$15,000 Question: The Corvette C3

Built between 1968 and 1982, the third generation of America's sports car suffers from a reputation of being a plaything for middle-aged guys who dress in Hawaiian shirts and have hair like Ern McCracken.  It is the most bombastic of all the Corvettes.  Where the 1963 to 1967 Sting Ray conjures up images of the early Space Age, and the 1984 to 1996 C4 packed some legitimate performance cred, the C3 comes off like a lo-fi disco parody.   Google "Corvette Summer" if you're not sure what I mean.  That movie makes the Smokey and the Bandit sequels look like The Godfather in comparison.

The C3 Corvette was built on top of a modified C2 chassis.  Starting in 1971, it was steadily gelded until it reached its nadir in 1980 with a 305 cubic inch V8 and an 85 MPH speedometer.  At 182 inches in length, and weighing a hefty 3,500 lbs, it cuts the same swath as a midsize car.

Still, there's something about the C3.  It looks good, all curvy and low slung in a way that stood out against the Brutalist styling of that era.  It was also more comfortable, more practical, and better performing than the Ferrari 308 or Lotus Esprit.  Even as late as 1979, the L-82 Corvette's 0-60 times were in the mid 6-second range.  The small block Chevy 350 offered bullet proof reliability and plenty of torque.  It's also easy to find parts, and there are no shortage of performance upgrades.

I've driven several C3s and can attest to all of the vices.  They are crude and ride like every chassis bolt needs to be tightened a full turn.  The car was victimized by cost cutting and primitive emissions controls.  It is very much a car of the Malaise era, Prog-Rock on four wheels.  

However, like Prog-Rock, there is a lot of good things about the C3.  You sit low in the bucket seats, peering down the valley of the hood, between the sharply creased fenders.  The dashboard slants away from you with two large gauges for the tach and speedometer in front of you, and five smaller gauges in the center console.  The exhaust burbles somewhere behind you, a throaty sound that modern cars can't imitate.  If you're lucky enough to row your own gears, the four speed manual is smooth and positive and the engine provides enough torque to lope around town in third or fourth gear without lugging. 

If you're looking for the sprite-ness of a British sports car, or the precision of a Porsche Boxster, you'll be disappointed.  It's more of a grand-tourer than Gran Turismo Omologato, a car you can use to commute or travel long distances.  If the C2 competed with the Jaguar E-Type, the C3 is a Chevrolet XJ-S, only more rough around the edges and better to drive.  

The Law of Depreciation

The law of deprecation is a car enthusiast's best friend. Cars that were $50, $60, even $100 grand ten years ago can be had for pennies on the dollar today.

I was reminded of this fact recently while browsing car ads online and realized there are a number of 1997-2000 Porsche Boxsters for sale below $10,000. Ironically, one of my favorite affordable Porsches, the 944, is appreciating towards that amount. So today you can have your pick--Boxster or 944 for the same money.

I know I'd take the Boxster. As much as I love the 944 for its mix of performance, handling, practicality and reliability, the Boxster includes all those traits and has Porsche's iconic flat-6 engine mounted mid-ship.

But it's not just Porsches that experience the phenomenon of depreciation. Just about any car hits its low value when it reaches 10-15 years old. In the 1970s, you could pick up a V12 Ferrari or Jaguar E-Type for the cost of a new Ford Pinto. In the 1980s and early 1990s, muscle cars and 1960s Corvettes were cheap. Now all of these cars are approaching the price of a three bedroom house, or far more in some cases.

Today you can find all kinds of bargains as well. The Porsche 928 and BMW 8 series are in the same price range as the Boxster, as are the Jaguar XJ and XK8. Or if you like American iron, you can pick up a C4 or C5 Corvette, Mustang Cobra, or Camaro Z28 for the same money.

The downside is as the Romans said, "caveat emptor"--buyer beware. All of these cars are at least ten years old and have close to 100,000 miles on them. They may have been lovingly cared for like someone's pet or abused like a Taliban donkey. And you won't know which without taking it to a good mechanic and spending several hundred dollars on a thorough inspection.

We also don't know if these cars will ever appreciate in value, becoming valuable collectors items. Certainly they have the potential, but for now, they should just be cared for and enjoyed.

Mr. Automatic

There was a time when I'd only buy a car with a manual transmission. Slushboxes, as automatics are sometimes called, were boring to my way of reckoning and they robbed power from the engine. I liked revving the engine, snapping off crisp up-shifts, and listening to the exhaust crackle as I downshifted. It was a way to satisfy my inner Walter Mitty as I pretended to race at Watkins Glen or Monaco.

Somewhere along the line of marrying and having kids, I began buying cars with automatics. I didn't mind the car shifting itself in stop and go traffic, or when I needed to retrieve the lost binky from the backseat. But somewhere along the march of time, I realized I now would prefer to own an automatic over a manual transmission. This truth became self evident recently when I looked at the new Dodge Challenger and realized I'd rather own the auto instead of the six-speed manual with pistol-grip shifter. In fact most of the cars I've been dreaming about lately have automatics, from Jaguars, AMG powered Mercedes Benzes, and the Challenger. In fact, there are only a handful of modern cars I'd own today with a manual transmission.

To be fair, slushboxes have come a long way in the last ten years. Most of them are much tighter, more efficient and some of them offer a choice to let you do the shifting yourself. Ironically, we have Porsche and Ferrari to thank for this. Porsche began offering a Tiptronic transmission in the early 1990s. Licensed versions of this gearbox even made their way into cars like my Hyundai Sonata and it worked surprisingly well. Ferrari pioneered the "flappy paddle" gearbox, an automatic with two paddles mounted on the steering wheel to shift gears. Six time F1 champion Michael Shumacher once boasted he was faster in a car with this setup than with a conventional manual.

As I approach middle age I've learned several bits of wisdom. I can't eat or drink as much as I like and not somehow be punished for it. There is such thing as a "recovery period." And a compromise is not a draw but a positive, "win-win" outcome. It is in the spirit of win-win that I view auto-manual gearboxes. With one, I can better endure the stop and go traffic on my commute, retrieve lost toys for my kids, and pretend I'm Michael Schumacher charging the field in Formula One.

I Miss Pop-Up Lights

Although the 1980s are not considered a high watermark of automotive design there was one element from that era that is missing today. Pop-up headlights.

Pop-up and hidden lights originated in the 1930s with cars like the Cord 810 and the Buick Y-Job concept car. They reappeared in the 1960s on the Corvette, Buick Rivera, Pontiac GTO and Dodge Charger. Before long they spread to Italian makes like Lamborghini, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. But they were the most prevalent in the 1980s, appearing on everything from exotic cars to Hondas and Toyotas. They came in all styles and shapes, from ones that flipped up, like on the Honda Prelude, to ones that rotated 180 degrees like on the Corvette C4. There were also exposed pop-up lights like the ones on the Porsche 928 and the 1982 Toyota Celica that I owned in college.

Fifteen years later, pop-up lights have all but vanished. The last new car with pop-ups was either the 1997-2004 Corvette or Lotus Esprit. I know a big reason they went away is cost. Fixed lights are cheaper to produce and less expensive to repair. They also weigh less and take up less space. And like most styling trends, they were a bit of a fad as well, like tail fins, digital instruments and talking cars. But like most fads, it's only a matter of time before they reappear. If the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Dodge Challenger are any indicator, I suspect we'll see pop-up lights again in the near future.

White Sands and Blue Corvettes

In the early 1990s, a movie came out that left an indelible footprint on my brain. It was called "White Sands" and starred Willem Dafoe, Mickey Rourke, with a then unknown Samuel L. Jackson.

The movie was forgettable, except for about five minutes when Willem Dafoe's character blasted along a desert highway in a vintage Corvette Sting Ray. The Nassau blue Vette, set against the barren, rust colored desert at sunset, with lightning flashes and clouds from a thunderstorm, stood out like a turquoise jewel set in adobe. The rumbling echo of exhaust harmonized with distant thunder and Patrick O'Hearn's haunting movie soundtrack.

I have dreamed of taking a drive across New Mexico in a Corvette since that movie came out. Just about any Vette would do, except for the Sunkist orange Dirk Diggler edition with gold rims. But since I am dreaming, I would want to drive a 1965 Nassau blue roadster, with a 327 small-block V8 and four-speed transmission.