C5 Corvettes are wonderful, but not so wonderful they can’t be improved. Here I have an assortment of goodies from Mid America Motorworks to make the C5 a more enjoyable car. First is the VaraRam induction system. It picks up cold air from down here and actually has a ram air effect at higher speeds that can add significantly to the horsepower of the C5.

And one thing that you may be confused about, you’ll see ads that say you want to swirl the air that goes into the engine. Well, that’s not true at all. Even things like these stock bellows on here can disturb the air flow as it goes into the engine, and that reduces performance. What you want is clean, smooth air going in, and this air coupler will do that because there are no wrinkles, no bellows, nothing like that. It will actually improve performance.

And speaking of performance, spark plug wires are always an issue. And here we have Cool Socks. They’re a fiberglass sleeve that fits over the end of the spark plug wire. They’re designed specifically for Corvette, but they’ll work on any car, and they keep the heat away from the spark plug wire to make the wire last a lot longer.

Now, there’s a safety issue with C5s, and that’s the steering column lock. Here we have a column lock bypass. Now what this is going to do is to prevent the steering column from locking when you don’t want it to or unlocking when you don’t want it to. Cars have been recalled, but they don’t always work with the recall, so a good idea right here.

Also if you have a 6-speed, well the computer in the car determines when it wants to shift your manual transmission. So it has one to four skip shift. Well, this is a skip shift eliminator to put the control back in your hands. Easy, inexpensive.

And if you have a C5 or a C6, be careful about jacking it up. It requires a special adaptor, actually a set of four of them, every time it goes up on the lift. So you or the repair shop must have these. What this does is fits up into holes in the frame of the vehicle. It extends down below the plastic so there isn’t any damage to the body of your Corvette.

And there’s a neat tool from Eastwood and it has nothing to do with Corvettes, but it is a pinch weld adaptor. It goes into your jack and it goes around the pinch weld so you can raise the car up without denting anything in the rocker panel area. Very nice.

And if you have a C5 with a glass top, you know how hot it gets on hot days. Well, here’s a film that can be placed on the inside of your glass top and it significantly reduces the temperature inside the car. Pretty clever. 


Product Information


Mid-America MotorWorks
PO Box 1368
Effingham, IL 62401
www.madvet.com
Products offered:

  • C5 Corvette skip-shift disabler, eliminates the 1-to-4 upshift program in manual transmissions.
  • C5 Corvette steering column lock bypass, fixes a safety issue regarding steering column locking while driving.
  • Koolsox plug wire hi-temp sleeves, shield plug wires from high heat near engine parts.
  • C5 Corvette Vari-Ram air induction system & smooth air coupler, allow more efficient air intake for better perf.
  • C5 Corvette jack/lift adapter pucks, prevent frame damage from floor jacks and service lifts.

Universal jack adapter for unibody vehicles, allows use of a floor jack with unibody cars. Prevents body/frame damage.
The Eastwood Company
www.eastwoodco.com

 



If you have a question or comment, write to me.
The address is MotorWeek, Owings Mills, MD, 21117.