Lifted C5 Corvette Can Ford a River and Go Where No Vette Has Ever Dared To

Caleb Hodshire, the guy who modified the C5 Corvette, is not at his first attempt. He already completed a C4 Vette with similar modifications, but the C5 is his best work yet. Far from satisfied, he already sold it on the Facebook marketplace to move on to the C6 project. According to the listing, the contraption got a new owner who paid $8,500 for the privilege of driving what could be one of the most famous Vettes of all time.

The lifted C5 is now the star of a video posted on the ZeroToSixty YouTube channel, showing how the madness started and what it is capable of. Before seeing the video, we thought maybe lifting a sportscar by four inches and installing 33-inch tires on it was not the brightest idea. But the more we watch, the more we believe this is actually genius. Having a car able to do burnouts on pavement and ford a river moments later is the most sensible thing imaginable.

Caleb had to cut into the fenders of the Corvette to make way for the massive 33-inch Nitto Ridge Grappler tires. Initially, he used rubber blocks on the original leaf suspension to lift the Vette, which resulted in a 2-inch lift on the front and two and a half inches in the rear. Unfortunately, the car wouldn’t steer properly, so he decided to use a coil-over suspension on the front axle. Although aligning the wheels was challenging, he eventually got it right.

As you’d expect, this is no drag performer, despite the legendary 5.7-liter naturally aspirated LS1 V8 under the hood. The car went from zero to 60 mph (96 kph) in around 5 seconds without modifications. The bigger tires slashed that to 6.7 seconds, which is still decent performance for an off-roader. What do you think? Was it worth cutting the original C5 Corvette and turning it into an off-road muscle car?