To those of us of a certain vintage, remember how we moaned, groaned and cried afoul as each passing model-year GM brought us the same old Chevrolet Corvette? For better and for worse, GM did make a litany of significant and at times whimsical changes to the C3 over its protracted production run and the 1982 Chevrolet Corvette, like our fetching "Collector's Edition" here, encompasses all of them.
Cosmetically, the first big changes to the C3 were the bumper covers that cropped up on 1973 Corvette front ends and then in back for 1974. This was due to a federal mandate that all new cars sold in the United States by 1974 be able to withstand a five-mile per hour impact without their drivability adversely affected.
The second big change coming in 1978 when GM made Corvette a "fastback" of sorts; a design element that allegedly was seriously considered going back to the C3's original drawing board.
For 1980, designers integrated a spoiler onto the rear bumper cover and revised the front-end design with a new air-dam. Underneath, GM partially redesigned the C3's independent rear suspension system the eliminated a significant amount of the wheel-hop and disjointed-ness that plagued earlier models.
For 1982, that glass that made up the fastback look actually opened. Imagine that.
Under the hood, 1982 Corvette's "Cross-Fire Injection" V-8 engine was in lock-step with a myriad of power train changes made to the C3 over the years. The first Corvette with fuel injection since the "fuelies" of 1963 and 1964, all Corvette's since 1982 have been exclusively fuel-injected; this "Cross-Fire" engine carried over to early C4's as well. As far as the "blasphemy" of the 1982 Corvette being "automatic-only", keep in mind the C1 was exclusively automatic from 1953 through 1954 and the much ballyhooed and maligned C8 is "automatic-only" as well; albeit a trick dual-clutch automatic that can shift much faster than any human can shift a manual.
Again, to those of us of a certain vintage, we eventually got our wish with a truly "all-new" Corvette in the spring of 1983 when GM released the 1984 early. Careful what you wish for. While it could do things the C3 could never do and foretold of future Corvette's that were "dead-serious" sports cars, it's styling was less than fulfilling. Third-generation Corvette's certainly had their faults, trust me, I have a '77 and live the dream, but as far as being the equivalent of driving a rock-star, ok, a rock-star that never sang that well and has no other ability that just being charismatic, no Corvette since the 1982 has ever come close.
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ReplyDeleteMany people don't like the late C3 generation cars, but they have their good points, and their prices are also increasing. The 1982 model year functional rear window was a special edition only feature that came standard on C4 Corvettes. Corvette C3 Special Editions
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