Top speed ( depending on how crazy you are ( 174mph - 180 mph) and about 3- miles.

Actual power is 350 PS...

My C5 does 0-200 in 16.9 sec and it's bone stock, it's all about traction, with the oem runflats you won't get that time

Georg, I have found a better 0-160 KM time. It's 11.1 seconds. It was tested by Car and Driver.