Daily Slideshow: An Alternate Universe's Corvette C4
Are you happy with the styling of Chevrolet's C4 Corvette? Check out what might have been before you answer.
Tough Act
Each new generation of Corvette up to the C4 was marked by a radical styling re-do (except for the tail of the C2, which snuck itself onto the hindquarters of the last couple of C1s). Each was futuristic, and at the same time completely individual—they simply didn't look like any other streetcars of their time. So when the C3 got a little long in the tooth no one knew what to expect from Chevrolet's Reagan '80s replacement.
Most of these photos come from an issue of Car Styling Magazine, and while the scans aren't archive quality, it's fun to trace the thought process of the world's largest automaker.
Rotary Vette
The original rotary 'Vette started out in the late '60s as the Experimental Project 882 (XP-882) and was powered by a transverse V8. John DeLorean, Chevrolet's general manager at the time, cancelled the project, only to revive it in 1970 after discovering Ford's plans to market the DeTomaso Pantera through Lincoln-Mercury dealers. In 1972 DeLorean ordered up the next version, the XP-895, with an aluminum body and a 420 hp four-rotor Wankel engine—but after the fuel crisis of 1973 all plans for anything Wankel-related were shelved.
Aerovette
It's hard to kill a Corvette though, and the car came back again in 1976 as the Aerovette, with the 400ci V8 in place of the rotary engine, and a new shape that sported gull-wing doors. The car was slated for production, with a 350ci instead of the 400 unit, but lost support after its biggest fans, Zora Arkus-Duntov, Bill Mitchell, and Ed Cole, had retired from GM, and managers at the time felt that the expense of producing a mid-engined Corvette wouldn't be offset by sales figures.
Recycled
Getting closer in time to C4 production designs started to home in on the eventual shape. In the center-left image, in two-tone blue-and-silver, you can see a roof and rear quarter design that looks like it got lifted either from or for the '82 Camaro/Firebird redesign. The red car next to it, on the other hand, looks positively Vector-esque.
Bird Watch
More Firechicken influence can be spotted in the tail light treatment of the blue-ish silver car in the photo on the center-right. Angular was in so it was only natural GM try on all-square-errythang for size. Luckily it didn't fit.
Pegboard
But GM wasn't done with square yet! At the top right, in red, we can see the round peg in a square hole philosophy. Just because you can make it fit doesn't mean you should put it there.
Digititis
No that's not K.I.T.T. from Night Rider in the center right, it's just the '80s again. The production version, in blue, shows that the Corvette still got a little digital on it—you can't win 'em all.
As it was, GM had a hard enough time getting the C4 to production, notoriously leaving a 1983-shaped gap in Corvette's history. The Bowling Green, Kentucky production facility had only been up and running since 1981, technology was changing at a fever pitch, and engineers were dealing with a completely different body panel formulation—all factors contributing to the tardiness of the long-awaited replacement for the C3. Corvette chief engineer Dave McLellan said GM had even printed up brochures for an '83 model. We're just glad that they didn't manufacture most of these designs... though we'd take an Aerovette without any convincing.
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