Buttercup: my 1977 Corvette

This 1977 Corvette was purchased with 63,069 original miles from the original owner in San Diego, California in 2000. For the first five years we kept Buttercup 100% original. We decided in 2006 that this was going to be our retirement car, and that we would bring the car's handling and economy into the 21st century.

We have not altered the car's physical appearance, and we have catalogued and packed away every original component that has been replaced, so the car can be put back to a 100% original numbers matching car.

The drive train now consists of a ZZ4 350 cubic inch 355 hp GM crate engine, a 650 Speed Demon carburetor with mechanical secondaries, 1.6 GMPP roller rockers, an Edelbrock aluminium water pump, Patriot headers and side exhaust, and a Tremec TKO 5-speed manual overdrive with a hydraulic clutch release bearing.

Underneath there is a front composite monospring with lightweight control arms, rack and pinion steering, a rear dual mount composite monospring, rear adjustable smart struts, half shaft safety loops, Bilstein heavy duty sport shocks, Wilwood direct fit brake calipers and master cylinder, and 255/60/15 Firehawk Indy 500 tires.

Buttercup is now over 250 lbs lighter, mainly thanks to all the aluminium replacement parts. Thirty year old technology has been replaced with the more modern variety, and the car drives and handles superbly. The real plus is that at highway speeds it returns an impressive 30 mpg on premium unleaded.

There is more on some of these jobs elsewhere on the site: the ZZ4 engine swap, the TKO 5-speed conversion and the Wilwood brake install. Follow the build through the photos below, click any to enlarge.