Americans may have created the Chevrolet Corvette, but if our tendency to airbrush our favorite animal or cartoon character on the hood of our cars says anything, it’s that we Americans don’t really know what we’re doing when it comes to tastefully modifying Corvettes. Sweden, on the other hand, sure as hell does. As this custom, one-off C4 that could’ve swept this past weekend’s virtual Radwood show.
Jim Björk’s Custom Corvette C4
, Björn Billsten – Used with permission
Jim Björk’s Custom Corvette C4
, Björn Billsten – Used with permission
Jim Björk’s Custom Corvette C4
, Björn Billsten – Used with permissionThis C4 is the brainchild of Swedish car importer Jim Björk, who if his Instagram is anything to go by, likes his cars low, wide, and American. He has owned everything from a Rocket Bunny-kitted C5 to a Dodge Viper GTS. Björk, presumably bitten by the Corvette bug, crawled back to the Corvette this past September by importing an automatic C4 dressed as a ZR-1—which he almost immediately began to chop up. He lowered the car before grafting a front bumper originally designed for the Nissan 180SX to its face, giving it an unusual but handsome front end that still looks period-correct.
The Swede ran into some problems while trying to find prefab fender flares wide enough to fit over his 18-by-13-inch Advan SA3R wheels, so rather than buy off the shelf, he and body shop GME Lackering built entirely new flares just for this application. An equally bespoke wing and a coat of Porsche-sourced aquamarine paint later, and the build was ready to conquer every car show from Gothenburg to Stockholm.
If you own a C4 and want yours to look something like Björk’s, you’re in luck, because Björk told The Drive that he’s talking to companies about making replica kits available as soon as this fall. C4s are still dirt cheap, so if you want to drive something that looks like a supercar without spending six figures, forget those Thai-built Toyota MR2 kit cars, and buy Swedish instead.
Correction: Wednesday, April 22, 2020, 9:50 a.m. ET. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Corvette was a ZR1 variant. It has been corrected.
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