The C5 Corvette was the first all new Vette in over a decade. With its small block V8s, sleek design and serious performance, it showed that the Corvette was ready to take on the world’s best. Now, 20 years after production ended, C5s have started to show up with some interesting…you know what? I’m not even going to sugar coat it. C5s are showing up as abominations. Take this example I found for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
Listed by an El Paseo, Texas dealership called Azteca Motors, this C5 would be fine in any other setting. It’s a 2000 and it has just 52,000 miles on it. Not bad. That price would only be good though if you hadn’t seen this thing first. The dealer describes it using words and terms like “pristine”, “collectors item” and “one of a kind beauty.”
Up front, there’s a massive front splitter that probably has all kinds of scratches underneath, a covered plate that says “USA 1”, a massive “Lingenfelter ‘’ decal across the stop of the windshield a roof mounted air scoop and a big domed hood.
Going around to the side you’ll see a unique exhaust exit that sits right in front of the fender ducts, “GT1” and “LeMans 24 Hour Championship Edition” decals that mean absolutely nothing, C7 Stingray badges for some reason with “Lingenfelter” decals underneath, a huge fuel filler door, U.S. flags on the b-pillar and some cooling ducts on the upper rear fender that looked tacked on until you see that they’re actually flush and integrated with the body panel.
The rear is almost shocking.
Popping the hood is just as bad. I guess those Lingenfelter badges mean something. Along with what looks to be John Lingenfelter’s signature on one of the Grand Sport-like stripes on the front fender, the engine of this thing looks to have been tuned by Lingenfelter as well. The engine wears “Lingenfelter 502 Performance Engineering” across the top, although the dealer has no word on how much power this thing makes.
The interior surprisingly isn’t as bad as the exterior. It’s largely stock, save for a massive roll bar, some racing seat belts, racing gauges, and Hurst shifter badges. The car also comes with the original window sticker from 2000. It’s an automatic.
If you’re immune to shame and this thing appeals to you, the dealer is asking just $25,000 for it.