WatchJRGo on YouTube and beat up old sports cars pair together like bread and butter. It's as if one can't or at least refuses to exist without the other. So when out on a journey to help one of his buddies find a fix-em-up Escalade for cheap, it should come as no shock when he brings home something completely different.
In this case, it's yet another C5 Corvette. And it seems to be the cheapest running and driving C5 Corvette in the U.S. It's not like he doesn't have a similar car in a different color sitting at the other end of his shop at that moment. Oh wait, he does, and a C6 Z06 is sitting in the air on a lift just for good measure. In all fairness, with LS1 engines from this era being so abundant, it makes sense to fit a new one in these Vettes.
In this case, a new engine is very much needed as the previous owner states in no uncertain terms that the current motor sucked up a not-insignificant amount of water recently during a storm. But as JR is quick to point out, LS engines are legendary for a very good reason. It's not because they're necessarily the most advanced or even the most powerful V8 engines around. "I'm not even gonna look at this car. We're gonna pay the man, put on the trailer and run away," JR says. "It's so cheap that nothing could go wrong."
But what the LS does better than any other performance engine is survive. At least long enough for this Corvette that rolled off the assembly line in 2000 to get onto the trailer and be taken home. Once home, it's very clear the engine is on its dying breaths. But the rest of the car, including the red leather sports seats (that leather needs some fixing though!) and factory CD autochanger, are still in good condition.
Tally it all up, and it makes logical sense that this is a Corvette worth saving from the junkyard. Knowing what we know about JR, the story of how it gets restored is bound to be one zany and fun-filled adventure. "It just needs an engine," he says. On the way home, he tries a burnout, but the "Reduced engine power" in the dashboard is a clear indication that it can't do that just yet.
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