I have to agree the White with the Red interior (preferably Torch Red) is a great color combination, but then I'm kinda partial, it was the combo of my first Vette, a '90 Coupe, auto w/2.59 rear. I did quite a few mods to that car, one of which was to swap to a D44 w/ 3.45's. After doing a couple of smokey burnouts at CruiseFest '05 I was asked by several people what I had done to the car. Headers, tuning, and GEARS, definately the biggest bang for the buck. Made the car perform like the true sports car that was hiding inside should.
Tom is right the Opti and Waterpump are not that bad of a job, kinda expensive for the parts, but I like doing the work myself. Sort of my relaxation, the GF says its my escape from the stress of the world. To tell you the truth she is right. The Opti can be a real pain to diagnose, especially if it is randomly intermittent. Occasionally mine will develop just the slightest miss at high RPM's (6K), but its so random that I haven't done anything about it. Well actually I did purchase the new MSD Opti, but have yet to install it. I'm going to wait till I do the cam swap, and do the plug wires, Opti and cam at the same time. My water pump went south just before CruiseFest '06. I replaced it with an Electric Meizere unit, much better than the gear driven stocker. I was careful when I replaced the pump, and maybe a bit lucky, but the pump did not take out the Opti.
JS is right about the wheel bearings, I don't know why but the prices for the AC Delco front and rear sets have almost doubled recently. The U-joints are not that bad, I picked up the Delco HD non-greaseable ones from RockAuto for right at $20 each. There are two part numbers, one for the half shafts and another for the drive shaft, neither of which I have off the top of my head.
The C4 really set the Vette into the supercar status that it deserves, a very special thanks to the ZR-1 motor, but the LT1/4 are quite respectable on their own. I have spanked my share of LS1's and wouldn't hesitate to run one, especially since my LT4 is underrated at 330HP. I had it dyno'ed and it made 308 RWHP stock, that works out close to 354 crank HP, better than the 345 that the LS1 is rated at.
Given my druthers I will take the C4 over the C5. I like the cockpit feel, the rough, raw, race car like handling, and not to mention the shape of the body. Yes the C5 is a good looking car, but I don't like the fact that GM mis-spelled the word "guages" right there on the dash in front of you. I don't know how they let that get by.
As far as the ride and handling there are four levels of harshness, the standard suspension (FE1), is the softest. The Z07, performance handling package, is the middle of the road. At the top is the Z51, HD suspension, which is basically the factory race package. The fourth is the F45, selective ride suspension, which has computer controlled dampening and rebound of the shocks. I haven't riden in a F45 car but I think it fits in between the FE1 and the Z07. The FE1 is mushy when compared to the Z51, or at least thats what my butt-o-meter says.
I have to agree a '68 Vert with a four speed and side pipes is still my dream. Not for the ride but for the looks. That is just an awesome looking car, no matter the color.
I think I know what they mean when they say "All Vettes are Red" ... They are talking about the interior
I have grown partial to my Sebring Silver with Torch guts. It's really a great contrasting color combination, not to mention it adds rarity as this was the least produced interior color.
Good luck on your search, and don't forget to
G
my compression ratio is a little higher than stock, the cams is a 23X 240x with lots more lift than stock, I have a D44 with 3.45 rear, 2800 stall, ford 30lb SVO injectors, 58 MM TB, electric water pump and a bunch of other little mods. Lots of L98 owners talk about their torque monsters, however, they forget that LT1 A4s were saddled with 2.59 rears. Before I dug into the motor I was spanking my brother in laws 03 Cobra bad enough that he sold it. The funny thing was that was in Colorado Springs where the altitude should have given him a bigger advantage than at sea level.. Honest I would walk him with just bolt ons and gears. (This was Prior to the stall converter, however, I was at what the camaro bunch calls full bolt on level) 
