1983 Corvette (The One & Only)

The Car That Never Should Have Been: The Story Of The 1983 Corvette

Within the National Corvette Museum’s Skydome sits the only remaining 1983 Corvette; a car best characterized as a survivor, in every sense of the word. According to the Macmillan Dictionary, a survivor is, “someone or something that still exists after every other member of a group has died or been destroyed.” This as it may, the 1983 Corvette lives up to this title.

Usually, whenever the words car and survivor run subsequent to one another in a sentence, there is a story of epic proportions that is to follow. Not to leave you disappointed, this is one such case. The story behind the only remaining 1983 Corvette’s survival is undoubtedly intriguing. Some of the details are known as absolutes. Others however have been resigned to points of folklore.

The Facts

What is known for certain is that the early 1980s was a time of great change within GM engineering, as it pertains to the Corvette. Since 1968, the C3 Corvette had reigned supreme.

However, Corvette enthusiasts and performance aficionados alike had begun to question which direction GM’s design and development team would take the iconic American sports car in the future. At the same time, engineering was well underway for what would later become the answer to these quandaries.