Different generations of Corvettes tend to have their monetary values fairly well defined, and, for whatever reason, the bulk of the 1984-96 C4 models don’t have a lot of it baked in. So when Pete Cicora decided to give his ’89 coupe a facelift, his motivation was fueled not by financial considerations, but rather by the considerable sentimental value associated with the car.
Cicora’s Corvette journey started when he was a teen in the early 1980s. Having an affinity for the Bowtie brand, he naturally gravitated towards some of the reasonably priced offerings at that time, while Corvette the notion of ownership remained aspirational.
“I’m the youngest of four, and my grandfather bought all of us our first car, so I ended up with a ’73 Nova with an inline six,” Cicora says. By his 18th birthday, in 1983, he had moved up to a ’70 Chevelle that that was previously owned by his father. With the help of his grandfather, he performed some body work and paint, added a few performance mods under the hood, installed headers, and fitted some Cragar SS wheels on the car.
“I ended up crashing that one, [then] just went out and bought another one and did the same work to it,” he notes. “Over the years I had four Chevelles. Back then you could pick one up for 300 to 400 dollars.”
With adulthood came new responsibilities, and eventually wedding bells. By that point most of the cars had been replaced with a pickup truck that Cicora was using for work, and only one remained. “I had a Chevelle parked in my garage for 10 years,” he says. “I never did anything with it, and one day my neighbor came over and asked me if I wanted to sell it, so I sold it to him. That was in 1999, when we started looking for a Corvette. My wife, Luann, and I decided it was time to get one.”
Cicora’s tastes initially gravitated towards something C3-flavored. “One of my best friends had a ’73 Corvette that was nice,” he notes. “I always liked the 1968 to ’73s… [so] something from those years was what I always wanted.” What he wanted, and what he was able to find within his price range, proved two very different things, however. “We looked at several beat-up cars that [the sellers] were asking a lot of money for. They just weren’t worth it to me.”
The Cicoras’ source of potential candidates at the time was the automotive section of the local paper, and that’s where they found the ad for the Corvette shown here. The advertised price was within budget, so they went to check it out. “This was the first C4 we looked at, and it was in immaculate condition,” Pete says. “It was garage kept and covered…the best one we had looked at out of all of them.”
The ’89 was still wearing its original White paint, and the Tuned-Port Injection L98 small-block had only logged a little over 50,000 miles. But while the car checked off almost all the Cicoras’ boxes, Pete didn’t put down a deposit that day.
“The only drawback to the car was that it had a blue interior that I really didn’t care for,” he explains. “I probably would have put a down payment on it if the interior was black.” But two days later, the Corvette was parked in the driveway when he came home. “Want to go for a ride?” asked Luann with a grin. With the car now in the couple’s possession, it became a weekend driver.
But life isn’t always fair, and sometimes unexpected challenges force a change of plans. That was the case with the health battle Luann was facing at the time. Pete recalls, “We would regularly take the car to her chemo treatments or doctor’s appointments. She fought it for six years but passed away a week before our 21st anniversary.” Burdened by the memories of his wife, Pete parked the C4. “I just let it sit,” he says. “I really didn’t have much motivation to drive it.”
As with any ending, there is almost always a new beginning, and after four years of healing, Pete Cicora met his current wife, Judy. And it was her son, Chris, who ended up being the motivating catalyst to get the Corvette back on the road. Chris mentioned that he had some friends who owned an automotive repair and restoration shop, and suggested that Cicora stop by and speak to them. That suggestion led him to Jesse Barratt and Jeff Manzella, owners of Blue Sky Performance in Andover, New Jersey.
Cicora was ready to have the car redone, but he wasn’t sure how the project should take shape. “If I was going to do anything, I wouldn’t be putting it back to stock,” he explains. “I was going to have something built that I could enjoy.”
He was sure that he wanted to keep the car white, have a black interior installed, and put a more robust engine under the hood. Beyond that he was open to suggestion—and the guys at the shop were ready to advise him, particularly regarding the powerplant.
“I knew I wanted something bigger,” Cicora says. “I was looking at a 572 big-block with over 700 horses [when] Jeff asked me what I wanted to use the car for. Was I looking for a show car, or a good driver? He told me that if I wanted to drive it, an engine like that wasn’t sensible because I would be working on it regularly. His recommendation was a crate 383 stroker From BluePrint Engines.”
This turned out to be solid advice, as the BluePrint 383 delivered 414 horsepower at 4,050 rpm and 377 lb-ft of torque at 5,300 rpm at the wheels. The beefed-up mill came with 10:1 forged pistons, a steel crank, aluminum heads, OEM connecting rods, and a hydraulic roller camshaft to keep it civil on the street. The guys at the shop then added an Edelbrock Pro-Flo XT intake manifold and Pro-Flo 4 XT EFI System.
While the engine was a fresh addition, the shifting duties were entrusted to the existing 700R4, albeit after a full rebuild. The exhaust plumbing was also upgraded with a pair of American Racing headers coupled to 2.5-inch steel pipes and low-restriction Magnaflow mufflers. This combo gives the C4 a deep, throaty exhaust that is a few decibels over stock.
A few changes were also made in the handing and stopping departments. The C4 package as a whole is quite capable, so the brakes at all four corners were left stock, while the suspension was upgraded with a Ridetech coil-over system. The latter kit is a complete bolt-on package that Cicora says substantially improved the C4’s handling. As a bonus, the setup adds ride-height adjustability.
On the exterior, Cicora’s primary wish was to keep the car white, but within that window he kept his options open. “Jesse asked me if he could do some of his custom touches to the car, and I told him to do whatever he wanted.” Given that flexibility, the painter chose to use Exalta BMW Pearl White, which was then complemented by stripes in the company’s GM Black Diamond. The stripe and rear blackout treatment were inspired by the Motion Corvettes of the late 1960s, while the smaller blue accent stripes were inspired by the car’s original interior hue.
When it came time to address the upholstery, Cicora cracked open the Zip Products catalog and ordered a fresh set of black-leather seat covers and carpeting. These were installed at the shop, and the remaining interior trim was dyed black to complete the long-sought color change.
The last item to address was the wheel-and-tire combo, an area in which Cicora wasn’t initially sure which direction to take. “Jesse and Jeff showed me some wheels, and I told them that I trusted them and their choices,” he explains. “I was just after a nice set…and wanted the biggest tire that I could fit into the wheel well.” Given the green light, Barratt and Manzella ordered up Boze Acute alloy wheels wrapped with Falken Azenis RT615K tires. The front 8×18-inch wheels mount 215/40R18s, while the 11×18-inch rears use fat 315/35R18s.
The makeover took approximately two years from start to finish and completely transformed the C4. Cicora is also a C5 owner, the inevitable question regards how the modded fourth-gen stacks up against the newer-generation Corvette.
“The C5 is a well-rounded, comfortable sports car,” he explains. “My wife likes it because it is nice and quiet—you get in and go. The C4 is a ton of fun, and it is loud with that exhaust. It is my car to drive. The C5 is our car to drive.”
Valuable beyond the sum of its parts, Pete Cicora’s ’89 coupe remains a priceless reminder of his late wife, Luann, and a thoughtful gesture that lives on.
