1980 Chevrolet Corvette - Perfectly Fine By Me

I turned 16 in March of 1980 and there was no telling me anything about anything. Especially stuff about my beloved Corvette being a creaky, sloppily built ox cart of a "sports car" that couldn't hold a tailpipe to the Porsche 928 and other real sports cars from over seas. Nope. Didn't want to hear it and even if I did hear it, I wasn't believing it because when you're 16 and you know-it-all,  nothing beats a Corvette. Besides, how was I to know at that time that something that looked like this couldn't cash checks their looks would have a dumb ass 16 year old me believe they could?

While the automotive press wailed incessantly about the Corvette not getting any updating since 1968, well, updating that they deemed worthy of praise, I, for one, stood up and cheered like the sophomore I was about the revisions Chevrolet bestowed on the magnificent plastic flanks for 1980. Revisions I thought brought together fairly big changes they made back in 1978. You know, the move to that fastback "hatch" thing that did away with the luscious "sugar scoop" or tunnel ram that defined the rear of the car from 1968-1977. Honestly, as much of a fan of the "C3" as I am, I pump the brakes big time when it comes to the 1978 and 1979 models.

If Chevrolet "Jumped the Shark" with Corvette in 1978 and 1979, they erased those episodes with the glorious 1980 model. Thanks to subtle and not so subtle changes, what had turned into an awkward, "what the hell? for 1978, in the blink of an eye became a complete, resolute and thoroughly satisfying update. So strong, at least through my eyes, was the 1980 freshening that I believe the changes made for 1980 were originally part of the changes made to the car for 1978. GM being GM, they held off on all the good stuff to save money and to give them time to complete a long over due "all new" Corvette. Time "bought" with the updating for 1980.

In addition to a handsome duck tail spoiler on the rear end for 1980, a design element so cool that many an owner of earlier "C3's" has added to their cars, and a hunky front chin air dam, GM made other updates to Corvette for 1980 that weren't as readily apparent. Thanks to lighter, thinner glass, lighter doors, a different manufacturing process for the fiberglass body and aluminum rear suspension components, engineers were able to shave more than two hundred fifty pounds of curb weight off the body on rigid iron frame old lady. With 1968-1979 C3's weighing more than thirty five hundred pounds, dropping more than two hundred fifty of them was worth honking your horn over. Sadly, it being the height of the so called "Malaise Era", with engines still clogged by primitive emissions gear, the weight savings didn't add up to improved performance or gas mileage. Hey, our subject here could been worse. Had this been a California car, it would have come with a 305 engine since GM wasn't able to certify the bigger huffin' 350 for the Golden State's strict emissions standards.

That all said, was I disappointed that Corvette remained unchanged for all those years at the time? To some degree I believe so but that was only in blind anticipation of a new Corvette that would somehow and impossibly so, usurp the C3 in design, scope and reach. No Corvette since has come close to the C3 and seeing that Corvette is now a mid-engine, Ferrari/Lamborghini what the effing eff, Corvette never will be. And that's perfectly fine with me.