Ah, the C3… my favorite Corvette. These appear to be ’78 Corvettes, the one from my high school graduation year (as mentioned in Joseph’s post this morning). This is probably why I have a favoritism for the “Disco” ‘vette.
Of course I know from reading in these pages that a C2 was a better performing car, but the C3 was what I grew up knowing the best. The rims on these Corvettes may be my favorite Corvette rim of all time, although I do like the ubiquitous Vette Rally Wheels, but they appear on too many cars, everything from Monte Carlos to Impalas.
But as sacrilegious as this is to say here on these pages, the C8 will be the best Corvette ever. ;o)
Weren’t they just the Pace cars that had the spoilers in 1978? Every example I’ve seen with them that wasn’t one was a 1979 model
C8 May be the best Corvette ever, but there sure isn’t a lot of Corvette in its appearance, it looks like a McLaren/NSX amalgamation for a Grand Theft Auto game.
There are some non-Indy-500-Pace-Car-Replicas from 1978 that are now running around with rear spoilers, but I don’t know for a fact that it was a factory option.
I’m not a C8 fan for three reasons: No manual transmission makes any sports car of no interest to me. The mid-engine configuration robs it of the utility that made C4-C7 Corvettes great weekend getaway cars that you could also take grocery shopping. Finally, the styling is completely uninspired. Your description is perfect, although for some reason it always makes me think of a bass-boat for the road.
These are the ones I remember from my youth too. Nothing really looked like them, either before or since.
My father had a 1980 Trans Am and these Vettes to me were like the enemy, because you knew they occupied the highest rung on the GM performance and prestige ladder…though looking back, it was near the low point for both models. Guess it’s all relative.
I think this crop would be in the 1980-82 range though, judging by the lip spoilers and air dam. That redesign was the last before the next generation and lightened them up a bit too. Always thought an ‘80 model with an L82 and 4 speed would have made a nice cruiser.
I remember there being a book about the C5 called, “All Corvettes are Red.” I didn’t grow up around many red Corvettes. There was a black ’59 in my neighborhood, a blue ’64, an orange ’74 and two silver and black two-tone ’84s. Today I live in a different neighborhood in a different city with a white C6 427 Roadster and any number of black C7s. Most red Corvettes I’ve seen have been restored.
I could see that being a book title for Ferrari’s, it seems like that’s the most common color, and was even their racing livery, but Corvettes? Nah, even in 2005 when that book was written I’d say there was as many yellow or beige corvettes being produced as red ones. Maybe the author was a fan of Prince
The truck is a new-for-’78 GMC Brigadier, and update of the old circa ’66 H/J series short conventional. Most of those had Detroit 6V-92TTA’s in them, but quite a few were Cummins powered.
What a drab color pallet for a bunch of Corvettes – silver, black, dark red and white – looks like modern times. I still like C3s though, these 80-82s fixed a lot of problems I had with the body revisions that came with the 5-mph bumper redesigns, the front and rear facias restored a lot of the original 68-72 look. I’m very fond of the aluminum wheels too, best the Corvette ever had.
When I was a young there was a very well to do family down the road from us. Their oldest daughter was a very statuesque six foot tall vision of loveliness. She drove a black 68 Corvette. My mother did sewing alterations for extra money. That poor girl down the road just couldn’t find clothes to fit her just right, so the same old situation played out repeatedly. Sexy black 68 Corvette would pull into the yard, all eyes were on the Vette. Marilyn would step out of the sexy Vette looking sexy in the last outfit that Ma altered for her and we would watch her strut up to the front door to drop off her next alteration. This was no time to leave because you knew that she would be returning to her Vette and you could watch her drive out. ” Vette” was a name back then, since the ’55’s were CorVettes. Not so much now.
Wide variety of power available in the GMC Brigadiers, 6v92, 6-71, 855 Cummins, 8V-71, 3208, we also had a batch of 3406 Cats for a trucking firm out of Minneapolis. The dog house was pretty big in the units with the straight sixes in them. Darn near a cabover. This may be a Ryder truck.
Also, there a second rig sitting behind this one. As you can see the piece of a brown one that yohai71 mentioned and there is an extra wheel visible just above that and you can also pick out a bit of the second trailers structure between the two brown vettes.
As to the C8, could we get a Corsa or Monza model as homage to our “beloved” Corvair? Perhaps with a twin turbo V6 that happens to sit in GM’s current engine parts bin?
“The dog house was pretty big in the units with the straight sixes in them.”
Oh yah, with a contorted way high and forward bent shifter cane with the last leg of its bends being almost horizontal above the engine cover.
That sort of stood up the “H” pattern for shifter throws.
Never saw one with an -06. I’ll bet that was ultra low production.
8V was the tough fit because the wide engine couldn’t be “tucked into” the cab; both heads had to be forward of the cowl. Which of course pushed everything forward
Ah, the C3… my favorite Corvette. These appear to be ’78 Corvettes, the one from my high school graduation year (as mentioned in Joseph’s post this morning). This is probably why I have a favoritism for the “Disco” ‘vette.
Of course I know from reading in these pages that a C2 was a better performing car, but the C3 was what I grew up knowing the best. The rims on these Corvettes may be my favorite Corvette rim of all time, although I do like the ubiquitous Vette Rally Wheels, but they appear on too many cars, everything from Monte Carlos to Impalas.
But as sacrilegious as this is to say here on these pages, the C8 will be the best Corvette ever. ;o)
1968-1970 C3’s were lightning quick with 427’s and 454’s available. These would have smoked most C2’s.
The C8 will be the best Corvair ever!
I see what you did there….
I believe that in 1978 only a percentage of them would have had rear spoilers. I think these are from closer to the end of production.
Weren’t they just the Pace cars that had the spoilers in 1978? Every example I’ve seen with them that wasn’t one was a 1979 model
C8 May be the best Corvette ever, but there sure isn’t a lot of Corvette in its appearance, it looks like a McLaren/NSX amalgamation for a Grand Theft Auto game.
There are some non-Indy-500-Pace-Car-Replicas from 1978 that are now running around with rear spoilers, but I don’t know for a fact that it was a factory option.
I’m not a C8 fan for three reasons: No manual transmission makes any sports car of no interest to me. The mid-engine configuration robs it of the utility that made C4-C7 Corvettes great weekend getaway cars that you could also take grocery shopping. Finally, the styling is completely uninspired. Your description is perfect, although for some reason it always makes me think of a bass-boat for the road.
These are the ones I remember from my youth too. Nothing really looked like them, either before or since.
My father had a 1980 Trans Am and these Vettes to me were like the enemy, because you knew they occupied the highest rung on the GM performance and prestige ladder…though looking back, it was near the low point for both models. Guess it’s all relative.
I think this crop would be in the 1980-82 range though, judging by the lip spoilers and air dam. That redesign was the last before the next generation and lightened them up a bit too. Always thought an ‘80 model with an L82 and 4 speed would have made a nice cruiser.
Bandit Trans Am > 1971-1982 Corvette
I’m surprised on the color selection, or lack there of. If I didn’t know better you would think this was a recent load.
I remember there being a book about the C5 called, “All Corvettes are Red.” I didn’t grow up around many red Corvettes. There was a black ’59 in my neighborhood, a blue ’64, an orange ’74 and two silver and black two-tone ’84s. Today I live in a different neighborhood in a different city with a white C6 427 Roadster and any number of black C7s. Most red Corvettes I’ve seen have been restored.
I could see that being a book title for Ferrari’s, it seems like that’s the most common color, and was even their racing livery, but Corvettes? Nah, even in 2005 when that book was written I’d say there was as many yellow or beige corvettes being produced as red ones. Maybe the author was a fan of Prince
I am just hoping the tractor is Detroit powered
The truck is a new-for-’78 GMC Brigadier, and update of the old circa ’66 H/J series short conventional. Most of those had Detroit 6V-92TTA’s in them, but quite a few were Cummins powered.
What a drab color pallet for a bunch of Corvettes – silver, black, dark red and white – looks like modern times. I still like C3s though, these 80-82s fixed a lot of problems I had with the body revisions that came with the 5-mph bumper redesigns, the front and rear facias restored a lot of the original 68-72 look. I’m very fond of the aluminum wheels too, best the Corvette ever had.
When I was a young there was a very well to do family down the road from us. Their oldest daughter was a very statuesque six foot tall vision of loveliness. She drove a black 68 Corvette. My mother did sewing alterations for extra money. That poor girl down the road just couldn’t find clothes to fit her just right, so the same old situation played out repeatedly. Sexy black 68 Corvette would pull into the yard, all eyes were on the Vette. Marilyn would step out of the sexy Vette looking sexy in the last outfit that Ma altered for her and we would watch her strut up to the front door to drop off her next alteration. This was no time to leave because you knew that she would be returning to her Vette and you could watch her drive out. ” Vette” was a name back then, since the ’55’s were CorVettes. Not so much now.
I fixed the colors a bit, just because I wanted to get a better feel of those browner-than-brown ‘Vettes:
*edit: See? because of that fix, I discovered another brown Corvette parked behind the trailer.
Wide variety of power available in the GMC Brigadiers, 6v92, 6-71, 855 Cummins, 8V-71, 3208, we also had a batch of 3406 Cats for a trucking firm out of Minneapolis. The dog house was pretty big in the units with the straight sixes in them. Darn near a cabover. This may be a Ryder truck.
Also, there a second rig sitting behind this one. As you can see the piece of a brown one that yohai71 mentioned and there is an extra wheel visible just above that and you can also pick out a bit of the second trailers structure between the two brown vettes.
As to the C8, could we get a Corsa or Monza model as homage to our “beloved” Corvair? Perhaps with a twin turbo V6 that happens to sit in GM’s current engine parts bin?
“The dog house was pretty big in the units with the straight sixes in them.”
Oh yah, with a contorted way high and forward bent shifter cane with the last leg of its bends being almost horizontal above the engine cover.
That sort of stood up the “H” pattern for shifter throws.
Never saw one with an -06. I’ll bet that was ultra low production.
8V was the tough fit because the wide engine couldn’t be “tucked into” the cab; both heads had to be forward of the cowl. Which of course pushed everything forward