Repectfully, I’m not arguing that the 5/6/7 were great cars or not. There’s no argument there: they’re great cars. Better than a C4 in almost every measureable way.
But, the C4 is the second longest run and second highest sales (just behind the C3) so “poor sales” is not exactly an accurate statement. Sure, sales were dropping off at the end, but the C4 ran for 12 model years. Sales were dropping off at the end for the same reason sales of the C3 dropped off at the end. One: it was an old design at the end of the model run and two: people weren’t buying with the C4 on the horizon.
With 20/20 hindsight, the C4 generation was low horsepower and had a few funky drivetrain options. But taken with it’s contemporaries (both from GM and other OEM’s), it’s at the front of the pack. 250-300 hp was no joke in the 80’s, but todays high HP numbers have jaded us and looking back at the C4 now makes it seem...”anemic”.
Hell, I still remeber when they released the Mustang II. People loved it in 74 (first year) and it sold like gang-busters. When they got around to dropping the 302 back in it, people again couldn’t get enough of it and that was only around 110-ish hp. Looking back, the II was the least repected and most hated Mustang ever built. But in it’s time, it was a runaway hit. You have to look at engine ratings/chassis performance in the light of
thier day, not subsequent model years, or even decades later models.
Drop the hammer on my L98 and you better be holding on because that 345 ftlbs it delivers is gonna throw you around. Only 250 hp, but tickling 350 ftlbs is no joke, especially when its “all in” by 3400 rpm. The big “meat” of the torque curve on an L98 is pretty much right off idle, so it’s stupidly fun on the street. Runs out of breath fast though, part of the characteristics or the TPI system. That running out of breath is also what holds the hp number down. You want to post bug HO numbers, ya gotta spin it high and thats just not the L98. Theres no spinning it to 6-7-8 grand, where modern engines hold thier big HP numbers. A lot of that is how HP is calculated: you need either big trq or big Rpm to make the formulae spit out big HP. Modern engines do it with big rpm. Me? I’ll take low rpm punch over big hp any day of the week. I might be singing a different tune if I was building a track weapon though...that SBC woukd be coming out and an LSx would be going in, along with a better transmission and (as a minimum) a D44 rear.
Lets also not forget that when the C4 hit the track, they actually had to ban it from certain classes and had to make a “corvette series” because nothing else at the time was competitive with the C4. Even today, those old C4’s are regularly crushing the comptetion at autocross events (that includes C5/6/7 models). When the C4 was released you either raced a vette or you didn’t podium....
I stick by my “evolutionary” rather than revolutionary. The c4 was a radical departure from the C3. Frame, body, powertrains....all of it. About all it shared with the C3 was front wngine/rear drive and the shape f the taillights. That made it revolutionary.
The c5 grew out of the C4 achitecture, making the 5/6/7 evolutionary. Great cars and superior (performance wise) to the C4, but evolutionary. It took the C4 layout (space frame, etc) and refined it, but it still grew out of the C4.
The C8 makes the revolutionary jump again, like the C4 did. It basically throws out everything from the previous models and starts clean sheet. Like the C4 did...