Commemorate This!Some time during 2005, the glorious C5 Corvette will leave production. If we're lucky, the C5 will be replaced by an even better C6 Corvette. And if we're extra-super lucky, we'll hit the Lotto and be able to afford one.
To acknowledge the conclusion of C5 production and its amazing success as a racecar, Chevy will begin selling a special Commemorative Edition Z06 during the '04 model year. Beyond the slick Le Mans Blue paint, silver and red center graphics, and shale-colored interior, the trickest part of the Commemorative package has got to be its carbon-fiber hood.
The Commemorative Edition's hood is the first painted exterior panel made of carbon fiber to go into production on an American-built car. At 20.5 pounds, it's 10.6-pounds lighter than the standard Z06 hood and is made from a special carbon-fiber fabric that aligns all its fibers in a single direction to avoid the signature woven pattern typically seen on carbon-fiber body panels. However, the woven pattern construction is used in the red border around the silver graphic to hint at the material that lies underneath.
Other changes for the '04 Z06 are minimal. The shock damping has been revised, says the press release, to diminish "the impact of yaw and roll on the car, particularly in quick, transient maneuvers such as 'S-turns' or a series of tight corners." But that's about it. Best of all, the car has that 405hp LS6 under its hood.
Musclecar Of The Month'70 Ford Mustang Boss 302If the Camaro was a blatant rip-off of the Mustang (and it was), then the '69 and '70 Boss 302 was the first Mustang that was a blatant rip-off of a Camaro. The Boss 302 was built to do one thing: Beat the Camaro Z/28 in SCCA Trans Am road racing competition. To do that, it needed to be the first true high-performance 5.0L Mustang.
Taking the canted-valve heads from the then-new 351 Cleveland engine, the 10.72:1 Boss 302 used a mean 0.519-inch lift, 290-degree duration solid-lifter cam to open and shut huge 1.71-inch exhaust and 2.19-inch intake valves. With a 780-cfm Holley four-barrel carb on a dual-plane aluminum intake manifold, the Boss 302 engine was good for 290 gross-rated horsepower at 5,800 rpm and 290 lb-ft of torque at 4,300 rpm. Bottom-end power? Almost nonexistent. But it's brutal up top and nearly perfect for road racing. Back in the day, Hot Rod took the 6,200-rpm rev-limiter off a '70 Boss 302 with 3.91 gears, shifted it at 7,000 rpm, and managed a 14.80 at 96.25 mph on stock tires. Big-block ponies may have been quicker, but the Boss 302 was still a thrill to drive.
In 1969, the Boss 302 couldn't beat the legendary combination of Mark Donohue and Roger Penske's Z/28 Camaros, but in 1970, Parnelli Jones and George Follmer drove Bud Moore's Bosses to win 6 of the 11 Trans Am races that year and take the championship. And the fact that it was champion makes the '70 version just slightly greater than the '69.
Quick FactsProduction total: 6,318 ['69 and '70 combined]Engine: 302 ci, OHV V-8, 290 hp Transmission: Four-speed manualSticker price: $3,720
Top 10 ListMost Stolen Collector CarsHagerty Insurance is in the business of indemnifying the owners of collector cars, so it makes sense that it would track which collector vehicles are being snatched by crooks with some regularity.
According to Hagerty, thieves prefer Chevrolets! Fully 39.3 percent of all Hagerty-insured stolen vehicles were Chevys, followed by Ford (14.8 percent), Mercedes (4.7 percent), Cadillac (4.4 percent), Harley-Davidson (4.4 percent), Pontiac (3.6 percent), Jaguar (2.4 percent), Plymouth (2.4 percent), Porsche (2.4 percent), Dodge (2.1 percent) and Lincoln (2.1 percent). Why Chevys? Probably because they're among the most popular collector cars (there are lots of them), which also means there's a big market for their parts.
Here is Hagerty's list of most frequently stolen collector vehicles. To protect your '66 Corvette, we suggest you have the ghost of Zora Arkus-Duntov stand next to it as in the photo.