The early 74 still had duel exhaust and no converter. The engine was detuned with PCV and other things that robbed much HP. I don't think there was anything computerized added to the engine. It did have a hood cowling system for air cool venting. Vacuum headlights. Non removable rear window. Interior about the exact same except it did not have the deluxe option carpet and door panels. Base models had about the same suspension system. Plastic bumper covers vs chrome bumpers. Rally wheels were the same. Same brake system. That's about it?
Just researching the differences for a possible purchase.

 

I've had three '69s and my wife has a '74. The immediate things that come to mind are the bumpers, wiper door, rear window and power.

 

Other little stuff. Fiber optics in 69. Wiper door. But the big diff is the bumpers. And about 10k in price and value.

 

Mud gards and vents behind front wheels too

 

69 higher CR and power.
No fender flares, which makes the 68 & 69 cleaner I think.
Different side louvers
Different parking and side lamps
69 seats had head rests, 74 full
Different door panels.
69 gauges and radio had light green numerials, 72 up had white
69 have no speakers in the dash pads, 70 up have them and the holes in the pad.
69 had coarse spline Muncies, 74 had fine spline, both could be had with th400's- std trans for 69 was a 3 spd manual
69 had vac tanks under the hood, the 74 had the front bumper tube for a vac tank.
69 std diff was open. 74 std was posi - since 1970,
69 posi cases had 10-18 spiders and solid steels, 74 had 10-17 and snowflakes. The 69 clutches were better, the 74 spiders and posi casting was better.
69 had hardened face axles, 74 had soft faced junk - same as 73-79.
69 had 1310 u-joints,74's had the larger 1330's
I believe all 69's had 2" exhaust 74 had 2.5"- not sure about the base engine setup though.
69 had both fine and coarse spline steering box inputs, 74 had coarse. The rag joints were slightly different.

There's probably more but this is off the top of my head. Both have the good and bad points, the 69's were mass produced due to the strike year. 74's was the first year for full "rubber" bumpers and the rear was split seamed, last year for the 454.

 

Bumpers, bumpers, bumpers.

 

69,had real BBC engs,427 -L88,ZL-1,TRI-POWER

 

Chrome bumpers!

 

'69 vs '74?
'69 had way better looking bumpers.
'74 had a way better functioning hood/wiper set up.

 

69 was the only year factory side pipes were an option. T

 

All 74s had dual exhaust and no converters. These are good:






These are also good references, but may be out of print.

 

The PCV didn't take any power away. The heads with the large 76cc chambers to lower the CR did. The cam, carb, and intake are essentially the same as '69. Add a set of 58-64cc heads to the 74 and you get the '69 power right back.

Don't confuse gross power rating (68-71) with SAE net rating (72+) in your comparison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_(C3)

R

 

This is the car that got my interest in the '69. it is in the new arrivals at the Auto Barn in Concord, NC. Odometer shows 45K miles which might be right. Looks like original forest green paint. Could be a base model convertible. Has nicely redone seats but interior needs a cleaning up a bit. I would image they would be asking $30K or more after they give it the treatment. I should say it's in the not ready for sale yet bin.

 

What about the engine numbers? Huge driver of value here.

Those seats are not 1969.

Green in 1969 was Fathom Green, #983. Check the trim tag, that pic looks a little lighter.

 

These guys collect some nice cars and have a real good reputation. So I'm assuming everything is on the upside. They ask high dollar on everything to start with anyway. I didn't really look at it too seriously but seem to be mulling it over anyway. lol

 

Fair enough, but don’t assume anything.

Have details verified, do not take people’s word for anything.

 

This site goes into pretty good detail about the changes between years.

https://www.corvsport.com/corvette-full-model-list/#c3

 

cool

 

How pronounced are the fender flare differences? I was looking at some 68 and 69's, but it looked like they had flares as well. Did they just get bigger in 70?

 

Slightly noticeable......69's had no flare compared to 70's. Flares were widened to help as flaps to protect paint from tire debris. This was in response to 69 owners complaints of chipping paint.