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The story we’re about to tell is actually two tales in one.
The first is a bittersweet story of brotherly love, loss of a sibling and memories of a vanishing America now nearly slipped over the horizon.
The second is a parable of renewal and rebirth. Not only for a 1984 Corvette, but for brother, father and husband Joe Links hailing from, appropriately enough, New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Let’s start at the beginning back in 1967.
Donald Links and younger sibling Joe, were kid brothers just 14 months apart. They were raised by parents that were far from weathly, but they were good people and loved their children very, very much. They bought sons Donald and Joe a year-old, 1966 Corvette that they were to “share” between the two of them.
Two young brothers sharing a Corvette probably brought attention from the gals. We bet it was a good test of give and take as to who got the car for any romantic escapades….
It was a big-block 396 coupe and probably caused quite a sensation back in the day with other neighborhood kids, especially since based on Joe’s current age of 69, the brothers were in their late teens, early twenties at the time.
One day, big brother Donald took the car to work and when he came out after his shift, the ‘Vette was gone.
The police called a few days later and said they had located the car. According to Joe, “It was beaten up pretty badly and would have cost more to fix than the car was worth.” The parents then sold the car and while sad, life for the Links brothers continued to unfold. Each married and had children and as the years passed by, there was no room or time for another Corvette.
By 2010, Joe, now retired from a 35 year career in the financial services industry, had taken up part-time work in his brother-in-law’s automobile business which saw him dispatched to auctions and wholesale lots to scout cars for resale.
Donald mentioned to brother Joe that if he ever saw a Corvette for sale, he would love to have another plastic Chevy after all these years.
Joe recounts that, “Donald’s health was failing as he had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and had been struggling the past few years…”
They started with a nice, low mile “Light Blue Metallic” ’84 ‘Vette..
One day while making the rounds at the auction lots with his son, Joe saw a 33k original mile, 1984 Corvette in the aptly titled, factory hue of “Light Blue Metallic.” They drove the car, made a bid, and were notified a few days later they had won the auction.
The old C4 was theirs.
Joe took the car to a mechanic, had a safety check performed and then sent the car out for a thorough detail.
Shortly thereafter, Joe invited brother Donald and his family to Christmas that year. Pleasantries and hugs were exchanged and after everyone settled in, Joe asked Donald to accompany him to the garage.
He opened up the door and showed his brother the ‘Vette and said,
“It’s yours…”
Although a car may just be a four-wheeled contraption, this old C4 was a bridge back to the Link’s brothers youth and a way to boost Donald’s spirits, who’s health had continued to deteriorate.
The older brother had the car for roughly a year, then sadly, wasn’t able drive anymore. He gave the car back to his younger brother and shortly thereafter, Donald passed away.
Amid the sadness, Joe now had a 1984 Corvette and although consciously or not, it was a time for a new beginning.
With a marque both brothers loved.
He was dissatisfied with the performance from the Cease Fire Cross Fire Injected V8 and wanted a manual transmission to row as well.
He got online and looked for a outfit that could hop-up this old ‘Vette and make the changes he wanted. Joe found Sean Farrell at The Vette Shop in Pipersville, PA and entrusted them to transform the ’84 into a considerably more muscular version see before you.
According to head tech guru Derek Widmann, “We initially tuned up the car, got it running better and fluffed up the interior,” but the performance was still not to Joe’s satisfaction. Sean suggested an LS3 swap and next thing they knew, they were “off to the races…”
Even though new-age, small block Chevy swaps into C4s were fairly rare in 2014, they went ahead with a 430 hp LS3 from Street and Performance–essentially a GM crate motor with some tasty chrome bits and front accessory drive–and got to work.
Derek elaborates further, “It such a neat swap. C4s are great cars. They’re just underpowered and need some life breathed into them, The potential of the cars is almost limitless. Why do you think every restomod C2/3 steals the suspension bits from these cars? Because they handle so well…”
The swap really tested Derek’s ability, who cut his teeth building V8 Vegas, race engines and eventually shifted to building high-end show cars that grace the covers car magazine and webpages.
“On a scale of 1-10, this swap was a 9.5 in complexity, but the finished car was worth the fuss,” says Widmann.
YES. 430 hp LS3 looks right at home.
Derek pulled out the Cross Fire Injection 350 and took measurements of the LS3 which turned out to be longer than the old school 5.7 V8. He cut out room in the firewall to accommodate the cylinder heads, and relocated the gas pedal.
Derek’s handiwork to fab up motor mounts…
The oil pan that came on LS3 was for an F-body with sump in back and insisted on “laying” on the front crossmember wonky. Derek had to heavily massage the structural mount, flip it around creating a pocket for the oil pan to slip into.
Motor mounts were fabricated by Derek because at the time, there really wasn’t anything on the market. Look closely and you can see the old school, Gen I donut mounts that Derek utilized together with his own design.
The LS3 from Street Performance came with it’s own ECU, so the old computer for the interior was ash canned–along with the video game dash–and Derek made his own wiring harness to feed updated, analog gauges.
Hockey stick, video game instruments ditched, new gauges, steering wheel cover and all surfaces updated. Console looks cool with crossed flags and cue ball shifter.
Remember, the car’s original equipment 4-speed automatic was retired and they swapped in a Tremec six-speed unit. This consumed a huge amount of time and mental wampum. In order to make it all work, Derek had to remove the dash, add a third pedal and make sure it all worked. The interior was upgraded at that time to with new seats, interior components and an old school white, cue ball shifter thrown in for good measure.
Derek engineered a solution by fabbing an attachment point to the casing of the Tremec 6-speed gearbox and thereby tying the old C4’s “backbone” together structurally.
The C4 is famous for lacking a transmission crossmember. Instead the gearbox is located by a structural member called the “Driveline Support Beam.” Corvette Chief Engineer Dave McLellan’s team opted for this setup as the beam provides torsion rigidity of torque delivery aft of the transmission, isolating the counter force from twisting the chassis/suspension.
It also creates a big hurdle when doing a motor/transmission switcheroo and a key factor in a C4 swap.
The hardest part of all this is there is no crossmember to mount the tail end of the transmission to. All C4 Corvettes have what’s called a “Driveline Support Beam” that runs parallel to the drive shaft and locates the rear of the transmission housing to the differential housing.
With the tricky drivetrain fiddling iron out, they tuned the motor and massaged all the details to a high gloss. Mostly stock components were carried over for brakes, suspension and exhaust.
Derek says the car “came alive” via the horsepower infusion and is fast and handles like it’s on rails. For the exterior, Joe opted for a late-model charcoal color on top of an ebony interior with simple five-spoke A-mold wheels. He added a touch of bling with subtle, dual “ghost” stripes on the hood.
We suspect brother Donald is up in heaven nodding his head with approval.
Pity the unsuspecting opponent who thinks this is just an old C4...
