The 1983 Corvette - Urban Legend, or Rare Car?
I got a lot of shrugged shoulders and long winded answers (not excluding government conspiracies).
I was curious, and now I had to know, was there an 83 Corvette? If not, why? Conspiracy? Mechanic issues?
I tried to look online, scouring the internet for answers, found surprising little information, and tons of car enthusiasts debating this fact.
People claiming to have a field of them, to people claiming there were none period.
After sifting through the junk, I found some information that hit the source up for the answers.
As it turns out, production of the 83 was way behind, so far behind, there was no way they could release the 83 in time! They usually released new ones in the September before the model's year, when in fact, production was delayed up until March of 1983!
That's quite a time constraint when you consider the major over hauls they wanted to do for the Corvette. What they wanted, was a much needed updated look in the growing market.
Corvette's had maintained an unheard of five years for basically the same chassis (from 1963, to 1968). Which, in the world of sports cars is actually quite a stretch, after all, someone is always coming out with something new.
In 82, there was about half of the Corvettes built then there was in 1981, despite that extra six months to sell.
When they decided to a complete redesign for the 1984, that is what threw them so far off.
There was some debate that maybe GM's move from their St. Louis spot (where up until 1980, all Corvettes were made) to Bowling Green in Kentucky is what did it, but they have found that to be unlikely.
They took so much time spent on the redesign, that when the 84 did come out, it was all new, except for one little thing - the motor. They threw in 82 motors instead simply because they ran out of time.
What would have been the 83, when it finally came out was called the 84. As far as 'true' 1983's, the estimates vary from ten to about fifty cars.
Which were the estimated numbers for cars used for EPA testing, and trade press. There is evidence of at least some of the cars existing, for example the '1983 Corvette' was shown at a trade press in Riverside Raceway, December of 1982.
Here's a number to make you wonder though, due to all the delays, there were more than twice the number of 84 Corvettes sold than the 82s.
Which, doesn't really help out those with all the conspiracy theories.
So do you have a 1983 Corvette sitting in your field? I don't know, chances are, probably not. Which might not be a bad thing, after all, you have to look on the bright side. Every time they play with the golden oldies, there are always some bugs to work out, not really all that consoling when you think of all the money you could have had, but hey, don't complain to much, you do still own a Vette.
Published by Melissa B
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9 Comments
Post a CommentI was a student at Western KY U in Bowling Green in 1983 enrolled in Manufacturing Engineering. Our plant design and equipment layout class was given a guided tour of the facility in the fall of 1983. I saw a line of the then new body style Corvettes fully assembled. One complete car was undergoing a dyno test. Many of the vehicles were present, I am guesing 35+ assembled cars, most were vadelized by the union operators who were on strike. The only real reason there was not a 83 model was a work stopage. The design was done, all tooling was debugged and in operation, the assembly lines were all ready, the final products were in front of us. The cars built had broken windshields, key-scratched body panels, one looked as though it was beaten with a hammer. I only am responding here now as I still live in KY and am sending someone to the museum tomorrow who lives in PA.
...rethinking, thus delaying the production of the car until early 1984 and making it a 'mid'-year release, early-1984 model. That being said, whatever California may or may not have done as a stumbling block didn't seem to affect the rest of GM's engine lineup, all of which would've been subject to the SAME revised requirements. None of the cars using those powerplants were held back as 1984 models like the Corvette was, even though the C4's engine was largely a carryover from the 1982 model. Given that it's getting closer to being three decades ago at the time of this posting, I'm sure there a certain amount of rust on what is truth and what is not.
...production, after all the C4 Corvette was the first really all new Corvette since 1953; the C2 and C3 generation cars were developments from the original 1953 architecture. It would really be no surprise that it took longer than anticipated to get the car readied for production.
But there's another story as well: during the engine/drivetrain development for the C4, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) had decided to change their own set of rules and put into motion even more stringent pollution controls, legislation that GM's engineers apparently didn't take into account, at least initially. Considering that California is a MAJOR market for any car maker, particularly for flagship and sports cars like the Corvette, clearly something had to be done to make sure California got their C4 Corvettes at the same time as the rest of the country. To remedy this and at the very least maintain the projected performance that the all-new C4 was to attain the engineers had to do some major r
I've heard a number of reasons for the 1983 Corvette, or lack thereof, all of which depends on you point of view as to what the right answer is. Yes there were 44 pre-production prototypes built, many used as test mules and as press introduction cars, and they were given corresponding VIN numbers that would forever make them official 1983 models. And all but one was to suffer the indignity of being sent to the crusher, with the last example getting a belated salvation from The General several years after it was built (and almost an equally time left to decay and rot out in the weather) before it was restored and then shipped to the National Corvette Museum on permanent loan. But as the electronics world says today, if the general public can't buy it, it's nothing more than vaporware. Technically there is one remaining 1983 Corvette, but for the rest of us there never was one. So either viewpoint is right; it's all about perspective. As for the reasons: some say it was slow ramp up for
I'd be glad to know what I've left out of the article so I can include it, thanks :)
dont want to start an arguement. but my father bought the missing 83 race car.built by mr. dykstra ans the brassfields 20 yr. ago.(documented in a book"the newest corvette") he raced and won many scca events and championships...he still is in posession of this rare vehicle
The writer of this article really needs to have the facts, and kind of know what they are talking about when it come to the subject of 83 corvettes. but I guess thats the internet for you, you can write about all kinds of things you really dont know about.
Production was too slow to produce the anticipated 30th anniversary vette. The plant was temporarily shutdown apparently, and only 44 83's were assembled. They were all used for engineering tweaking and experimentation including crash testing. Ultimately, 43 of the 44 were destroyed and the one remaining now exists in the Corvette museum in Kentucky. The vette is white and remains under the ownership of GM to this day. No one else owns an '83 vette, at least under public knowledge.
Corvettes are one of my favorites. One of my older sister's boyfriends took me for a spin in his orange vette when I was a young teen & I was hooked- to fast cars & hot guys!