1980 c3 l82
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,075
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https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...d-test-review/
Last edited by KingRat; Feb 7, 2021 at 09:53 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2019
Posts: 7,650
Likes: 2,466
From: Indiana
I saw a beautiful 1980 Black/Oyster L-82 4-Speed car back in 1989 at the C Frank Chevrolet car show in Highland Park, IL . The car was in the possession of the original owner and he claimed it to be an all original car. I looked at that car a long, long time and set out to find one for myself. I did of course, find out later that there were no production L-82 4-Speed cars sold to the public. I am assuming that the owner of the car I saw at the show either added the L-82 badges and valve covers or the manual transmission. Someone on this forum posted a scan of the letter they received from Chevrolet explaining that the option was canceled after they had ordered that combination. I wish I could find that thread. With that said, Chevrolet did build some. One of the cars used in the October 1979 Motor Trend road test was a L-82 4-Speed car. Is it possible that a pilot line car got into the hands of the public? I have seen that happen with other pre-production cars. One of the pilot line cars used in the 1979 press preview did survive the crusher... sort of: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...car-found.html
October 1979 Motor Trend- Options on Test car- L-82 4-Speed.
ZBD Suffix= L-82 Uncertain Usage
I have wondered if this is the car I saw back in 1989:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzBq...e_gdata_player
Last edited by interpon; Feb 7, 2021 at 10:33 AM.
Drifting
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 1,509
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Last edited by Eric P; Feb 7, 2021 at 10:27 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,447
Likes: 972
From: Tennessee/Rhode Island
I just confirmed through GMheritagecenter.com that the 1980 L-82 Auto had a 3.07 rear gear which confirms the slow times, 0-60 MPH, even with the automatic.
The 78/79 L-82 Autos had a 3.55 rear gear which confirms the 0-60 MPH time of 6.4-6.6 Seconds, making those 2 years, pretty impressive for the C3 L-82s! My 78 L-82 4 speed has a 3.70 rear gear and it is VERY fast today with its rebuilt/OEM L-82 Block (rods/crank etc) 355......
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...d-test-review/
FWIW-THIS car and Driver article (May 1 1980) on the 1980 C3 ^^^^^^^^^^^^mentions the L-82 4 speed was not offered or available.
Not sure why that other C&D article (???) previously posted mentioned any possibility of a 4 speed L-82 in 1980, a car which I specifically watched like a hawk back in 79/80 when I was a freshman in college or have ever seen an article that made that comment before.
Last edited by jb78L-82; Feb 7, 2021 at 11:02 AM.
