The online classic car valuation tool developed by Hagerty indicates a well-kept 1999 Corvette has a valuation of roughly $18,700, but we recently came across a nice example for sale on Facebook marketplace for a measly $11,000. Those readers whose interest has been piqued by that attractive price point should know there’s a rather large catch with this particular C5, however.
At some point in this car’s 23-year history, someone decided to chop the rear end down and install a strange stubby rear fascia with custom circular taillights, a weird side outlet exhaust setup and a pair of plastic or rubber 5 mph rear bumpers. These modifications also required the rear window glass to be modified, with the roof now incorporating a much more upright piece of rear glass. Completing the list of mods are a set of wider wheels and tires from a C6 Corvette Z06, along with custom front fascia with square LED auxiliary headlamps.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time GM Authority has written about this bewildering custom Corvette. We first came across this monstrosity back in 2020 when it was posted to the private Facebook group “I Love Terrible Ugly Cars.” We still don’t know what motivated the creation of this thing, although our previous article pointed out that it may have been involved in an accident of some sort and this was the owner’s way of salvaging the car. We don’t know this for a fact, though, so it’s possible they did this solely for aesthetic reasons.
The Facebook Marketplace listing for the car indicates it has no further modifications apart from the above-listed cosmetic alterations and that it comes with a clean title. It also “starts and drives perfectly” with the 5.7L LS1 V8 engine and six-speed automatic transmission covering just 90,000 miles. It may look strange, but $11,000 is not a lot of money for a perfectly running and driving C5 – even if it’s missing about 20 percent of its bodywork.
Check out the listing at this link (while it’s still up, of course).
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Comments
Wow….thats really….ummmm…unique and ummmm….different??? Let just say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Why? Why on earth would anyone do that? They will be lucky to get half the asking price, and even at $5,500 I’d pass.
Research custom car history and you’ll get it
It was probably started as a late night drunken sketch on a napkin that turned into a “that’s a lot harder than it looks” reality.
As a Sky owner, I get it. Makes for wonderful parking in insane overflowing cramped city garages.
It would be much easier to whip through traffic without all of the avoirdupois associated with excess length.
its the NEW Cheetah..come back from the 60″s grave..
Just. No.
What a mess. Very hard on the eyes.
Oddly enough, I don’t hate it.
i had mixed feeling when saw too, like the rear, greenhouse shape, but do not know front
Somehow, even this guy was able to come up with a better looking rear end than the C8 designers could…
I guess the top either stays on or stays home.
agree with this, not the front but rear… well this vette is someway better what GM designers do in market
There are some things in life that just look “right”, take the Statue of Liberty, or The Golden Gate Bridge, or maybe Mount Rushmore, The Grand Canyon ect. And then there are things that just look wrong, so wrong that you have to look twice to make sure that you are looking at what you’re looking at and not something from a bad “Trip” that you took years ago.
As an owner of a Silver 2001 C5 Coupe, I had to look twice to make up mind that “beauty is skin deep but ugly goes right to the bone”! I shouldn’t be judgmental, this might be someone’s ideal dream car….but for gosh sakes if you are going to modify a Corvette, there are ways of doing this that in some cases can be done well enough to bring some positive remarks to whomever did this, but in this case, with this particular C5 done in this fashion…uh, no way can I look upon this car and say “‘ya know maybe the mods have merit”, it just does not look right, not even close to being “acceptable with one eye closed and from 20 feet away”! Know what…I bet someone buys this thing if the price is right and I’ll bet they have the guts to “show it off” at some Cars and Coffee event in their home town. It’ll certainly be a conversation piece among most individuals taking the time to get close enough to snap a picture of it and ask the new owner “what were you thinking”?
The car was probably in a “meat-in-the-sandwich” accident and totaled by the insurance company, so the owner decided to take the salvage title and modify it inexpensively.
That’s my guess, anyway.
Montana Bob
is there no parts in stock to fix after crash ?
Other than the back and the front, it’s not too bad.
Sort of looks like a Miata was in the middle of a multi-car pile up.
Okay, it didn’t get much more pretty. But well, it seems to save some weight, especially at the ends of the car where you want it the least. I think this already great handling car drives remarkably more nimble by this “mod”. And well, remember, you (hopefully) don’t drive the car which pleases others opinions, but the car you like to be in..?
Kill it before it can reproduce…