Ron Decker, a machinist in New Castle, Indiana, caught the Fever a long time ago, and he’s suffered for years with no signs of remission. He owned his first, a ´63 convertible, in high school. He knew even then that he would always own a Corvette. Then, for years he had a ´67 427 convertible (which he’s sorry he sold), and later an ´82 Collector Edition, which was featured in Corvette Fever way back in 1990.
Now his attention is focused on this nifty ´94. And with good reason. Torch Red with a light gray interior, it’s in pristine condition. The only things Ron’s changed since he bought it two years ago are the exhaust and the wheels. The exhaust is now Borla, and he swapped out the original wheels for 17-inch front, 18-inch rear 2000 ones. Goodyear rubber, of course.
The 11th in the C4 series, the ´94 was the beneficiary of continuing advances in technology, and the 350ci, 300hp LT1 was refined for this model. Its new, improved, sequential fuel-injection system fires injectors in sequence with the engine’s firing order, resulting not only in better emissions handling, but improved idle quality and response. The transmission was also improved with electronic control wizardry and a safety feature in ´94. Not only did shift quality improve, which increased driving pleasure, but it became a lot harder to get rolling accidentally--the brake pedal would now have to be depressed before you could even think of shifting out of Park.
Ron treats his ´94 reverently, but it doesn’t spend its life in the garage. She’s driven once a week when the weather’s good, and attends local concours shows.
With Ron’s long-term, monogamous affairs with Corvettes, he admits a little sheepishly that he works for--yikes--Chrysler! But we’ll forgive him for that. He’s obviously on the right track otherwise.