While a Corvette is hardly the most exotic of project cars

 While a Corvette is hardly the most exotic of project cars

, it's hard to argue with its value for money. The C4 is a particular bargain right now, as it's readily available on the used market for just a few thousand dollars, yet it's ripe for restoration and easy to modify should you want to give it some more poke under the hood. It's not unusual to see project C4s

 packing over 500 horsepower if they've been engine swapped, even if they don't look that different on the outside. Even without turning the car into a tire-shredding sleeper, the C4 can leave plenty of its peers from the era in the rearview, at least in a straight line.

A side-by-side test saw the C4 easily beat a Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 over a quarter mile, although its 17.06-second time is dwarfed by the capabilities of a modern 'Vette. For less than $10K, though, a C4 might just be all the project car you need, and then some. An '88 example recently sold on Bring a Trailer for $9,000, and it only showed 64,000 miles on the odometer.