As my public expects , I am hard at work on my Lincoln Highway book. Here's a small part from the introduction:

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What A 1985 Corvette Actually Is

The C4s were certainly the first “modern” Corvettes: the first ones to have rack-and-pinion steering (from the 1984 model year), a removable “targa” roof (from 1984), electronic port fuel injection (from 1985), anti-lock brakes (from 1986), a six-speed manual transmission (from 1989), and dual air bags (from 1994).

However Lauren is a fairly early C4 (the first of them were built in model year 1984 and Chevrolet didn’t stop building them until model year 1996), so there a lot of rather primitive things about her. As examples, engine trouble codes can be read with a paper clip (no fancy code-readers here!) and one of the electronic adjustments for the engine is done with a mallet.

One of the most notable things about early C4s — especially ones with the extra cost ($470) Z51 performance handling package, which, of course, Lauren has — is that they have a really hard (almost brutal) ride. One of the standard jokes is that, if you drive over a coin in an early C4 with the Z51, you can tell whether it is a penny, nickel, dime, or quarter.

The Corvette was all new except for the engine for 1984, so the big news for the 1985 model was a new version of Chevrolet’s small block V8. Designated L98, the engine bumped horsepower from 205 bhp to 230 bhp (a big deal in the horsepower-starved mid-1980s) and also improved fuel economy (up to 16 city/22 highway by the standards of the day). Corvette engineers of the day wore golf shirts that said that “Life Begins At 150” and a 1985 Corvette could just barely hit 150 mph if given enough time and distance. 1985 models also got many minor refinements as Chevrolet learned from the 1984s.

By the standards of 1985, Lauren came very loaded. Power windows, power steering, and power brakes are all included with every C4 Corvette. The $400 optional seats are all leather (rare nowadays in anything but the highest end cars) and quite comfortable (though only the driver got even the option of six-way power seats and that went for an additional $215) and there’s a still useful trip computer, though it has some memory limitations we didn’t find out about until recently.  The stereo is an absolutely top of the line for 1985 Delco-GM/Bose music system: an AM/FM stereo cassette with four matched speakers — amazing and expensive ($895) sound for the mid eighties and still serviceable now, at least when it is working properly (and Lauren’s does after some work).

Of course, none of this came cheap. Lauren’s base price with destination charge was $24,878 (approximately $57,000 in 2014 dollars). Adding the aforementioned performance handling package, Delco-GM/Bose stereo, leather seats, and six way power driver’s seat, along with power door locks ($170), transparent targa roof panel ($595), performance axle ratio ($22), cruise control ($185), and rear defogger ($160) and Lauren stickered for a non-trivial $27,990 (about $64,100 in today’s dollars).

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Thoughts?

Thanks, all! Good suggestions ...