C5 · 1997–2004

C5 Options & RPO Codes

The C5's order sheet reads like a preview of the modern car: adaptive damping, active handling, a head-up display, and run-flat tires — in the late nineties. Every code in the year pages' production tables is explained here; click a code in any year's table to land on its entry. Engine stamp suffixes (ZYC, ZZD…) are decoded in each year's engine-stamp table, not here.

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Engines · Models & packages · Suspension, brakes & handling · Transmissions & axle · Wheels & tires · Roof, body & lighting · Interior & electronics · Emissions, export & paperwork

Engines

LS1 — the all-aluminum 5.7

Every base C5's engine and the founding member of the LS dynasty: an all-new aluminum 345-hp 5.7 (350 from 2001) that made torque everywhere, took abuse indefinitely, and launched the most successful engine family GM ever built. On the order sheet it appears as standard equipment — the option was everything else.

LS6 — the Z06's engine

2001–04, exclusive to the Z06: the LS1 with better breathing, higher compression and a hotter cam — 385 hp at launch, 405 hp from 2002. The code deliberately echoes 1971's aluminum-head 454 era — Chevrolet knows its own history. The engine's story is told on the 2001 and 2002 pages.

Models & packages

Z06 — the code becomes a car

2001–04: Zora's 1963 race package code reborn as a full model — the hardtop body, the LS6, the M12 six-speed, specific wheels and tires, and a titanium exhaust by the end. The performance bargain of its era and the template for every Z06 since.

Z51 — Performance Handling Package

1997–2002, around $350: the traditional firm-suspension checkbox — stiffer springs, bars and dampers — carrying the C4 code forward until the FE3/Z06 structure absorbed its role.

Z15 — Gymkhana/Autocross Package

2000, hardtop only: the six-speed plus Z51 bundled for the autocross crowd — the Gymkhana name making a one-year comeback on the cheapest, stiffest body style.

Z16 / Z18 — Commemorative Edition, 2004

The C5's sendoff: Le Mans Blue with silver-and-red accents celebrating the C5-R's Le Mans wins — and on Z06s, a carbon-fiber hood. Z18 was the European-market version of the package.

FE4 — Z06 suspension

The Z06's own handling calibration on the paperwork, 2001–04 — the stiffest setup of the generation.

Suspension, brakes & handling

F45 — Selective Real Time Damping

1997–2002, $1,695: continuously computer-adjusted dampers, carried over from the last C4 year — each shock updated many times a second.

F55 — Magnetic Selective Ride Control

2003–04, $1,695: the world debut of magnetorheological damping — fluid that stiffens in a magnetic field, adjusting in a millisecond. Technology the rest of the industry later licensed, first sold here.

JL4 — Active Handling

From 1998, $500: the Corvette's first stability control — selective brake intervention to catch a slide, with a competition mode that let you switch the nannies down. Standard equipment by 2001.

NW9 — traction control

The traction-control line item on 2004 paperwork.

FE1 / FE3 — suspension calibrations

The base menu: soft ride (FE1) and the sport calibration (FE3, included with Z51) — GM's standard suspension codes applied to the C5.

JL9 — power ABS brakes

The four-wheel-disc ABS system as it appears on the sheet — standard fit.

Transmissions & axle

MN6 / MM6 — the 6-speed manual

The Borg-Warner/Tremec T56 six-speed, around $815–$915 — coded MN6 through 2001 and MM6 after, complete with the 1-to-4 skip shift inherited from the C4's ZF box.

M30 / MX0 — the 4L60-E automatic

The electronic four-speed automatic — listed as M30, ordered as MX0 (and appearing as “MXO” on some 1999 paperwork). The transmission most C5s left Bowling Green with.

The axle codes

Automatics came with the 2.73 (GU2) and could order the 3.15 performance set (G92, with G90 listing the ratio); manuals got the 3.42 (GU6). Shorter gears, more urgency — the eternal trade.

Wheels & tires

N73 — magnesium wheels

1998–2004, $2,000–$3,000: genuine forged magnesium — the lightest, most exotic wheel Chevrolet had ever cataloged.

QF5 — polished aluminum wheels

2000–04, around $895–$1,295: the high-polish five-spokes.

QD4 / QG1 / QF3 — standard wheels

The standard five-spoke aluminum sets across the years — 17×8.5 front, 18×9.5 rear.

P12 / P36 — Z06 wheels

2004: the Z06-specific five-spokes, standard (P12) or polished (P36).

XGG / YGH — the run-flat EMTs

The Extended Mobility Tires — P245/45ZR17 front, P275/40ZR18 rear — that let the C5 delete its spare tire entirely, saving weight and trunk space.

XFW / YFU — the Z06's non-EMT tires

2004 listings for the Z06's lighter non-run-flat rubber — P265/40ZR17 and P295/35ZR18. The Z06 traded the run-flat safety net for unsprung weight.

Roof, body & lighting

CC3 — blue transparent roof panel

$650–$750 all generation long: the tinted see-through targa panel — the glass-top tradition continued.

CF7 — body-color roof panel

The painted panel alternative for coupes.

C05 — convertible top

The manual folding top's 2004 line item.

B84 — body side moldings

$75–$150: door-ding armor.

T96 — fog lamps

Optional early, standard later.

T82 / TR9 — lighting extras

Twilight Sentinel automatic headlamps (T82) and the hardtop's lighting package (TR9) — convenience lighting arriving option by option.

DD0 / DL8 — mirrors

Auto-dimming electrochromic mirrors (DD0) and heated sport mirrors (DL8).

D42 — luggage shade & parcel net

Cargo-area tidiness, $50.

V49 — front license plate frame

$15 for the states that make you.

Interior & electronics

AQ9 / AR9 — seats

Sport seats with aggressive bolsters (AQ9, $625–$700) over the base leather buckets (AR9).

AG1 / AG2 — power seats

Six-way power for driver (AG1) and passenger (AG2), $305 when not standard.

AAB — Memory Package

$150–$175: seat, mirror and radio presets per driver — luxury-car equipment on a sports car, 1997–2003.

UV6 — Head-Up Display

From 1999, $375: speed and revs projected on the windshield — fighter-jet equipment a decade before it was common, and still a C5 party trick.

U52 — electronic instrument cluster

The paperwork code for the C5's dash — whose driver information center speaks the DIC codes decoded on their own page.

The audio codes

Delco-Bose with CD (UN0) atop the cassette base radio (UL0), the hardtop's Bose speaker upgrade (UZ6), and the antenna menu — windshield (UV7), fixed mast (U73), power (U75).

CJ2 / C60 — climate control

Dual-zone automatic climate (CJ2, $365 before it became standard) over the basic system (C60).

N37 — power telescoping column

$350: power telescope, manual tilt — the 1965 idea, motorized.

NK4 — sport leather steering wheel

The thicker rim, continued from the C4 code.

RPA — rear parking assist

A 1999 listing — parking sensors before almost anyone expected them on a sports car.

AK5 / C88 / AN4 — restraint codes

Airbag paperwork: the front airbag system (AK5), the passenger shut-off switch (C88), and the child-seat tether (AN4).

AU0 — keyless entry remote

The 2004 fob line.

IL3 — interior design trim

The interior trim-level designation on 1999–2001 paperwork.

AP9 — parcel net

The hardtop's cargo net, up to $50.

B34 — floor mats

$25. Somebody had to code them.

K63 — 110-amp generator

The alternator upgrade line.

BGR — “Made in Bowling Green”

The best code on the sheet: a build-plant designation proudly noting the car's Kentucky birthplace, where every Corvette has been born since 1981.

Emissions, export & paperwork

The emissions codes

California (YF5, up to $252), the Northeast states (NB8, NG1, NE1), federal baseline and overrides (FE9, NC7, NF7), the powertrain module listing (K29), and the European system (MA7) — fifty states, many stickers.

The export codes

The 1999 tables in particular list the C5's world-market paperwork in loving detail: the European model (EXP) and its market codes (MAE, VD1, UL2), Germany (CT3) and Mexico (CV3), export lamps and headlamps (T84, T89, T90), the DRL delete (T62), kilometers-first cluster (U19), EEC steering column (NP7) and plate mounting (VL4), seat-belt conversion (AX4), tow hooks (V76), transit coatings (VG1, VG9), the VIN plate itself (VH5), certification labels (V73, VM3, V78, VC5) — and a “loose parts bag” (BAG). Proof that by 1999, literally everything on the car had a code.

Z49 — Canadian options

The Canada bundle, a code with decades of service.

Paint & trim codes

Colors and interiors with production figures are on each year page from 1997 through 2004. Earlier generations: C2, C3, C4. Spot an error? Tell us.