The first 200 production C5 Corvettes were
painted Red, not the traditional color for the first production run.
The 1997 Corvette C5 is the first Corvette
designed from the ground up to be a Corvette.. Not borrowing parts from
other cars. One of the few "Off the Shelf" parts - the exterior door
handles, same ones used on the Oldsmobile Aurora.
The first use of a transaxle in a
production Corvette occurred in the '97. However, the first plans for one
were in the Q-Corvette in 1958, planned for the 1960 model. Transaxles
showed up in Corvette prototypes in the mid '60s in running models.
The first 4 speed in a Corvette was built
by Borg Warner in 1957. The first transaxle in a production Corvette was
also built by Borg Warner, forty years later in 1997. Both were introduced
late in the model year.
Borg Warner has produced a transmission for
each generation of Corvette: C1 - 1957 to 1962, C2 - 1963, C3 - 1980 to
1981, C4 - 1984 to 1988, and C5 - 1997 to 1998.
The 1997 Corvette is the first Corvette to
have windshield wipers that sweep in the same direction instead of
opposing directions.
November 4, 1997 - The 9752nd 1998 Corvette
rolled down the assembly matching the total 1997 Model production run.
The last "Fairway Green" C5 a 1998
Model came down the assembly line November 10, 1997. The color was
discontinued.
It takes 55 hours to build the new C5
Corvette, down from 70 hours for the previous C4 model.
