I used to have a 1988 bright red / saddle leather interior Z51 coupe with the Doug Nash 4+3 stick in it. I sold it back in 1993 and regretted it ever since. A few weeks ago, I found the clone of my old car on Ebay one night but decided not to get into a bidding war on it. That car, an exact copy of my '88, went for $10,800. Yeah, I missed that one so I promised myself that if I ever found another deal like that, I would make sure not to let it get away.
Thinking back and looking at the C4 generation, I was less drawn to replacing my '88 and more inclined to going with a 1991 model instead. I began looking for a 1991 since most of the older Z51 parts had been worked into the base model by 1991, I liked the '91 face-lift over my old '88, I wanted a 6 speed rather than the 4+3 DN, and I really liked the '90 make-over of the dash as compared to the Atari dash I had in my '88. The '91 seemed to have almost everything standard that my old '88 Z51 had come with as part of the Z51 option package but I still wanted the best handling '91 Vette so ...
Then I read about the Z07 option and figured I'd never find one (only 733 made in '91). Man, it would be nice to find a red / tan Z07 with a six speed and low miles, adult owned and within a thousand miles of where I live.
My Ebay genie granted my wish.
I found a nice Bright Red coupe on Ebay one Saturday night, camel leather interior, six speed and FX3. It was like looking at a slightly better version of my old car. Most of the FX3 cars I had looked at were automatics and none of the six speed cars I looked at had the FX3 option ... I knew that the six speed and the FX3 were requirements and part of the Z07 so anytime that I did find a rare 6 speed / FX3 car, I always looked to see if it was a Z07 but none up to that point had been.
So, imagine my surprise when this six speed coupe on Ebay also has the FX3 option. That might ... just might ... mean that the coupe is a rare Z07! When I asked the seller to post the RPO codes, he didn't know what those were and I had to tell him where to find them. He posted them the next day and ... surprise! One of the RPO codes was Z07. She had all of the go fast goodies, the bigger brakes, engine oil cooler, Dana rear, 3.45 gears, ... I really don't think that the guy knew what he had or how rare it was.
I didn't want to let this Z07 optioned Vette get away so I bid $14,500 on it a minute and a half before the auction ended (it was worth that much to me, personally, your price may and probably will have differed greatly) and I stole this car for $8100 as the high bidder (which is a little less than half of what I had been willing to spend on the car). I spent $500 extra on a plane ticket, hotel room, gas and food on the way back. Not a bad deal. CarFax shows actual mileage at 49k, two previous owners, no wrecks and no catastrophic damage.
I spent two days driving the car back. I burned two tanks of premium gas, ran the car at speeds of 75mph to 95mph with one short spurt to 120mph and averaged 25.3mpg with the six speed. The drive back, even in a Z07 optioned coupe, was pleasant and enjoyable.
Here's my info since I don't IM:
Model Year 1991
Transmission M6
VIN 1G1YY2385M5105868
Build date Month/year 12/90
Exterior color Bright Red
Interior Color Camel / Saddle (leather)
Country USA
State/Province MS
For me, owning a Vette has always been about owning the low production or hard to find models rather than more common combinations and examples which is why I went after this Z07 so hard. It's the same color combo as my old Vette but it's better and it has more. Being one of 733 made that year brings with it an exclusiveness that few other Vettes can lay claim to save the Callaway or the ZR1, IMHO.