Driving Chevy's Experimental Turbo C3 Corvette
Daily Slideshow: The idea of using turbos to increase both power and efficiency is nothing new. In fact, Corvette engineers were toying with the idea decades ago!
Ahead of Its Time
The hot trend in today's automotive world is using smaller displacement engines and slapping turbos on them. Thus, you get the best of both worlds. A more efficient engine with power equal to larger displacement motors.
But even though this might seem like a recent development, Corvette engineers have been playing with the idea for decades. In fact, they even went so far as to build an experimental turbo Corvette back in 1980. And Road & Track was lucky enough to drive it.
Rough Start
Skyrocketing insurance rates, rising gas prices, and emissions laws threatened to kill the performance car altogether back in the mid to late '70s. The Corvette survived all of that, of course.
But engineers were still trying to figure out ways to give the power back to the people. Thus, the first turbo Corvette was built in 1978. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground shortly thereafter.
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Phase II
Chevy didn't give up, however, and followed that effort with the “Phase II” Turbo Vette in 1979. That car used a modified L82 with an AIResearch T3 turbocharger producing 7 psi of boost. The Turbo Vette looked production ready, but there were issues. Because it lacked a sophisticated spark and fuel management system, the car had to run on 103 octane gas.
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Automotive Relief
The Turbo Vette never made it to production, sadly. But a few lucky journalists did get to drive the concept. Which, as you can imagine, was quite exciting in 1980. Enthusiasts had suffered through many years of slow, boring cars by that point. So anything resembling a fast car was worth gushing over.
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Rare Speed
And gush is exactly what R&T did when they got a chance to try out the Turbo Vette. "Chevrolet doesn't have any horsepower figures for the Turbo Corvette, dynamometer time being hard to come by these days. They will say, however, that the car should get through the quarter mile in the 13-second range, which checks with a couple of acceleration runs we made."
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Dream Car
It's hard to imagine today just what a revelation something like this could have been. But you get that sense just by reading what R&T had to say about it. "This takes us back to the best days of the 454-cu-in. Corvettes and right to the purpose of such cars these days: Coupling early-Seventies acceleration with the fuel economy expected of the early Eighties in what amounts to a dream car."
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Bold New Era
It's hard to fathom, living in the current golden age of performance we're mired in. But 280-290 hp was a big deal back in 1980. Heck, it could have been the start of a whole new era as R&T notes! "But do close your eyes—feel yourself being shoved back in your seat and remember how it used to be, the turbo whistling tunes of a new era."
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Third Time's a Charm
R&T was wrong about one thing, however. The Phase II Turbo Vette wasn't Chevy's last attempt at building a forced-induction C3. They went on to build an even more refined car, dubbed “Turbo Vette 3." This time around, an all-aluminum 350 with throttle body fuel injection was used as the base.
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
Decades in the Making
The third turbo 'Vette used the same turbocharger and 7 psi of boost as the second one. But the addition of the TBI system made it much more refined. And yet, it was still a little too far ahead of its time. We wouldn't see a turbo Corvette until the B2K 1987 Callaway Twin Turbo debuted.
And now, finally, the mid-engine C8 might also come with turbo power. But the basis for that newfangled setup is actually decades in the making!
>>Join the conversation about the Chevy's Turbo C3 experiment right here in Corvette Forum.
For help with your maintenance and repair projects, please visit our How-to section in the forum.