geewez

When did Chevrolet start using the C1, C2, C3,C4,C5 and C6 model breakdowns to describe the various Corvette generations? As a teenager growing up, I don't recall seeing C2, C3 etc descriptions when reading about the new Corvette models in the car magazines.

calmtgguy

C1 = 1953 - 1962
C2 = 1963 - 1967
C3 = 1968 - 1982
C4 = 1983 - 1996, 1983 0 sold to public
C5 = 1997 - 2004
C6 = 2005 - 2010
C7 = 2013 -

Z51JEFF

From what I understand this started around the C4 generation.Ive know Corvettes most of my life and never heard the C designation until the 84 came out.

AFVETTE

From my recollection the designation really started during the C5 and birth of the internet on-line forum era.

I've owned vette's since 72 and until the C5 came out I never heard a vette called "C" anything.

Tom

proexpert

1997

GOLD72

I don't think GM called the different generations "generations" until the introduction of the 1997 vette. They went out of their way to publicly call it the C5 or Fifth Generation vette as it was a clear break from the previous generation or clean sheet design car with a 3rd generation small block V8 (the LS1) which was also a clean sheet new design engine. My first vette was also an 72.

brimee

I had a C4, it was the C4 that it was started but I am not sure exactly what year of the C4 that it started. I do not beleive it was GM that started this designation, it was the Corvette Community that did.

Swiftrider08

j_digi454

When I bought my 70, there was no "C" designation. I also didn't become aware of any "C" designation until the C5's were introduced.

Patman

I don't remember them ever calling them C1-C2-C3-C4s until after the C5 came out. I first got interested in Corvettes right around the mid 80s when I first got my driver's licence, and I bought all the Corvette magazines available at the time. In the 80s not once did anyone ever refer to the 84+ models as C4s. Back then, I do remember they referred to the 63-67s as "midyears" but I don't recall them having any special nickname for any other generation.

not08crmanymore

I just read up on this somewhere,maybe this issue of VETTE.It was during the beginnings of the c5 with Dave Hill I believe.

need-for-speed

AFAIK: As stated in several posts above - it started with the C5.

Bill Dearborn

1997. I have owned Vettes since 1972 and I never heard of a C designation until the 97s hit the magazines in late 1996. It had to happen as it was getting hard to tell which model people were talking about. Mid-years worked for the 63-67 cars until the 84 was introduced and you had two mid year types. Then I heard comments like Classic, Mid-Year, Shovel Nose, Late Model.

Bill

Stanger

Can't do better than that! Of course, the 83 model was never produced, for sale!

KX

I bought a '91 C4 ZR-1 back in '93 or '94 and the guys on the ZR-1 Net were using the "C" designation back then. So it started before the C5 generation. The expert on this however would be Hib Halverson, the Corvette writer or Jim van Dorn of Auto Masters.

kenw