To be fair, there may not have been a true production run, but there was a run of 1983 Corvette pilots, pre-productions, whatever you want to call it. Out of the 43 cars that were built, only one, known as “RBV098”, exists to this day. You can go visit the car at the National Corvette Museum, where it sits in the Skydome among the sinkhole cars and other Corvettes of note. One car, out of a small pilot run, for a Corvette model that was two years delayed, that was supposed to be straight-up destroyed since it was only a pre-production. The idea that one Corvette was spared when GM is legitimately brutal about destroying pre-production vehicles is a bit odd. Remember, this is a company that went hell-bent when it came time to recover all of the GM EV1 electric vehicles that they were demanding back, and they were seriously stout when it came to making them museum pieces that wouldn’t move under their own power again.
The story of why “RBV098” managed to make it to the 21st century is impressive. It is even more impressive that it managed to not enter into the sinkhole that ate other cars in 2014. It also stirred up the fever for the C4, which was already driving consumers mad with anticipation as the C3 was aging out. Smooth lines, new processes, futuristic tech like the LCD gauges information center. If it failed, then GM would’ve probably shelved it without a second thought. If it was a success, then hey, all the better. But that’s the end story. The C4 was a funky beast, from it’s origin to it’s end. The Roman is happy to talk about the 1983 Corvette, but then his mind wanders…and the story is still as good.
When we took the museum tour in 94 it sat in the visitor entrance to the plant,the running joke was how many 1983 Corvettes are there, everybody knew it was 1 , but that was wrong(?). There are One and a half,the half was over the exterior door we just walked through.
The story of how the car survived as told then was after a test day it was mistakenly parked in the wrong area,then after sitting for about 6 months some department head wanted the space so it was towed to the far corner of a lot ,then some construction containers moved in and blocked it from view for another 5 years…
Too bad there wasn’t an 83. I have a 91 polo metallic green corvette and I love it. I bought it
seven years ago for a great price. The car is in pretty good shape and looks and runs great. The speedometer was broke and the mileage stopped at 260k and I have probably put close to 20k on it without any problems. The L98 is a great engine. I love the c4.