The Donor Car - Part 2

The donor car is a cost effective method for acquiring the parts needed for the build. The donor is a cadaver that will never roar down a twisting country road again. So you have to ask yourself what happened. The car either was the victim of a flood, theft or crash. (Stay away from the fire damaged ones. The reasons become obvious, once you look.) The insurance company deemed it unrepairable, and that means there was in excess of $20,000 damage to the vehicle. This number is based on the current replacement cost for a low end Corvette C5.

The major subsystems provided by the donor are as follows:

• Front suspension
• Engine
• Rear suspension
• Rear CV joints
• Emergency Brake Assembly
• Fuel Delivery
• Cooling system
• A/C 
• Brakes
• Miscellaneous (basically everything else)

Factory Five says the donor needs to be a C5. This is the path of least resistance, but many of these subsystems are common across generations for years 2003 to 2009. There is a substantial financial argument to be made for donor with a working engine.

My perfect donor is as follows:

• 2008/2009
• Larger wheels (18 front / 19 rear) - I'd scavenge these for the Big Yellow Toy.
• Big brake upgrade
• LS3/LS7 engine
• Intact suspension
• Intact instrumentation

This poor thing has too much damage for the GTM project. My first clue was lack of wheels and anything to hold them along the driver's side. The love of my life has already indicated that I need to make sure the wheels stay on the car.

This car on the other hand got hit on the passenger side. There is a substantial mess inside, but the mechanicals look good.

As I said, there is a substantial cost savings going the donor car route. The opportunity to acquire a working LS3 or LS7 engine plus the majority of the parts needed for assembly needs to be considered. Copart and Ebay are the easiest places to look for salvage or unrepairable titled cars.