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LT4 Would you put any Grand Sport logo on your LT4?

1996 LT4 Topic

Ruby Fan

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
189
Location
NY
Corvette
1985 Black Beauty Coupe, 93 Ruby, 96 CE vert
I talking any LT4 equipped, because they all have the Grand Sport engine. I saw a license plate frame that had 'Grand Sport' and was thinking about getting one, but I have a CE LT4. Yeah, not the brightest idea for discussion, but just wanted to know how you all felt. thanks
 
I talking any LT4 equipped, because they all have the Grand Sport engine. I saw a license plate frame that had 'Grand Sport' and was thinking about getting one, but I have a CE LT4. Yeah, not the brightest idea for discussion, but just wanted to know how you all felt. thanks

I think that any '96 having "Grand Sport" badges but not having the specific VIN that all 1996 Grand Sports had couldn't be taken for anything other than...a "fake".
 
USA - Land of the free, it's your Vette, do what ya want!

1996Z51LT4TorchRedChevyCorvette-1.png
 
Ruby Fan, as you said in your first post: All LT4 engines are "Grand Sport" engines.

If you wish to customize your Vette with an emblem/decal/license bracket, I say: Go for it!

A while ago, I was thinking of putting the "Grand Sport" fender emblem on the front fenders of my Collector Edition.

Might still do that.

I will just avoid the highways which the "Emblem Police" monitor! :rotfl

While driving your LT4 equipped Vette, please be sure to SAVE the WAVE! :w
 
I don't have any problems with that. I put Grand Sport badges on my old '92 years ago.

Beast1.jpg If you look close, the GS badges are on the hood just behind the front tire. This was before I had the LT1 converted to an LT4 + Hot Cam. The rest of the car sorta looked like a GS. :D
 
I talking any LT4 equipped, because they all have the Grand Sport engine. I saw a license plate frame that had 'Grand Sport' and was thinking about getting one, but I have a CE LT4. Yeah, not the brightest idea for discussion, but just wanted to know how you all felt. thanks


I would never do it! To me, the Grand Sport is more than just the motor. They only made 1,000 C4 Grand Sports, and to my OCD way of thinking, doing anything that could mislead an uninformed person to think a non-GS Vette was a GS is not quite right. :nono

That having been said, I would also try my best to think that it's OK for anyone who had done it, to do it! It's their Vette and they have the right to do things to it that I wouldn't do to mine. :pat
 
I might be way off base here, but I thought all LT4's had Grand Sport on the Throttle Body?

NO such thing as a "Grand Sport engine", by that you mean a LT4.
ALL 96's with manual transmission came with the LT4, period. The Grand Sports have the LT4 engine.

If one wants to add Grand Sport logos or hash marks to their Corvette more power to them. Not my cup of tea but if it works for you. :w
Just don't try to pass it off as a Grand Sport. Those cars are pretty special and popular. Leave them be that.
 
I beg to differ with you.

Every LT4 engine in a 1996 Corvette from the factory has a "Grand Sport" Throttle Body Plate.

I believe that makes the LT4 engine a "Grand Sport" engine.

BTW, as you said earlier, all Grand Sport Corvettes do have an LT4 engine.

And a 6 speed manual transmission.

Carry on! :w
 
As the former owner of a 1996 Grand Sport convertible (#582), I do not like the idea of adhering a Grand Sport emblem to any Corvette other than a Grand Sport. The '96 GS was a very limited production Corvette. It's not just the LT4...it was the Admiral Blue, white stripe, black wheels and red hashmarks that made it the Grand Sport. Period. If it's not a Grand Sport, why advertise it as such? That would be like putting a ZR1 or a Z06 emblem on any other Corvette.

I may be biased, but if you don't have a "real" GS, don't dress it up as such!

Elaine
 
Me personally....I wouldn't do it. The '96 Collector Edition you have is a special car all on its own. I'm not a huge fan of sticking anything on the car that didn't come that way from the factory, but if anything, I don't mind the LT-4 badge. I used to have a ZR-1 and it would drive me nuts when I'd see a ZR-1 badge on a regular coupe.....could never figure that one out.
 
IMO, we should just agree that the LT4 engine and the C4 Grand Sport engine are the same thing, because they are. They're identical. The engine in my Corvette could just as easily have ended up in a C4 Grand Sport. Some LT4 engines made their way into Firebirds. But a Firebird with an LT4 sure as shootin' isn't a C4 Grand Sport!

It's the rest of the car that makes it a C4 Grand Sport. If it was just the engine that made a C4 a Grand Sport, then I'd own a C4 Grand Sport, but I don't. To sum it up, all C4 Grand Sports were built with an LT4 engine, but not all C4's with the LT4 engine are Grand Sports. What more is there to discuss?

Oh, the badging question! Yeah, I'm sticking with my original post on that one. I would never do it to mine... never, ever. But I'd shut my mouth and remember we're living in America if someone did it to theirs. I think it's a waste of time and I'd almost use the word silly to describe doing it. But hey, I'm trying not be judgmental here! :pat
 
I beg to differ with you.

Every LT4 engine in a 1996 Corvette from the factory has a "Grand Sport" Throttle Body Plate.

I believe that makes the LT4 engine a "Grand Sport" engine.

BTW, as you said earlier, all Grand Sport Corvettes do have an LT4 engine.

And a 6 speed manual transmission.

Carry on! :w

:rotfl Wow, I was trying to say that...I gotta stop posting when I'm tired and such, I post some dumb stuff. Brain not working....:ugh
 
GS Badging Bias

I guess it's a personal choice for a personal vehicle. Even though the performance optioning might make both vehicles a GS under the skin, they just were not both born that way. I am more of a purist and have even had trouble considering putting an LT4 badging on my car since it was never intended to be there like on the ZR1 but at least it is not "misleading" especially at resale time. No offence intended, but I've seen a lot of "counterfeiting" with vehicles being passed off as something they are not. There folks nieve enough to get suckered as not every one has a passionate knowlegde of the brand.
I am sorry, I am likely just ruining your innocent desire to personalize your ride as we all have the right to do! ;shrug

Cheers, :beer
 
I guess it's a personal choice for a personal vehicle. Even though the performance optioning might make both vehicles a GS under the skin, they just were not both born that way. I am more of a purist and have even had trouble considering putting an LT4 badging on my car since it was never intended to be there like on the ZR1 but at least it is not "misleading" especially at resale time. No offence intended, but I've seen a lot of "counterfeiting" with vehicles being passed off as something they are not. There folks nieve enough to get suckered as not every one has a passionate knowlegde of the brand.
I am sorry, I am likely just ruining your innocent desire to personalize your ride as we all have the right to do! ;shrug

Cheers, :beer


What you wrote about the notion of being misleading at resale time makes me think about all the 2003 Corvettes I see advertised as "50th Anniversary Edition", when they're not. Just because all 2003 Vettes have the 50th anniversary badges, it does not make them a 50th Anniversary Edition Corvette, which was a special package with certain features.

I've had a running dialog :argue with a used car dealer in the Sacramento area regarding his advertisement of a couple black 2003 Z06s as 50th Anniversary Edition Vettes (no 50th Anniversary Z06s were made) and he simply refuses to be reasonable. He says consumers are educated; the implication being, of course, buyer beware of sleazy used car salesman like him.

I know this is a bit off the point, but what you wrote made me think about that, because anybody can put anything on their Vette and try to call it what they want and if the consumer isn't educated, they can easily end up paying for something they're not getting, with no recourse available to them. I even saw one ad that claimed the Vette was a Collector Edition, when it was a base model '96 with Collector Edition door sill protectors!

Buyer beware indeed. :nono
 
Maybe it's a ZR-1?

Something else I thought about was perhaps since ZR-1 brakes and wheels that are used that might justify the badging upgrade to ZR-1 status? But of course we know ZR-1 badging is not applique or sticker on the rear facia but molded in production to avoid the "fakes". I say be true to what you have, you'll feel better knowing your ride is not trying to be something it is not. My LT4 is not a Callaway Speedster and I am absolutely ok with that. I love my car just as it is and trying to impress any one else on this site with anything less than the truth is going to fall short. If you have a Vette be proud of what ever model or year it is. We will all respect you for it. After all, even if you had L48. you could have been stuck with a Mustang..... spit!

Cheers,
:beer
 
In my search for a LT-4 with the options I wanted I had come across a few sellers trying to pass off their cars as GS when they were not and also attempting to get a premium for it as well. You could take any other LT-4 C4 with the same option groups and place an emblem. The one emblem does not make the car. It is like painting a Polo Green car silver and then calling it a CE. Put anything you want on your Vette, just do not try and pass it off for what it is not.
 
I have also seen people trying to pass off an LT-4 base coupe as a Grand Sport even some dealers. They try to get a much higher price for the car too. I have an LT-4 decal on my car but I wont put any Grand Sport stickers on it. Most knowledgable vette people will know its a fake especially if its a color other than the blue with white stripe. If you want a Grand Sport then pay up and buy one
 
There you go, one is never enough. I may just have to purchase a 2014 too. I just have to be able to justify the money as at first it will not hold its value......
 

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