The 1983 Corvette - Urban Legend, or Rare Car?

Recently, at a local car show, I saw a sign propped up to a snazzy looking Corvette asking more than declaring, "The only? '83 Corvette." I just had to ask around all the Corvette owners, trying to find out the story behind the 'Vanished 83' was, and no one seemed to have an answer for me.

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.