Optional Extras
Would you tick an option box that was almost as much the base car ?
Some people did - This story is fascinating and for me the most amazing thing is that in 87 in the USA, somebody walked into a showroom to order a car with a base ‘sticker price’ of $27,000 but walked out with an order for a cool $50,000 or thereabouts. The Callaway turbo option was factory approved but a whole $20,000. The write up below is the whole story of one mans journey of discovery about a car he bought at Auction - looks identical to mine, but its a different beast entirely. Howard has his car listed for sale, so I have agreed to put it on here too - just because its so good and he is an out and out petrolhead with a real eclectic collection.
Enjoy
The “Charles Burnett III” 1987 Chevrolet C4 Callaway Corvette.
I have always had an interest in cars, especially sports cars with a preference for “specials” and this includes Corvettes. I have numerous pictures of Corvettes spotted during my travels around Canada and the USA back in 1976, plus any Corvette taking part in the Le Mans 24hrs race which I have attended every year (almost) since 1983.
Since retiring I have had the time to follow another passion, auctions, and it was during one of my regular visits to the local auction house I just couldn’t miss the two-tone silver 1987 Callaway Corvette that was up for sale the following week. Apparently, the Corvette and the other cars were part of the contents of a large estate in the south of England that was up for sale. In addition to the Corvette was a Ferrari 412i, an early BMW 5 series fitted with triple Webers and a pair of Mitsubishi EVO IX; both silver, one a full rally spec car, the other a standard road going car. Plus, a couple of power boats and two “amphibious” cars. The Corvette was still displaying its Texas license plates and therefore was not UK road legal. So this collection was definitely not typical of the “normal” lots for this type of auction.
I asked for details on the Corvette and was told “… we can’t tell you who the previous owner was, but read through this lot and you will find out”. I was then handed a large, flat, black cardboard box with “Callaway Corvette – A Privileged Presentation for Charles Burnett” written on the front. This should be interesting I thought.
The box contained the complete history of the car, from original order 1986 paperwork to a 2008 invoice from a garage in the UK for a new clutch.
This 1987 Chevrolet Callaway Corvette was ordered by Charles Burnet III in August 1986 (More about Charles Burnett III later). The order included a number of options; Z51 Performance Handling Package, MM4 4 Speed Manual Transmission, C68 Air conditioning, D84 Two tone paint (13/18 Silver/Gray), plus option QZD – P255/50VR-16 tyres instead of the standard P255/60VR-16 fitment, and the rare B2K Callaway option, of which I later found out only 188 examples were produced in 1987.
The Callaway B2K option was something quite radical for General Motors as it was the only time Chevrolet offered customers the opportunity to order “3rd party – aftermarket” modifications as a fully warranted dealership supplied option. By selecting the B2K option your car was manufactured as usual at the Bowling Green (KY) facility before being shipped off to Callaway’s facility in Old Lyme (CT) where they would work their magic. The car, once completed would be shipped to the dealer for delivery to the customer.
This particular car left the Bowling Green Assembly Plant in November 1986 for shipment to Callaway Cars. There it was fitted with twin turbo chargers plus the other engine mods to produce 345 hp and 465 ft-lbs of torque. The standard spec. for the 1987 car being 240 hp and 345 ft-lbs.
The B2K option was designed to give the C4 Corvette “supercar” performance to rival European built competition available at the time. Callaway’s goal was to produce an engine that would give 400 hp and provide the Corvette with a 0-60 time of 5 seconds and a top speed of 170 mph. They convinced Chevrolet that this modification would allow their dealer to tell their U.S. customers that for around $50,000 you could buy a U.S. manufactured car with better performance than European competition from manufacturers such as Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini, with cars costing as much as $100,000 -$150,000.
If you were convinced by this sales talk you had to have some serious commitment in terms of time & money to order up the B2K option. In 1987 the retail price for the standard coupe car was $27,799. The B2K option was an additional $19,995. In addition, as was the case with this car, it was a good
idea to order the Z51 Performance Handling Package at $795 plus other options. On top the significant additional cost you could add 3-4 months to the delivery time. This car was ordered in August 1986 and not delivered until February 1987.
Chevrolet continued to offer the C4 Corvette option with a steady increase in power and performance during the production run. By 1989 the power increased to 382 hp with 562 ft-lbs of torque. In 1990 the factory C4 ZR1 option became available and so 1991 was the last year the B2K option was offered. By this time the power had increased to 403 hp. It is interesting to compare the price / performance and production numbers of these two options that were available at the same time. I have taken the figures from the covsport.com website for the 1991 C4, the 2nd year the ZR1 option was available and the last year the B2K option was offered.
Power Torque Price 0-60 Top speed Production
Callaway B2K 403 hp 575 ft-lbs $33,000 5.2 sec 172 mph 71
ZR1 375 hp 370 ft-lbs $31,683 4.6 sec 171 mph 2044
Looking on-line at the reports and articles I noticed the C4 Callaway performance figures varying quite a lot with “best” figures giving a top speed of 192 mph and a 0-60 time of 4.4 seconds. Whoever you believe, this was a quick production car for the late 1980’s.
1992 saw the end of the official Chevrolet / Callaway Corvette cooperation. In total just over 500 Callaway Corvettes were produced making it one of the rarer Corvette special editions. That’s not bad when you consider Chevrolet initially thought they would be able to sell just 25 Callaway Corvettes a year when they started selling them.
Researching the Callaway Corvette and its development it is clear that the main thrust was overall top speed. The Sledgehammer project is the well-documented story of Reeves Callaway’s goal of producing a 250mph production car. With a highly tuned engine producing 898bhp, 772lb-ft of torque and using a 5-speed manual gearbox, plus a specially designed aerodynamic body kit and modified suspension, John Lingenfelter took the “Sledgehammer” to a recorded top speed of 254.76mph. Just to demonstrate to everyone that this was basically a production car, Reeves Callaway then drove the Sledgehammer the 700 miles back home to the Callaway factory in Old Lime CT.
As a result of this project a number of Callaway Corvettes were fitted with the Aero Body kit, an option that is still available from Callaway today. This kit includes a redesigned nose & tail plus side skirts and to quote from the Callaway website “…We wanted to exploit the opportunity to re-engineer airflow management outside the vehicle for added stability in the 200 to 250 miles per hour window. Next, we wanted to revise internal airflow to provide additional engine cooling. Finally, we hoped to illustrate that aerodynamic panels could be designed to complement the beautifully integrated styling of the late model Corvette…”.
Anyway, back to the auction and long story short, I got there early, saw the BMW & Ferrari sold and then, as the only bidder, found myself the owner of a 1987 Callaway Corvette. I then thought about the challenge ahead because, as I mentioned earlier, the car still had Texas plates and was not UK registered, so I couldn’t legally drive it. Also, whilst I had heard the car running, I had no idea of what real condition was and if it would pass a MOT.
So, the next job was to get the car up and running and UK registered. Initially I thought that my local garage would be able to MOT the car and after trailering the car from the auctioneers to the garage and leaving it with them, I got the call. They had had a good look at the car and had to admit that they were completely out of their depth when it came to C4 Callaway Corvettes, especially one with
seriously modified suspension etc. So, I transported the car up to Paul at Lincolnshire Corvettes who was more that capable of doing the work required. As I had absolutely no recent service history, we agreed that all the fluids should be changed together with work to get an MOT. Paul did a great job and confirmed that everything was working and the car was “something special”.
Luckily the documents that came with a car included an old faded “fax paper” copy of a C&E 388. I knew what this was as many years ago I imported a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado convertible from Maryland USA to the UK. This was the form Customs & Excise used to issue to confirm all duties & taxes had been paid and a very helpful person at HMRC confirmed that all was in order and they would transfer the information to the newer NOVA system which would allow me to take the next step and get the car registered with the DVLA.
Next the DVLA and after 4 attempts the car was finally registered. At this point I must thank Ross Thornhill from the Classic Corvette Club UK for his help in getting the required dating certificate as the DVLA would not settle for anything other than a CCCUK “wet ink” original. All very frustration and time consuming.
With all that completed it was time to actually drive the car and what a car. OK, the suspension is rock solid and needs adjusting to better cope with the current state of our roads with a pot hole every ¼ mile, but it is certainly an experience.
With time over the winter months to go through the mass of invoices and associated paperwork that came with the car I was able to put together the full history of what was later confirmed by Reeves Callaway as a very special car.
Charles Burnett took delivery of VIN # 1G1YY2185H5108293 from Tatom Chevrolet, Trinity, Tx. in February 1987. It is clear that Charles certainly used the car clocking up around 7500 miles before the end of the year. It was also clear that the car suffered from a few teething troubles, as with just 2663 miles on the clock the car was with Frank Parra Chevrolet, Irving TX. to investigate “Loud hissing from engine compartment, metal in oil, clutch slip – hot, loud ticking – eng compt. - sounds like valves, rt side converter overheated – burning hole in carpet.”. The final invoice included; replace left turbo, replace y-pipe and converters, replace O2 sensor and replace rt side carpet.
By August 1987 the car was in Florida and with 7266 on the clock and back in the garage having a new head gasket and intercooler pipe fitted. All this confirms what I had later read which was the initial Callaway Corvettes were a little fragile and had numerous “teething” issues.
In June 1988 the car had done 11961 miles when it was sent to Ed Morse Chevrolet where work included an engine rebuild for “peak performance”. Charles didn’t get his Corvette back until just under a year later. We can only speculate to what he did in the intervening period and it looks like other interests took him away from driving the Callaway for a while.
This latest work was obviously not up to expectations as in early 1993 Charles started talking Callaway direct about further modifications. Whilst Callaway had ended its formal association with Chevrolet and the Sledgehammer project was successfully completed, by this time Callaway Cars had a wealth of knowledge on how to get the best out of the C4 Corvette.
The result of these discussions was a quote for in excess of $50,000 to build a 500bhp car with associated body and drivetrain modifications, plus the all-important “drag strip testing” option. This work included full engine rebuild with billet steel rods, upgraded oil pump, plus a new “Inlet Design” with upgrades to the whole intake system including new turbos and associated plumbing. Upgraded heads to include redesigned porting plus 2.00” intake and 1.56” exhaust valves and a new free flow
exhaust system. “Drive line” upgrades included a new clutch, flywheel and 6 speed transmission, plus Callaway Brembo brakes and a rear end diff change from 3.54 to 3.73. In addition, at some time the wheels were changed from standard issue to later C4 ZR1 wheels. Callaway also fitted new seats using some old stock black 1990 versions, plus externally, a lightweight hood (bonnet) with air scoops was fitted.
By June 1993 Charles has his Callaway Corvette back with a dyno report that showed 500 bhp and 620 ft-lbs of torque. The required drag strip test run recorded a “corrected” 12.12 second, 123.5 mph, standing ¼ mile at the New England Dragway, Epping, New Hampshire. Launch rpm was 2400rpm with a shift rpm of “5000rpm all gears”.
There is an interesting paragraph in the book “Corvette Special Editions by Keith Cornett” (page 168) which reads as follows: - “The final Hurrah for the Callaway B2K Corvette program was Callaway’s Speedster model, which was introduced at the 1991 L.A. Auto Show. With a further modified L-98 equipped with Callaway’s two turbocharges, it was capable of 450 hp and 600 ft-lbs of torque. Only 10 were produced at a price of $250,000.”
When he had finished, Charles Burnett had a Callaway Corvette with a better specification than the Speedster, which makes it perhaps one of the highest performance C4 Corvette Callaway ever produced. I say “one of…” as I have subsequently read of other Callaway customers requesting similar modifications to their cars.
In July 1993 Charles had the car shipped back to his UK home, where it appears the car has had very little use as the cars current recorded mileage is just 14,780 miles.
During my research I was in contact with Callaway cars, both their heritage section, who track the whereabouts of older Callaway Corvettes, plus Reeves Callaway himself. From the various emails I received from Reeves Callaway it seems Charles Burnett was a great supporter of Callaway, especially their European section based in Leingarten Germany. Reeves also remembers the Charles Burnett car well “…mostly because it was very powerful…”.
Today the car runs well, has recently passed its 2nd UK MOT and seeing as I have achieved what I originally wanted to do, which was get it UK legal and up and running, it’s up for sale so I can have a new project.